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We always treated the music as another character on the show, Djawadi says.
And what a cast hes assembled.
The mournful and ominous Lannister theme The Rains of Castamere became infamous asthe worlds worst wedding song.
The Long Night, the shows most ambitious episode, was one of Djawadis most ambitious outings as well.
Its unexpectedly upbeat ending marked a major (key) first for the show.
But I felt after this long episode and this long arc, her last notehasto end in major.
I believe its the only episode to date that ends on a major chord like that.
The whole time youre holding your breath, and its just a giant exhale, you know?
For the final stretch of the episode, the ambient sound is muted and a piano melody kicks in.
That was the first time wed used piano in the show; it really meant something different.
You realize Cerseis up to something and it all blows up.
By using it again, we wanted to have the reverse effect.
The piano comes in and people go, Uh-oh, here comes the piano again.
There was little hope throughout the episode.
Theyve fought and fought, but the Night King is just unstoppable.
Then he comes walking in, and the piano itself represents, like, This is really it!
Then theres that big twist in the end.
We always treated the music as another character in the show.
I can see that.
It has a really drastic impact.
David and Dan joke about this, because at first I was hesitant to take the show on.
I was pretty busy when they approached me, and I hadnt read the books.
Right away, I knew this was a tremendous task.
They said, Look, we have so many characters and so much plot everywhere.
Musically, how can we approach this?
We were careful not to put too many themes in right away so that it becomes confusing.
We really carefully placed these themes so that it would help the storytelling.
Thats a weird way to start a show.Youre absolutely correct.
It started with that mood.
Did you know youd hit a home run with the theme song?[Laughs.]
No, not at all.
I just wrote what I thought felt right.
She listened to itand started singing it back to me.
It clicked for her right away, so I believed in it.
The minute I played it for David and Dan, they loved it too.
I just knew the story would come to an end that was already known at the time.
Id say,This is what I did last season with our existing themes.
A simple example is the dragons.
So their theme is really rather small and mysterious.
My guidance has always been David and Dan.
They always had a vision of what they wanted, and they always knew where to guide me.
The Rains of Castamere, for example, is a song thats in the book.
After we finished season one, they said to me, Here are the lyrics from the book.
We need you to write a theme.
With their description, I was able to write this melody and establish that theme way ahead.
By the time you get to the Red Wedding, the audience is familiar with it.
They know that when a Lannister theme is played at this wedding, somethings off.
Uh, fun is the wrong word.
The music is often notable in its absence.
I still remember how awful that felt.
I was like, Give me some music!
Tell me how to feel!
Is that part of your job as well?Thats part of the discussions every single time.
Sometimes theres really nothing left to say, and no music is actually more powerful than writing anything.
To close things out, appropriately enough, I wanted to talk about Aryas music.
That wound up coming to pass in such a huge way.Its interesting how her theme starts out, too.
I use an instrument called ahammered dulcimerfor her a lot.
It has a kind ofpingsound I thought was perfect for her little sword that she calls Needle.
