{"id":74390,"date":"2025-08-16T15:41:15","date_gmt":"2025-08-16T15:41:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/74390\/"},"modified":"2025-08-16T15:41:15","modified_gmt":"2025-08-16T15:41:15","slug":"the-beatles-werent-worried-about-what-was-allowed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/74390\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018The Beatles weren\u2019t worried about what was allowed\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

If some rock stars wear their heart on their sleeve, Bryce Dessner isn\u2019t one of them. Speaking on a video call from his home in rural southern France, he comes across as quietly inscrutable, dressed simply in a grey T-shirt and cap. Behind him are a few more clues: five guitars ranging from electric to classical instruments on which he used to play Bach. A further 55 guitars are tucked away in storage. <\/p>\n

Together, they tell the story of a life shaped, as Dessner puts it, by a to-and-fro between musical genres. \u201cFor a lot of artists, once they find something that works for them, they latch on to it and just keep on doing it,\u201d he says. \u201cI don\u2019t think I\u2019ve found my thing yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a rock and folk musician, Dessner is best known as a member of The National, an indie-rock band with a strong emphasis on brooding vocals and harmonic sophistication.\u00a0In the classical world, he has written for ensembles such as the New York Philharmonic and scored numerous films including this year\u2019s Oscar-nominated American prison drama Sing Sing. He is one of a rare few to have won Grammy awards in both classical and rock categories. Today, he gently nudges the conversation towards his ventures in the classical world.<\/p>\n

\"TwoBryce and Aaron Dessner from The National perform their multi-media work The Long Count in Amsterdam, 2011 \u00a9 Retna\/Photoshot<\/p>\n

Nowadays a lot of oxygen is spent on labelling things, which can feel like a cat chasing its own tail<\/p>\n

This September brings the launch of a year-long residency with the Konzerthaus Berlin. In the first of three programmes showcasing Dessner\u2019s orchestral works, the pianist Alice Sara Ott will perform Dessner\u2019s Piano Concerto (2024), which, according to the composer, is his \u201cmost personal work yet\u201d.\u00a0He wrote it \u201cas a love letter\u201d to his ballet dancer sister Jessica, in response to her struggles with cancer. Consequently, he tells me, there is a lyricism to it, as well as a focus on dance rhythms inspired by his sister \u201cThere\u2019s something disarming about it. I\u2019m really letting my guard down.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

But behind the sweetness there is also a distinctly filmic quality as well as a sense of exuberance, driven by persistent rock rhythms. At times you might wonder if this piece even counts as classical music \u2014 not that this bothers Dessner in the slightest. \u201cNowadays a lot of oxygen is spent on labelling things,\u201d he says, \u201cwhich can feel like a cat chasing its own tail.\u201d<\/p>\n

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That disregard for traditional musical boundaries infuses all of Dessner\u2019s work. In his 2011 concerto St Carolyn by the Sea, he weaves the sound of two electric guitars into an orchestral texture. In his film score for Sing Sing, he draws on elements of folk, medieval music, romanticism and minimalism to reflect the characters\u2019 dreams of rehabilitation through theatre. Other pieces, such as his John Dowland-inspired Lachrimae for string orchestra, unite a classical composer\u2019s grasp of instrumental colour with a rock musician\u2019s instinct for generating instant hooks. The results are atmospheric, propelled by a headbanging sense of energy. <\/p>\n

Would he describe his music as crossover? Dessner looks a little uncomfortable: \u201cI think that would be reductive.\u201d Far from being a rock musician who is trying on classical music for size, Dessner comes from a classical music background. In a world where the word \u201ccrossover\u201d can be associated with a drop in quality, that distinction makes a difference.<\/p>\n

\"AIn his home studio in the south of France, photographed by Bego Anton for the FT <\/p>\n

Born in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1976 to a musical family (his father was a jazz drummer), Dessner and his twin brother Aaron were raised on an eclectic musical diet: \u201cWe would dig up dad\u2019s records: Miles Davis, Grateful Dead, The Beatles, Mozart.\u201d His sister danced with the Cincinnati Ballet, and many of Dessner\u2019s earliest encounters with classical music came from watching her perform. He learnt the flute, switching to classical guitar in his teens. Opportunities for group music-making, however, were few and far between: \u201cIt was the Reagan years in a very conservative city\u2009.\u2009.\u2009.\u2009We were bored, frankly. Kids were\u00a0taking drugs and playing video games.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

His solution was to form a band with Aaron, which sparked a new passion for composition. \u201cWe didn\u2019t really have anybody around to show us what to do, so we just sort of made stuff up. There was a sense of freedom in that,\u201d Dessner recalls. He went on to study composition and guitar at Yale.\u00a0But it was only after moving to New York \u2014 where he joined The National, the band his brother had co-founded \u2014 that Dessner truly found his musical home. \u201cIn New York [musical genres] mixed together in a way that made everything feel possible; it felt like its own ecosystem,\u201d he says, describing how at one club, he might find himself rubbing shoulders with artists ranging from the contemporary composer La Monte Young to David Bowie.<\/p>\n

A byproduct of this was meeting \u2014 and beginning to work with \u2014 minimalist composer Steve Reich, who was looking for an electric guitarist with a background in classical music for a composition called 2×5. Since then, Dessner has collaborated with many others, including Philip Glass, Jonny Greenwood, Paul Simon and Taylor Swift, composing orchestrations for the singer\u2019s eighth studio album, Folklore. <\/p>\n

\"\"Bryce Dessner with Taylor Swift at the Grammy Awards in 2023 \u00a9 Emma McIntyre\/Getty Images for The Recording Academy<\/p>\n

I love throwing myself into the deep end and finding new ways of expression. That\u2019s why I keep changing genre all the time<\/p>\n

Bryce Dessner<\/p>\n

These partnerships have shaped his own style \u2014 particularly Reich and Glass, whose minimalist repetitions echo clearly in Dessner\u2019s own Concerto for Two Pianos. Their influence also helps to explain how Dessner became adept in so many musical genres \u2014 a kind of musical multilingualism reminiscent of Leonard Bernstein, who wrote fluently for ballet, theatre, film, orchestra, opera and chamber ensembles. Does it feel jarring to move between such different soundworlds? Dessner insists that whether as a rock, folk or classical musician, \u201cI don\u2019t change who I am.\u201d<\/p>\n

He goes on to explain that the \u201cphysicality\u201d of his folk and rock music influences his classical work, while the \u201charmonic and rhythmic complexity\u201d of his classical compositions informs his rock songs. In particular, he says, he draws influence from the \u201cpoetic nature of Dutilleux\u201d, the \u201crawness of Bart\u00f3k\u201d and the \u201corchestration of Stravinsky\u201d. <\/p>\n

Still, Dessner can be a puzzle. Listening to his restless, shape-shifting music, and thinking about his scrupulously polite, but guarded personality, I\u2019m reminded of the famous remark by Peter Sellers: \u201cIf you ask me to play myself, I will not know what to do. I do not know who or what I am.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"CloseDessner plays a miked-up upright piano at his home studio in Biarritz. Photographed by Bego Anton for the FT <\/p>\n

So who is Bryce Dessner? He hesitates. \u201cFirst of all, I\u2019m a collaborator; I\u2019m really open to the feedback of the musicians and I\u2019m driven by that sense of human exchange. Secondly I\u2019m a student.\u201d Meaning? \u201cI love throwing myself into the deep end and finding new ways of expression. That\u2019s why I keep changing [genre] all the time.\u201d Dessner smiles. \u201cIt probably isn\u2019t a great business plan.\u201d\u00a0But does he care? Not a bit. \u201cThe Beatles weren\u2019t worried about what was allowed and what wasn\u2019t. I don\u2019t think Stravinsky or Beethoven were either. They were curious and open-minded. And that\u2019s why they made great art.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bryce Dessner\u2019s residency with the Konzerthaus Berlin begins on September 5, konzerthaus.de<\/a><\/p>\n

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