To my mind there is no one better fit to score a television series set in GRRM’s world than Ramin Djawadi … and apparently HBO agrees! It’s official now, Djawadi will be returning to Westeros to write the music for the prequel series, House of the Dragon!
The Wertzone recently reported (via a heads up from Los Siete Reinos) that Djawadi has updated his online CV to include the pilot episode of House of Dragons, which … is a slightly different title from the one that’s been announced, so I guess we’ll just have to wait and see which title wins out?
More importantly, though, this means we can look forward to the same level of detail and complexity in House of Dragons/House of the Dragon‘s score that we had in Game of Thrones: motifs evolving to reflect changing circumstances, unexpected instrument choices with hidden meanings, melancholic cello solos!
I mentioned in my Twelve Days of Dragons post that I hope Djawadi incorporates the motifs from Game of Thrones that are still relevant to the characters and events of House of the Dragon into the new score, particularly “Breaker of Chains,” because why write a new dragon theme when a perfect one already exists?
Anyways, my excitement for House of the Dragon has now tripled and I hope yours has too. What part of Targaryen history are you most excited to hear Djawadi score? Mine is the Storming of the Dragonpit.
❤
Well, they’ve definitely already won in the music department for the show, that’s for sure. 😊 This guy has it all.
Oh, yes.
Just yes.
All my yes.
You read my mind! My first thought was HotD is already ahead of the game right out of the gate.
That guy sure knows how to pluck my heartstrings with his music. 🎻 🎶
Great !
I’ve always imagined the main score of House of the Dragon to be the ending theme of S06E10 (from the moment we see the wind changing position until the credits begin).
Return of the King.
He really does. I am always amazed at that kind of musical talent. I don’t throw around the word “genius” too much, but he’s probably the closest to it that I’ve seen/heard in a long while. I can read music, play a little, but a select few can just produce it from the soul.
Meanwhile, the coyotes are howling outside my window. 😄
That’s a relief …
“SCORE!!”
It’s been my opinion all along that getting him back was one of the most important pieces to any new series. The best news!!!
This is great news. I wonder if they will also make another iconic opening credits sequence for HotD
🚩 Off-Topic 🚩
There appeared to be some dedicated and overzealous Game of Thrones fans within the Office of the Inspector General for the Department of Homeland Security. The article excerpted below quotes from internal e-mails referencing Arya and the Night King, including one in which a Deputy Inspector General wrote to her colleagues: “Perhaps Arya would consider taking care of some business here? The DHS OIG throne isn’t as glam but we do have a night king that just. won’t. die.
I excised most of the article and covered other portions in spoiler-coding. I included the link below to the full article. (Why people leave incriminating electronic paper trails like this is another story…)
https://theintercept.com/2021/02/02/homeland-security-power-struggle-cuffari/
INSIDE THE BRUTAL POWER STRUGGLE AT HOMELAND SECURITY
An investigation, conducted in 2020 by an outside firm and obtained via FOIA, paints a picture of DHS’s Office of Inspector General in chaos.
Ken Klippenstein
February 2, 2021, 6:00 a.m.
https://theintercept.imgix.net/wp-uploads/sites/1/2021/01/AP19211568663203-ft.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat&q=90&fit=crop&w=440&h=220
[photo caption]:
Then-Department of Homeland Security acting Inspector General Jennifer Costello is sworn in before testifying to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee in Washington on July 30, 2019. Photo: Jacquelyn Martin/AP
TENSIONS RAN SO high at the Department of Homeland Security’s oversight wing that one senior official fantasized about Arya Stark, the fictional assassin in “Game of Thrones,” “taking care of” the agency chief, according to an investigation obtained by The Intercept under the Freedom of Information Act. The investigation, conducted in 2020 by an outside law firm, reveals bureaucratic infighting so bitter that it drove out an agency head and led to an array of startling allegations, including that a high-level official made threatening comments about a concealed weapon during a meeting.
The investigation paints a picture of DHS’s Office of Inspector General in chaos. The OIG performs an important function: probing misconduct within the sprawling DHS, the largest law enforcement agency in the country. Policing DHS and its bevy of law enforcement agencies — including Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Protection, and the Secret Service, to name just a few — is a responsibility that falls upon the OIG.
One of DHS OIG’s most important responsibilities is investigating DHS employees’ whistleblower disclosures, which appear to have been weaponized by employees who used them to go after one another.
The investigation, launched in May 2020, focuses on a senior official who brought down the agency’s leader — and its morale along with it. In one striking illustration of the civil war within the agency, the investigation describes a senior official saying of the agency’s top official, then acting Inspector General John V. Kelly, in an email: “Perhaps Arya would consider taking care of some business here? The DHS OIG throne isn’t as glam but we do have a night king that just. won’t. die.” (The “Night King” is one of the “Game of Thrones” series’ antagonists; he leads an army of undead bent on conquering the planet.)
It was Costello who sent the “Night King” email to Ouzts, according to two sources familiar with the matter.
The “Night King” email was sent on April 29, 2019, three days after Kelly informed Costello that he was delaying his retirement.
…. [End Excerpts] …
YAY! This is awesome news!! 😀
Yes, pleasing news about the composer for the series. I’m still here to tell the tale after my first Covid jab yesterday. I felt very tired afterwards and slept through the afternoon.
I’d like to play devil’s advocate here for a minute. Few composers (not talking about classical music) have managed to leave such a lasting musical impression on pop culture over the past few years and even decades, as Ramin Djawadi has with his brilliant score for GOT. That massive show’s identity is tied in large part to the music that not only framed its narrative but also played part in shaping its overall character.
The only other composers who have even achieved these musical touchstones that I can think of would be John Williams, especially with “Star Wars”, Howard Shore with the LOTR trilogy and because I’m biased in his favour, I’d add Bear McCreary with the “Battlestar Galactica” soundtrack.
Djawadi is a truly gifted musician and artist, one which when back in the day was announced as the composer for GOT, I wasn’t particularly excited about. What is left to say…the man won me over and not only that, he gained a life-long fan in the process (for whatever that is worth). The proof is in the pudding as they say, and there is no doubt about his talent. I was at one of his GOT themed concerts a few years ago and he is every bit as good advertised.
And yet, wouldn’t we have perhaps benefited in having a fresh musical voice (I don’t mean a complete musical neophyte) attempt to create a new musical profile for this upcoming series? Instead of a necessary sonic continuity. Which is not bad but can oftentimes become stale and unimaginative.
“Star Wars” brought back John Williams (and his sound defined that franchise for almost five decades) for it’s new iteration and it didn’t produce any original sparks. “The Hobbit” trilogy brought back Howard Shore, whose contribution felt lacklustre. There was nothing inherently bad or low-grade about their returns but a certain musical vitality was missing. Couldn’t the same happen for “House Of The Dragon” if Ramin Djawadi is once again the exclusive musical storyteller?
From the new Disney era “Star Wars” the soundtracks I enjoyed the most have been the Michael Giacchino one for “Rogue One” and John Powell for “Solo” (he was strangely undermined in his work by John Williams’s musical addition to that movie).
Yet the top prize has to go to Ludwig Göransson and his brilliant soundtrack for “The Mandalorian” which I think has not only revived the “Star Wars” musical legacy but breathed new life into it. And the guy is not some musical vandal who took a sledgehammer to everything that came before. Rather he exquisitely married the newness and the tradition of that franchise by weaving his excellent contribution to the quality of what was and creating something solid. The soundtrack for “The Mandalorian” is one of my new favourites. And while I’ll get a lot of flack for this, I am not at all hesitant in saying that Göransson is as talented as Djawadi is and as versatile. In fact McCreary, Djawadi and Göransson are amongst my musical heroes and I am really excited in seeing what they can deliver in the future.
So, the question, would we benefit in having a new musical perspective for “House Of The Dragon” at the hands of a composer other than Ramin Djawadi?! As to who that would be I don’t have the faintest idea…nor am I sure that “yes” is a positive answer…
Here as a musical interlude, is Ludwig Göransson with “The Mandalorian”. A bit long bit I think worthwhile look at his talent:
Here is the actual music from “The Mandalorian”:
I’d like to play devil’s advocate here for a minute. Few composers (not talking about classical music) have managed to leave such a lasting musical impression on pop culture over the past few years and even decades, as Ramin Djawadi has with his brilliant score for GOT. That massive show’s identity is tied in large part to the music that not only framed its narrative but also played part in shaping its overall character.
The only other composers who have even achieved these musical touchstones that I can think of would be John Williams, especially with “Star Wars”, Howard Shore with the LOTR trilogy and because I’m biased in his favour, I’d add Bear McCreary with the “Battlestar Galactica” soundtrack.
Djawadi is a truly gifted musician and artist, one which when back in the day was announced as the composer for GOT, I wasn’t particularly excited about. What is left to say…the man won me over and not only that, he gained a life-long fan in the process (for whatever that is worth). The proof is in the pudding as they say, and there is no doubt about his talent. I was at one of his GOT themed concerts a few years ago and he is every bit as good advertised.
And yet, wouldn’t we have perhaps benefited in having a fresh musical voice (I don’t mean a complete musical neophyte) attempt to create a new musical profile for this upcoming series? Instead of a necessary sonic continuity. Which is not bad but can oftentimes become stale and unimaginative.
“Star Wars” brought back John Williams (and his sound defined that franchise for almost five decades) for it’s new iteration and it didn’t produce any original sparks. “The Hobbit” trilogy brought back Howard Shore, whose contribution felt lacklustre. There was nothing inherently bad or low-grade about their returns but a certain musical vitality was missing. Couldn’t the same happen for “House Of The Dragon” if Ramin Djawadi is once again the exclusive musical storyteller?
From the new Disney era “Star Wars” the soundtracks I enjoyed the most have been the Michael Giacchino one for “Rogue One” and John Powell for “Solo” (he was strangely undermined in his work by John Williams’s musical addition to that movie).
Yet the top prize has to go to Ludwig Göransson and his brilliant soundtrack for “The Mandalorian” which I think has not only revived the “Star Wars” musical legacy but breathed new life into it. And the guy is not some musical vandal who took a sledgehammer to everything that came before. Rather he exquisitely married the newness and the tradition of that franchise by weaving his excellent contribution to the quality of what was and creating something solid. The soundtrack for “The Mandalorian” is one of my new favourites. And while I’ll get a lot of flack for this, I am not at all hesitant in saying that Göransson is as talented as Djawadi is and as versatile. In fact McCreary, Djawadi and Göransson are amongst my musical heroes and I am really excited in seeing what they can deliver in the future.
So, the question, would we benefit in having a new musical perspective for “House Of The Dragon” at the hands of a composer other than Ramin Djawadi?! As to who that would be I don’t have the faintest idea…nor am I sure that “yes” is a positive answer…
As a musical interlude here is a bit of the “Rogue One” soundtrack, courtesy as I’ve mentioned above, of Michael Giacchino. This is one of my favourite themes “Guardians Of The Whills” (reminds me of the classical Hollywood “historical” epics, like “Lawrence Of Arabia” for example):
And here, because hard as I try, I cannot be objective when it comes to this…here is Ludwig Göransson with the main theme from “The Mandalorian”:
I’m also looking forward to Ramin Djawadi’s music for closing credits sequences – like this one (my favorite, titled “The Children”), to close out Season 4e10.
[3:52 long clip = 0:00 – 2:27 Arya rides to port and boards Braavos-bound ship + 2:28 – 3:49 fade to black & closing credits]:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ut1VEoOZ2hA
With the disclosure that I have zero aptitude for music and no ear for identifying musical “themes”:
– When I watch this clip with the volume muted, it does not have quite the same emotional impact.
– Upon rewatch, I noticed the that there’s a short choral “prelude” at 0:00 – 0:39; then it resumes quietly at 1:11, builds up again at 1:32 – 1:48 with drum beats, and then concludes with the rousing choral singing starting at 1:56.
I’m guessing a maestro like Ramin Djawadi watched the raw footage and composed the score to match up with what’s on the screen and what the script and direction are trying to convey.
– I’d bet that there were aural callbacks to this S4e10 “sailing away” orchestration in the music accompanying the S6e10 concluding scene of Dany’s fleet + three dragons heading west, and in the final montage of S8e6 of Arya boarding her direwolf ship. (I’ll have to leave it to folks with musical training and experience to make any meaningful comparisons.)
For now, I’m real excited that there are now two GoT MVPs who will be working on HotD: Miguel Sapochnik 🎥 and Ramin Djawadi 🎼.
That bodes well, does it not? No matter how much💰is thrown at them, I can’t imagine that these two all-stars, at the top of their game, would have their names attached to a turkey.
loco73,
”…So, the question, would we benefit in having a new musical perspective for “House Of The Dragon” at the hands of a composer other than Ramin Djawadi?! As to who that would be I don’t have the faintest idea…nor am I sure that “yes” is a positive answer…”
• That is an interesting question to contemplate! Do you go with an established, experienced artist – or a promising unknown with fresh ideas? I suppose it depends on whether producers are willing to roll the dice…
• As for “new musical perspectives”…
– I remember a while back, Freddie Mercury & Queen were recruited to compose and perform songs for, or the soundtrack to, the movie version of “Flash Gordon” (1980). I couldn’t say whether the result was amazing or distracting; I’m not qualified to make that appraisal. It certainly was different, and did make an impression on me.
[Then again, maybe it was my fanboy crush on Ornella Muti as Princess Aura that made an impression on me. 😍 Or, it’s possible my recollections of the soundtrack were dredged up by the numerous callbacks to “Flash Gordon” in the movie “Ted” (or its sequel; I forget which.)
Obligatory Six Degrees of GoT tie-in: Max von Sydow, 3ER in S6, played Emperor Ming in “Flash Gordon.”]
– About eight or nine years ago, the creators of the Broadway musical “Kinky Boots” recruited a pop singer-songwriter with no Broadway experience to compose the music and lyrics for their show.
The outcome: Tony Award for Best Musical Score for Cyndi Lauper + Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album for Cyndi Lauper.
• I am not familiar with the works of the two composers you cited, Michael Giacchino (“Rogue One”) and Ludwig Göransson (“The Mandalorian”). I have not seen either one; someday I hope to. I will watch the clips you posted though.
Addendum to 1:38 pm Comment
For anyone who’s curious, here’s an image of Max von Sydow as Ming the Merciless and Ornella Muti as Princess Aura in “Flash Gordon” (1980):
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/84/9f/10/849f10b0a7f14f73acc61307843be0b7.jpg
you know the one that gets me is “It’s always Summer Under the Sea” sung hauntingly at the end of “Kissed by Fire”. What I didn’t realize until just now is that Kerry Ingram, the actress that played Shireen Baratheon, is the one that sings it!! I had that song at the end of my workout mix playlist when I was stretching. Don’t ask me why…Just seemed like a good way to end! I know I’m a bit nuts… I loved it though.
Ten Bears,
Ohhhh Ornella Mutti❤️….those were good times LOL…it suffices to say that in my household, Italian actresses were venerated as these larger than life icons (I’m not Italian by the way). Claudia Cardinale, Gina Lollobrigida, (later on) Greta Scacchi and of course the one and only Sophia Loren. Monica Bellucci left an impression as well, especially with her haunting but underrated performance in “Malena” (2000)…and I just got to include Valeria Golino in there as well!
Tron79,
🚩 Semi-Off Topic
In case you’re interested, I just noticed that posted on YouTube are a bunch of GRRM interviews about book/show characters that I’d never seen before. I’m not sure if these were included as DVD extras, or if I just never came across them before. I’ve only watched a handful so far.*
Here are two of them:
• “GRRM on the Hound” (but most of it is narrated by Rory McCann 🐓 🐓) [4:56 long]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ed9xgwHgXmk
• “GRRM on Arya’s Service with the Faceless Men” (part narrated by Tom W?) [6:01 long]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLwF0tUiBec
* Note: In some of the other interviews, GRRM discusses differences between books characters and their show counterparts, e.g., Littlefinger, Tyrion, Renly, etc.
Do Italian American actresses count? One of my favorites was Linda Fiorentino.
Here’s Linda Fiorentino in a scene from one of my favorite Guilty Pleasure movies, “The Last Seduction” (1994)
* Edit! Sorry. It looks like the link I embedded is no longer active. Let me see if I can find another one…
Ten Bears,
Those look like the snippets HBO would release online after an episode aired while GRRM was still involved in the show 🙂
Meanwhile, others look to be clips from various interviews released over the years.
loco73,
Here, try this…
Linda Fiorentino in “The Last Seduction”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6UrlgpATKU&list=LLoqeVpu5WSJD5MUApPHPwbQ
[3:22 long clip]
Oh, sorry. My bad.
(Listening to Rory McCann narrate part of the “GRRM on the Hound” clip made me think of the recent article on a contemplated GoT animated series, and how good a voice RM has for voice acting. Not that I hold out any hope for an “Arya & The Hound Adventure Hour”cartoon, though I’d pay good money to see that. 🪡 🐓 🐓)
Ten Bears,
I do agree RM has a great, very distinctive voice full of character! I think he’d be great for a lot of voice work!
Ten Bears,
Oh! I should mention the GRRM bits look to be from HBO online clips and various interviews over the years while the animated sections are from the disc release’s “Histories & Lore”. Looks they were combined together by this user.
Sorry for my mistake on that point!
Thanks! I did see on YouTube somewhere that GRRM added to his blog posts about TWOW progress. I know most don’t enjoy hearing vague updates, but this one was interesting. He did say he wrote hundreds of pages during the lockdown and he has a few hundred left to go to wrap up the book. I know that’s vague, but the positive thing is that it sounds like he can see how the ending will go if he knows how he will wrap up the book. One of the biggest obstacles was how he would get paint thinner to unpaint himself out of the corners he built in ADWD. It also depends on if he can stay locked down in 2021 to have another good year of writing. It sounded like he’s getting busy on other things again…ugg.. But as a hopeless optimist, I was encouraged by the fact that he now could see his path of how he will get to the end of the book, since he seemed to have a better idea of what he has left to bring the book to a conclusion. I also love his book endings. He always ramps up the action at the end of each book.
Ten Bears,
My first reply got held up by TLOL. So it may pop up at some point…
Here’s what I said…
Thanks! I did see on YouTube somewhere that GRRM added to his blog posts about TWOW progress. I know most don’t enjoy hearing vague updates, but this one was interesting. He did say he wrote hundreds of pages during the lockdown and he has a few hundred left to go to wrap up the book. I know that’s vague, but the positive thing is that it sounds like he can see how the ending will go if he knows how he will wrap up the book. One of the biggest obstacles was how he would get paint thinner to unpaint himself out of the corners he built in ADWD. It also depends on if he can stay locked down in 2021 to have another good year of writing. It sounded like he’s getting busy on other things again…ugg.. But as a hopeless optimist, I was encouraged by the fact that he now could see his path of how he will get to the end of the book, since he seemed to have a better idea of what he has left to bring the book to a conclusion. I also love his book endings. He always ramps up the action at the end of each book.
I know some had their hearts set on Cyndi Lauper or Miley Cyrus (barf), but this is great news.
I personally wish GRRM would stop with the updates until he’s actually done.
It’s put up or shut up for me at this point.
Yep. For me, it was cool few years or so… but at year ten, it’s getting tired. It’s nothing he hasn’t said before, unfortunately.
I’m glad he’s still trying to work at it but… sigh.
I don’t know. I liked the one line where he said “I still have hundreds of more pages to write to bring the novel to a satisfactory conclusion”, because it seemed like he had a path in mind to get there…but anyway, I’m one of the lucky ones who only has waited a couple years so far… Others I think have waited 10 or 11?
For me, because I’ve seen him say this before in regard to writing, the words don’t hold a ton of meaning to my mind anymore. It sort of just feels like the same update again and again -_-
But that’s neither here nor there. I have no idea what’s going on in his mind, no insight into his brain. I guess it’s just… update burnout? 🙂
Tron79,
I didn’t like that line. If he wrote hundreds of pages in 2020 and still has hundreds of pages to go, I question whether he seriously made an effort to finish his series before the show caught up.
I don’t know if this is the case. I’m sure he’s made serious efforts before this point, before the show caught up, and has wanted to get this book finished years ago but writing a book isn’t really a straightforward line, especially for a writer like GRRM who doesn’t like to do outlines or make detailed plans in advance.
In many creative endeavors, you can go back and forth and back and forth without much to show for it in an effort to get something “right”. This has been my own experience when trying to figure out work, especially work that I’ve been stuck on. And considering GRRM has thrown so many balls into the air, added so many POV characters, storylines, etc. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s struggling on how to cohesively tie everything together in a fluid manner.
I’m not in the totally burnt out waiting mode yet, because I’m a very new book reader in relative terms. I started reading the books after the show was over in the summer of 2019, and it took me awhile before finishing the last book, so I’ve only been waiting far less than 2 years. I don’t remember when you said you finished reading ADWD, but it’s been alot longer than that! Just think back to what it felt like after about a year and a half and my guess is you weren’t burnt out yet. I’m still in that a little bit hopeful phase! I may have mentioned the term “Vaporware” on WotW before. I worked at a computer store in the mid 1980’s when computers were just getting big. There was a term we used when manufacturer reps would come in promising big things about some new product in development (or software). We used to call it “Vaporware” It was just air because they could promise anything. Sometimes they said it was in Beta and would be out “Soon”… I don’t remember, but I do remember turning to my friend Martha who worked the salesfloor with me. After the guy talked to us and left, we turned to each other and said…”VAPOR WARE”… I miss Martha! She was the organized one!! I was all over the place…but that’s a tale for another day.
Tron79,
Fair enough! I feel jaded and cynical when it comes to GRRM updates (I had finished ADWD shortly after it came out in July 2011! Because I was in the hospital at the time, I was able to burn right through it…) but I honour that you are still hopeful and positive! 🙂 And maybe you are right to be! Maybe quarantine did help clear some mental pathways?
“Vaporware” is the perfect term for TWOW and beyond!
(It sounds like I’d miss Martha too ;D)
Adrianacandle,
I don’t know. I think this news proves that Martin was capable of getting Winds out quicker if he was more dedicated.
I don’t know if this proves much because we don’t know what really helped get those hundreds of pages written. Or if those hundreds of pages will even stay.
Perhaps quarantine did help lessen the other demands on GRRM’s plate and that helped clear his mind. Perhaps he had an epiphany of sorts. I don’t know. However, I don’t think GRRM’s lack of progress had anything to do with lack of desire or care — it sounds like frustration. I know that when I’m frustrated, I will look for anything else to do so I can avoid getting stuck on the same problems again and again (which is, itself, a disappointment and leads to even more despair, which leads to even less productivity). I’m procrastinating right now on a project I can’t get unstuck from (but the world is not waiting on me to finish, just me!) So many artists I know experience this. Sadly, this can’t always be fixed by just putting one’s nose to the grindstone like it’s folding laundry. I suspect GRRM has been stuck for a long time, with the way he talks and the way he writes and revises and writes and revises.
Makes me wonder… if her wrote hundreds of pages in 2020 and has hundreds of pages to go, did he delete his entire work in the span of past couple years and started from scratch? And didn’t he originally expect to finish in 2015 and then supposedly had “months” of work? How many pages does he plan for TWOW?
BTW, I’m really happy that Ramin Djawadi is back. I know his soundtrack from GoT and Westworld and he’s amazing in my eyes.
It’s funny how shortly after S8, some people theorized that Djawadi was likely pissed about GoT as according to their words, “it was clear he favored Dany as he put the most effort in her soundtrack and her twist at the end was likely a betrayal for him too” – ironically, at about same time, Djawadi expressed that the soundtrack he loved composing the most was the one in Dany’s death scene because he had to capture so many different emotions in it. Well, he’s back to composing in GoT era so it doesn’t seem to me at all he would feel any bad blood.
Adrianacandle,
”Perhaps quarantine did help lessen the other demands on GRRM’s plate and that helped clear his mind. Perhaps he had an epiphany of sorts. I don’t know. However, I don’t think GRRM’s lack of progress had anything to do with lack of desire or care — it sounds like frustration…”
On the subjects of composing music for shows and artists looking for their creative muses, is it time for a Musical Interlude featuring two bouncy “trampoline” songs with a tie-in to “Good Morning” (from “Singing in the Rain”)?
Absolutely!! 😀
(And it’s been a while since I’ve had a new bounce song!)
Adrianacandle,
Musical Interlude
from “Xanadu” (1980), with Olivia Newton John as a muse 🧚🏼♀️, and Gene Kelly in his last film role, dancing 🕺🏻; and music by Jeff Lynn/Electric Light Orchestra 🎼 🎻.
• “All Over the World” – ELO, from “Xanadu,” in scene with Gene Kelly and Olivia Newton John
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_d2OQXKLaPg
• “Xanadu” – Olivia Newton John & ELO
[6:38 long scene]
– at 0:00 – 1:00: Gene Kelly on roller skates
– at 3:15: Olivia Newton John song itself starts
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dKSB2O2Shts
🛼 🛼
Ten Bears,
Thanks, Ten Bears! (And to you, Mr Derp, for the song!)
You know what the first clip reminds me of?
What people were on in the 80s, I can only imagine…
Mr Derp,
I doubt Miley Cyrus (not barfing) would be at the top of my list of choices, should I necessarily contemplate an outright replacement for Ramin Djawadi. 🤓
Ten Bears,
Excellent actress. I am sorry that she kind of disappeared. I would have definitely wished she had a much higher profile in so far as her career and projects.
Adrianacandle,
Department store mannequins come to life?
The movie “Mannequin,” with Kim Cattrall as the department store mannequin come to life.
From the soundtrack, here’s “Nothing’s Going to Stop Us Now” by Starship:
• Video with scenes from the movie [4:35]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUXsXQ359pk
•Official Music Video (with Grace Slick & Mickey Thomas) [4:30]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wxyN3z9PL4
I’ll use any excuse to reference Grace Slick, even if it’s not her best song.
It was just a joke that was referencing the atrocious musical choices made here recently.
It wasn’t meant to touch some kind of nerve among Miley fans…not that I’d feel bad about doing that.
Ten Bears,
I have never seen those before! I’m watching now! The living mannequin actress reminds me of Rachel McAdams a bit…
Also, welcome to my new earworm…. 🙂
Miley fans…huh…quite the inference. I think she has a good voice and liked some stuff she did recently. I don’t hold candle light vigils every time she takes a breath or utters something. And not to worry. You don’t have to not feel bad about about touching a nerve. I don’t either. No nerve to touch being the reason.
loco73,
The only other composers who have even achieved these musical touchstones that I can think of would be John Williams, especially with “Star Wars”, Howard Shore with the LOTR trilogy and because I’m biased in his favour, I’d add Bear McCreary with the “Battlestar Galactica” soundtrack.
i appreciate RD to be back at work. i loved most of the stuff he composed for GoT. especially the themes for loveable characters like Stannis, the Greyjoys or my absolute favorite: the few notes he needed to make Mount Zombie sound really terrifying. that was dark and dramatic stuff as it is needed for the darkness and drama GoT was.
i also loved the surprisingly quiet pieces he wrote for scenes others may have filled with loudness and bombast: the whole build-up to Cersei blowing the sept, the final moments of The Long Night and of course Pod singing “Jenny of the Oldstones”
so, maximum talent prooven. on the other hand, i got more and more disappointed with his handling of Dany the more she grew into power. it started somewhere in Mereen i think. i could swallow the soundtrack of her being rescued from the pit by Drogon with some good will, but from there on i felt the Dany score was as blown up and hollow as her ambitions. wich might have been the idea. still i would have loved choirs OR tribal drumming. but both? what would be added next? kids from a Montessori kindergarten clapping their names?
this bombastification was also applied to the opening theme over the time, and i did not like that too much. but what really disappointed me was the use of this theme in the final scene. a small bunch of survivors of unbelievable horrors on their way into an uncertain future, and everyone is “Hallelujah”?
i would have preferred a reference to the very first scene. maybe with a slight tone of hope and optimism. but that what-a-glorious-moment-shit really wrecked me. a question of taste, i know…
anyway, these were the 10 out of 100 he did not get from me for his enormous work on GoT. the other 90 say i’m curious about his approach to these much darker times in HotD (more Stannis / Clegane? or more jubilate anytime a dragon gets airborne?)
about the other composers you mention: i only know Bear McCrary’s work for “The Walking Dead”. not following series on TV but buying second hand DVDs instead, season two was when i decided that not even the great soundtrack can make me watch more of this.
Howard Shore’s work on the LOTR trilogy is galactic. it’s olympic. end of. after rewatching the trilogy all the time you folks here spent watching hundreds of TV shows and improving your typing skills, his style was part of my DNA. so, i can’t say how many times i paused my player in order to check if this great score could be composed by… of course, most of the times it was.
i could maybe say the same about John Williams. but with the exception of two or three notes from the original Star Wars, my best memory of him is that his son used to be a party buddy of mine by the end of the eighties in Berlin. he had a band, all of the band and some buddies around were a sort of clique in our local punk- and wave-discos. oh, and the band was lousy. don’t know how they developed once everyone faded into adulthood… so this will surely not be the musical interlude here (i dumped their tape around 1992 anyway.)
instead, i want to post what i think is the gold standard of dramatic score. i don’t even explain why.
something went wrong here!
i posted a link to a video on youtube. instead the preview shows me a podcast link.
i can’t figure out what went wrong, but if the link to podcast remains in my post, can someone please delete the link and the two line paragraph before about the gold standard in dramatic soundtracks? thank you very much!
I’ve seen this happen sometimes to many clips (appearing as a podcast link), including some I’ve linked to, but it’s temporary! When you refresh, it should be the link you included in your post.
“Ran Castle Attack Clip” right? 😀
(Btw, loved Howard Shore’s work on LOTR as well. I’ve been playing it regularly for close to 20 years since the movies came out, it’s a staple in my iTunes library! When I moved away from home to Toronto for the first time, my mind was mentally playing Gray Havens as I was bawling…)
From the cinematic masterpiece that is “Blade Runner”, here is a piece of the equally masterful, beautiful and stunning soundtrack courtesy of Vangelis, “Rachel’s Song” (with some footage from the movie):
the podcast problem has been replaced by another interesting display: white writing on black informs me that i can only watch the video on youtube. because protect the kids and so on… i get it presented in german, so it might be a result of google trying to protect a 52 yo kid from being traumatized by fake blood. do you see a proper preview, or is google protecting you too?
yes, it is that battle scene from RAN, and it might be not the first time i post this here when the GoT soundtrack was the topic. i remember the overwhelming experience of seeing the movie on the biggest cinema screen Berlin had to offer. also, the sound was of outstanding quality. this scene got everyone in the theatre pressed back into their seats. three years after the movie’s premiere, nota bene.
the LOTR soundtrack got me with similar impact. it was at a private viewing of all three extended cuts in one night. at our local underground music venue in Bern, in 2005. imagine a really big screen and a PA that usually handles the noisiest rockbands in a giant attic mostly constructed of wood, with a capacity of 900 persons. the right environment to blow one’s eyes and ears to the moon.
still, i never listened to either of the soundtracks without watching the movie. i don’t want to separate the picture from the transporting vehicle. i did this with another favorite soundtrack for some times, with Bernard Herrmann’s incredible Vertigo score. it sounded nice but the pictures were simply missing.
death by chickenfire,
Google/YouTube is “protecting” me too! Which I found odd because I’m logged in and I’m no minor. Still, I find that when I click on the link, I still get the clip I’m supposed to get.
Oh wow, that sounds incredible.
I was a young teen when the movies were coming out and I wasn’t into it at first. My dad was the biggest Tolkien nerd in the world though and read the books time and time again. He tried to get my mum into them while they were dating in the 70s/80s but alas… no luck.
What got me to watch the movies was when one of my friends made me a deal: “I’ll watch all of Buffy with you if you watch all of LoTR with me.” Of course, it was a deal. So A dragged the recliner to the center of the room, brought out the duct tape, and that was that! Fell in love (also, Orlando Bloom may have been a part of that too).
I watched the movies over and over and over. When they came out, I bought the extended editions and watched the documentaries over and over and over while I worked on projects, I’d quote the movies daily.
But your viewing sounds far more epic than mine ever was!!! 🙂
death by chickenfire,
“Yes it is that battle scene from RAN, and it might be not the first time i post this here when the GoT soundtrack was the topic. i remember the overwhelming experience of seeing the movie on the biggest cinema screen Berlin had to offer. also, the sound was of outstanding quality. this scene got everyone in the theatre pressed back into their seats. three years after the movie’s premier…”
Kurosawa’s “Ran” came out around December, 1985, so I’m guessing you saw it in Berlin around 1988 or 1989?
I’m curious… Were you in Berlin in July, 1990 to see Roger Waters perform the entire “The Wall” album live with a bunch of big name guest artists to commemorate the fall of the Berlin Wall?
Here’s a video of the full concert. It looked like quite an event.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ohrFzuuUyi0
Spoiler ⚠️ No, I’m not bringing this up
Adrianacandle,
I have never seen those before! I’m watching now!
The living mannequin actress reminds me of Rachel McAdams a bit…”
……………..
“I’ll watch all of Buffy with you if you watch all of LoTR with me.” Of course, it was a deal.”
• FYI: The actress who played the mannequin-come-to-life in the 1987 movie “Mannequin” and accompanying music video is Kim Cattrall, who would later play Samantha Jones in “Sex & The City,” and has produced and starred in lots of shows in Canada.
• Six Degrees of Buffy: In the 2005 movie “Ice Princess” starring Michelle Trachtenberg, Kim Cattrall co-starred as a figure skating coach.
Michelle Trachtenberg was adorable in the movie.
• “Mannequin” and “Ice Princess” are both on my list of Favorite Guilty Pleasure movies.
I think Michelle Trachtenberg and Hayden Panettiere were adorable in general. I only really know MT from Buffy and HP from Heroes 🙂 I did see MT guest on Weeds though!
Because I just binged Netflix’s ‘Spinning Out’ (stars Mad Men’s January Jones), I think “Ice Princess” would be a great follow-up! 🙂
Haha a bit off-topic, seeing as you mentioned Dany soundtracks, I recently watched a video on Youtube where someone inserted Dany’s heroic soundtracks into Dany’s burning of King’s Landing scenes in “The Bells”, while also conveniently editing the scene to Dany and her dragon only, removing all the bloody scenes of soldiers massacring the citizens on the ground. And the scene feels almost completely different that way! Certainly way less horrific and uncomfortable. It’s so interesting how much the soundtrack and the way scenes are filmed can affect the atmosphere when watching the scene. As I said once, I wonder what people’s reaction would be if Dany’s burning of King’s Landing would be shown in much more tame way… for example, we hear the bells, we have the elevated tension, we get that close-up on her face and then she flies on Drogon over the city, we see Drogon breathe fire from POV below, maybe Tyrion shouts “No!” and the scene cuts to black… in next shot, we would see scorched city and the shot goes back to Tyrion as he walks through the city like he did in final episode. Even though this edit wouldn’t change Dany’s action at all, I’m sure the overall scene would have been much easier to stomach and I imagine Dany’s action would have been more justified in certain audience’s eyes.
It made me think about Dany’s soundtracks… I personally think her soundtracks are very quality on their own but I wonder if her soundtracks also additionally contributed to the fact that she got this very devoted following from the audience. Her soundtracks sound incredibly heroic from Mhysa onwards, but especially from S5 onwards, almost otherworldly in a TV show that overall avoided having heroic soundtracks, and her soundtracks are used in many scenes while we could almost hand-count heroic-sounding soundtrack scenes outside Dany’s story. For example, Battle of the Bastards, a very heroic moment for protagonists. We get one, only one soundtrack that actually sounds heroic and that’s when Vale army arrives. When the setting moves to Winterfell, the uplifting soundtracks are again gone, the Stark banner is put on without any soundtrack and the episode ends with dark soundtrack as Ramsay is ripped apart by his dogs. The Long Night: pretty much no straight heroic soundtracks, and certainly not at the end. Any Arya moment when she kills “bad guys”, the soundtrack is ominous. Stannis’s charge on the wildlings… the soundtrack is not heroic-sounding, but pure battle-sounding. And I imagine I could list even more. But with Dany, we get her epic heroic soundtracks many times, from locking Xaro and Doreah to die, to Mhysa, conquering Meereen, Drogon’s rescue in fight pit, burning Dothraki khals, her war speech to Dothraki, Battle for Meereen and eventually leaving for Westeros. Then S7 happens and soundtracks of this kind start to slowly wane and the darker theme from earlier seasons starts creeping in, great example being Spoils of War where she burns Lannister/Tarly army and same happens in S8… while we get an uplifting moment with her dragon flight with Jon, the tone starts switching in scenes that involves her Conquest. Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is full of tense scenes and while the Long Night makes us temporarily forget it, episode 4 continues that, and then episode 5 till the massacre happens and by the time of episode 6, there’s nothing heroic left in the atmosphere of her scenes, except when she dies.
Just my overall observation of Dany soundtracks and how they contribute to the atmosphere of her scenes. Sometimes I wonder if darker, more war-like soundtrack was incorporated into her scenes without the “a-aaaaaaa” choir, would her dark twist at the end be easier to stomach?
Ten Bears,
spoilus maximus: this will be longus!
it must have been somewhat fall of 1989 when i saw the movie. i was still in Berlin in july 90 (i moved to Bern, Switzistan in the summer of 92), but i did not see The Wall. simply because by that time my taste had switched into a completely different direction. i think the last time i enjoyed listening to The Wall was around 1985.
in 1990, the most exciting year for maybe everybody living in Berlin then, i was raiding the record stores for everything coming from US independent labels like Homestead, SST, Touch&Go, Alternative Tentacles, (Shimmy Disc not so much), Tupelo Recording Company etc. that was the soundtrack from my adolescent to my “i can’t really be 40+” years.
i was at two big size music events in 1988 though. one was a Bruce Springsteen open air gig. we were a bunch of five or six former schoolmates, and none of us liked Springsteen. didn’t he have this superpatriotic album hit in 1984? being not even 20, uninformed on the album’s message and being some punks always looking for excitement, here’s the shit idea we had: join outside the area and burn an american flag.
ok, we also had spent our lives in a cold war hotspot with a wall around us, the past eight of them with a clown in the White House. the daily dose of subtle fear, mixed with pushes of acute fear whenever Ronnie had the idea of joking about nuclear strikes with the mic on, it surely ate our nerves away year by year. so much for the different faces of anti-americanism: ours wasn’t caused by the internet, it was caused by all-day fear that any of the senile wrecks in the east or west could lose his mind and escalate us into oblivion. or, as we remember it better: overkill.
anyway, the Bruce situation ended like this: security came and told us politely(!) to delete the fire. one of them asked why we were doing this. we delivered our sermon of patriotism for an imperialist and whatever country. and then, we really went to school. the guy told us how wrong we were about the message of the album and Springsteen as an artist. listening to him, we shrinked and shrinked and shrinked to the shame the Lord of Light might have planned for us when he put the idea of flag-burning in our heads. (and don’t get me wrong here: i still hate flags. their best use is always covering coffins.)
after the talk, we made it sort of backstage. which means backfence. we could not see what was going on on stage, but we saw the impressive ocean of lighters in the sunset when “I’m on Fire” was played, and we all agreed in appreciating the positive power a peaceful and happy crowd of mullets can bring over. we left with the good feeling we got some half baken crappy thoughts removed from our heads. an experience i wish many people today could share.
the other big event was much more cold war related. may the old gods and the new help me keeping it short. it was a Michael Jackson gig in front of the Reichstag, which is now the parliament again.
the border from West Berlin (here, me) to East Berlin was a wall. it was drawn following the district lines of a once united city. this resulted in small and useless pieces of eastern territory lapping into the western, and vice versa. in order to make city planning and building easier for both sides, there were some exchanges of those appendix territories from time to time. the last ever included a triangle south of the Reichstag, neighbouring Potsdamer Platz on the east side.
the setting: a city surrounded by a wall, by far not enough room to live for everyone, a vibrant squatting culture. and a bunch of people who just wanted to occupy an empty house without success. also, a piece of eastern territory lapping into the west which was not inside the wall. it simply wasn’t worth the concrete. a rusty fence had to do. two months from the attempted squatting it would be part of the west in exchange for another piece of land.
we decided to make this our space for the while. as it was eastern territory, western police was not allowed to enter it. and eastern police didn’t care too much. also, they would not have dared to confront citizens of the west beyond their wall. it could have caused ambassadors in washington and moscow to be called in for a serious talk…
what was not restricted: the use of tear gas by West Berlin’s police. who had a reputation of being especially brutal at that time. let’s say: they were splendid with the gas. day in, day out.
and on one of those days… well, you as my trusted GoT-quote-bot could fix it in a second, you surely know what i try to quote: the stench was bad. the tears were worse. but the worst thing was the Michael-Jackson-concert we had to hear when we got gased the hardest.
pooh, pretty short. a good finale to some personal nostalgia. i think i leave the other things i wanted to write about where they are now. how “we don’t need no education” was once a facebook reply to my sharing of a news article reporting the killing of school girls in Afghanistan; how the triangle incidents made us youngsters have first contact with UK troops in Berlin as the responsibility to control the area had been delegated to them; and how drunk we all got on november 9th of 1989.
to get back on topic: i somewhat lost the link to the scene of Cindy Lauper killing the Night King. could you please –
no, no, i duck and cover!
Ten Bears,
the edit saving does not work, it seems. i tried to insert the one documentary on the triangle.
i’ll do it here.
so strange to see former mates on tv after all that time. i never googled this stuff until today…
Adrianacandle,
”…Because I just binged Netflix’s ‘Spinning Out’ (stars Mad Men’s January Jones), I think “Ice Princess” would be a great follow-up!🙂”
• I just read that “Spinning Out” was cancelled after just one season.
https://deadline.com/2020/02/spinning-out-canceled-netflix-one-season-1202850380/
Was that one season any good? I hope it didn’t end on a cliffhanger…
• After (or before) “Ice Princess,” you might to check out “The Cutting Edge” (1992).*
*Six Degrees of Game of Thrones: Roy Dotrice (ASOIAF audiobooks narrator and Pyromancer Hallyne in GoT S2) co-stars in “The Cutting Edge” as a Russian figure skating coach.
Terry O’Quinn from “Lost” is in the movie too.
Ten Bears,
It…
It’s soapy but good binge, I’d say. I also think it gives a decent and understanding look at bipolar disorder. It’s not a perfect look (one criticism is that the various different “faces” which present in BP aren’t nuanced enough) but it’s a decent look, I’d say.
Oh, thank-you! (And 1992! Pre-Tonya Harding!)
Also, I really appreciated how you adapted Six Degrees of GoT to Six Degrees of Buffy 💕
death by chickenfire,
Wow, those are an incredible set of memories 😮
I was going to chime in and say that “The Cutting Edge” is one of my top guilty pleasure movies, except I am not guilty about it at all, it’s great. 😄
Ten Bears-recommended + Pigeon-approved + figure skating = can’t pass it up now 😀
Stand by. Clips upcoming from “The Cutting Edge” (with spoiler warnings where appropriate).
– BTW: Please try to avoid the sanitized, PG-13 version of the movie. It mutes innocuous dialogue for no good reason, so that what a character says doesn’t make sense.
– FYI: The beginning of the movie is set in Calgary, at the 1988 Winter Olympics. ⛸
Pigeon,
I was going to chime in and say that “The Cutting Edge” is one of my top guilty pleasure movies, except I am not guilty about it at all, it’s great. 😄”
I know, right! Some might dismiss it
It doesn’t matter. I’ve watched it over and over and still enjoy it. It’s one of those rare movies that has withstood the test of time.
It’s also one of a handful of movies that’s on both my Guilty Pleasure Movies List and my All Time Top 20 Favorite Movies List. (If I was making a Top Ten
P.S.
⛸
Really?? Oh, if I had known all this when I was a kid, I’d have appreciated the visits to Canada Olympic Park and the Olympic Oval that much more 😀 Is it speed skating? I think that took place at the Olympic Oval… I should know more about this.
I’ll definitely avoid the sanitized version!! Thanks, Ten Bears and Pigeon!
Ten Bears,
– When I watch this clip with the volume muted, it does not have quite the same emotional impact.
Heck, whilst doing household chores, I listen to the music without watching the screen! It’s just amazing, how he starts with the simple interpolation from The Rains of Castamere, and then just adds and adds and builds and builds until the full voices of the children join in for the stirring finale.
I’d bet that there were aural callbacks to this S4e10 “sailing away” orchestration […] in the final montage of S8e6 of Arya boarding her direwolf ship.
Per my final wish for the series, the finale music for the series follows directly from the final music in The Children. I nearly cried over the finale’s credits, and not just for saying goodbye to my first-of-many complete-series watches. His last piece of music just summed up the entire series perfectly.
Tensor the Mage, Still Loving the Ending,
Damn! I wish I had your ability to identify musical “callbacks” and themes – like when RD modifies or incorporates prior pieces into newer ones.
For instance, as you described it [“The Children” I presume]:
”It’s just amazing, how he starts with the simple interpolation from The Rains of Castamere, and then just adds and adds and builds and builds until the full voices of the children join in for the stirring finale.”
All I can do is react on a purely emotional, primitive level. Then again, maybe it’s not so bad that I’m unable to see the Oz behind the curtain: He is able to pull my heartstrings and I can’t see him doing it.
Thx for your insight!
Adrianacandle,
The Cutting Edge” (1992)
starring Moira Kelly as pairs figure skater Kate Moseley; Roy Dotrice as skating coach Anton Pamchenko; D.B. Sweeney as ex-hockey star Doug Dorsey; and Terry O’Quinn as Kate’s rich father Jack Moseley
#1 • “Terry O’Quinn” clip: compilation of excerpts from early scenes [9:52 long clip]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1HxhbNthTc
at 1:29: Roy Dotrice
Pause this clip at 2:40 and go to #2 – #3 before resuming with #1
(⚠️ But stop at 6:30 to avoid major spoilers; and go to #4.)
————
#2 • Movieclip 1/10 (2:41 long)
White outfit; tryout
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwSihgp_iTE
⛸⛸ to be continued…
Adrianacandle,
continued from 2:49 pm above
#3 • Movieclip 2/10 (2:28 long)
“Toe pick” on figure skates
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zm0f0oFUxVA
——-
#4 Red skating outfit [1:04]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0j6fmpwlt8o
⛸⛸
Adrianacandle,
continued from 2:50 pm above
#5 1-on-1 hockey [3:10]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VNMj5YKHEsY
—
#6 Coach (Roy Dotrice) introduces new maneuver he designed [2:21]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Di6Ir0Ku4bQ
⛸⛸
– End – “The Cutting Edge” clips
(As spoiler-free as possible…)
Ten Bears,
Awesome!! Thanks, TB!
Adrianacandle,
… and for a Guilty Pleasure/Buffyverse tie-in, here are two relatively spoiler-free, early clips from…
“Ice Princess” (2005) – Michelle Trachtenberg
• Opening scene – first 5 minutes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0zAQP05urY
+
• Physics video scene [1:37]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buyfoFBOKDM
⛸
Ten Bears,
Oh thank-you!!!
I remember the second clip from when the movie came out 😀
This is simply brilliant news! Reading through Kim Renfro’s book there is an entire chapter dedicated to the musical score for Game of Thrones and the amount of detail that Ramin (and his team) go into to capture the mood of the characters and the show is simply world class. If anyone watched West World he also did a superb score on that show also so I’ve every confidence he will pull it off for the prequel and we are in for a treat on that front.