Cyrano soundtrack: Bryce Dessner on composing songs for new musical

Those songs were written by acclaimed rock band The National, and most of the compositions – in addition to a couple of new ones – have made it into the film.

RadioTimes.com spoke exclusively to The National member Bryce Dessner about writing the songs, and you can also check out the full tracklist below.

Cyrano soundtrack

When The National were first approached by Erica Schmidt to write the music for Cyrano, Bryce Dessner wasn't entirely convinced, and even told her: "I don't think it's a good idea."

But Schmidt wasn't about to give up, and after staging a reading of the script – with Dinklage playing Cyrano and Amanda Seyfried as Roxanne – he was eventually won over.

"She underscored instrumentals that we had given her of our music.... and something about the music, the sort of heartbeat, emotional kind of sound of our music with Peter playing that part really clicked," he explains. "So we started working on some songs, and it was really a kind of a close collaboration with her in figuring out how the songs could suit the narrative."

So what was the starting point in terms of composing these songs? "Well, at the time, we had just made Sleep Well Beast, which was this sort of very elaborate, electronic record with more ambitious orchestration and I think that with Cyrano we decided to pull it back and write simpler, almost folk songs.

"All those songs work with one instrument, or maybe two, with very little production, and a good National song always works like that – no matter how much you dress up a song, if the song itself isn't really compelling, the lyrics and the melody, it doesn't work.

"We don't write Broadway-style songs, so it was kind of a stretch, to begin with," Dessner continues. "And in a way the version in the theatre was different – I think it works better on-screen, to be honest, because the intimacy of the songs is easier to translate."

Many of the lyrics of the songs are derived from the monologues in the original film – albeit, in Dessner's words, they were condensing 20-minute monologues into four-minute songs – and he says it was important to ensure that the dialogue blended seamlessly into those tracks.

When it came to the film, some songs were cut and others were added, and Dessner says that the new tracks were heavily inspired by Noto, the Sicilian city in which they filmed.

"Noto as a place in Sicily has this baroque architecture that's just beautiful, and so that really informed the way I orchestrated the songs," he explains. "So there's, like, the simplicity of songs like Madly or No Cyrano, and then the grandiosity of songs like Someone to Say, or Every Letter."

When Dessner arrived in Noto for rehearsals, there was initially a disagreement with director Joe Wright about how the songs would be performed – Dessner thought the vocals should be pre-recorded, while Wright insisted on live performances.

"We're used to playing on TV, and it never sounds very good," says Dessner. "Because when you're singing live, you're kind of forcing and you're pushing it. It's really compelling for a live audience, but it's not always the best recording. And so we thought, these are not singers acting, it's actors singing and we really need to control the environment.

"And Joe was like, 'No, we're gonna record them live.' And we're like, 'You're insane.' Especially because, these are not easy songs – Every Letter is a trio, I Need More is a dance sequence in the street. We're like, 'This is literally going to be insane.'"

• Read more: Where was Cyrano filmed? Locations for musical adaptation

Eventually, though, they pressed ahead with the live recordings, and with help from legendary recording engineer Peter Cobbin, Dessner built his own recording studio on the set.

"There was a lot of collaboration and excitement and risk," he says, "And you know, the whole thing was very kind of rock and roll in a way. It was like, 'Wow, is this really gonna work?' plus there was the danger of COVID – everyone was being tested every day. And the whole thing was... the songs are very emotional, you know?"

You can check out the full tracklist below:

(All instrumentals performed by Bryce and Aaron Dessner, Vikingur Olafsson and the London Contemporary Orchestra):

1. Intro (Instrumental)
2. Opening (Instrumental)
3. Someone To Say (Vocals by Haley Bennett)
4. When I Was Born (Vocals by Peter Dinklage)
5. Dying (Instrumental)
6. Madly (Vocals by Peter Dinklage)
7. Ten Men Fight (Instrumental)
8. Your Name (Vocals by Peter Dinklage)
9. Garrison Arrival (Instrumental)
10. Not A Toy (Instrumental)
11. Someone to Say – Reprise (Vocals by Peter Dinklage and Kelvin Harrison Jr)
12. Every Letter (Vocals by Haley Bennett, Peter Dinklage and Kelvin Harrison Jr)
13. I Love You (Instrumental)
14. I Need More (Vocals by Haley Bennett)
15. Overcome (Vocals by Haley Bennett and Peter Dinklage)
16. The Kiss (Instrumental)
17. Marry Christian (Instrumental)
18. What I Deserve (Vocals by Ben Mendelsohn)
19. Saying Goodbye (Instrumental)
20. Close My Eyes (Vocals by Kelvin Harrison Jr., Glen Hansard and Sam Amidon)
21. Wherever I Fall – Pt. 1 (Vocals by Glen Hansard and Sam Amidon and Scott Folan)
22. Wherever I Fall – Pt. 2 (Instrumental)
23. He Will Be Here (Instrumental)
24. Cyrano's Message (Instrumental)
25. No Cyrano (Vocals by Haley Bennett and Peter Dinklage)
26. Somebody Desperate (Performed by The National)
27. Saying Goodbye – Piano Solo (Bryce and Aaron Dessner, Vikingur Olafsson)

• Read more: Who was the real Cyrano de Bergerac?

Cyrano is released in UK cinemas on Friday 25th February 2022. Looking for something to watch? Visit our Film hub for more news, interviews and features, or check out our TV Guide to see what’s on tonight.

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