Composer Ramin Djawadi on writing musical themes for competing characters

Game of Thrones composer Ramin Djawadi is preparing for the upcoming Game of Thrones Live Concert Experience, where he’ll be traveling to two dozen cities to play music from the show, including the Season 6 showstopper “Light of the Seven,” the haunting piano number that played during Cersei’s decimation of the Sept of Baelor.

Djawadi spoke with The Huffington Post about the concert, as well as other very interesting topics. First up, HuffPo asked Djawadi about “Light of the Seven” and if he was aware that many Game of Thrones fans were theorizing that the voices in the song were chanting “Arya.”

It was the first Djawadi had heard of it. Judge for yourself:

Djawadi says fans aren’t hearing what they think they are, but actually loves the idea. The composer says he should have lied and said the voices were, in fact, chanting “Arya.”

"Sometimes I have these Valyrian-inspired lyrics. Actually, they’re just saying, ‘Ah ya.’ That’s actually not really a lyric. ‘Ah, ya, y, ya, ya.’ That’s all it is."

The concert experience will include music from Seasons 1-6, and will serve as a warm-up for Season 7. Originally, the concert clocked in at six hours long, which is a whole lotta music. After that, Djawadi and his collaborators condensed it all down to montages and key moments.

Djawadi also mentions that he hasn’t seen any footage from Season 7 yet, and has no idea what’s in store. But if the momentum of the story continues, a lot of characters are going to meet for the first time this year. How does Djawadi choose whose theme to play in those situations?

"It’s a tricky one because it happens a lot that these characters cross and families cross and meet and interact, so we really kind of step into the back and go, ‘Whose story is it right now? Which story do we want to support? Do the Lannisters have the upper hand right now over the Starks? Could this be foreshadowing something later to come?’ If you look at it that way, that usually helps with the decision of what theme we usually play."

Finally, Djawadi revealed which character he hasn’t gotten to write music for yet but wants to: Lyanna Mormont, hands down the favorite supporting character of Season 6. “If we see more of her character, it’d be great to give her her own theme. I really see that actually, giving her something powerful. She was a great character last season.” I personally imagine Lyanna Mormont’s theme to be heavily influenced by Russian vocals.