The best piece of music from Game of Thrones Season 5 is…
By Dan Selcke
…”Dance of Dragons,” the piece Ramin Djawadi composed for when Drogon the dragon invaded Daznak’s Pit.
It IS a stirring piece. The first 25-or-so seconds are my favorite part, as the long slow notes from “Blood of the Dragon” are overlaid with some hyperactive strings, turning a mournful melody into an exciting one. It’s the perfect compliment for when Drogon bursts out of the sky, wrapped in fire.
“Dance of Dragons” is one of the more discreetly segmented pieces of music Djawadi wrote for Season 5. After Drogon’s initial burst onto the scene, the tune segues into the intimidating drumbeats and low strings of “Dracarys” (aka the song that plays whenever Daenerys is wrecking someone’s s**t) before transitioning into the more plaintive “Blood of the Dragon” and finally into a new, rapturous melody as Dany climbs on Drogon’s back and takes to the sky. Maybe it was the scope of the journey that made “Dance of Dragons” such a popular choice.
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I’ll let our own Ani Bundel expound on why “Dance of Dragons” hit people so hard.
"That spectacular moment this season comes at timestamp 1:34 in Ramin Djawadi’s track “Dance of Dragons.” The music pauses, like the world holds still. And then that chord. A long viola note, the E melodic minor chord grabs your heartstrings and vibrates them hard, so lonesome I could cry. Drogon turns and sees Dany, and the two of them, kept apart all this season, are finally rejoined, mother and son, as they should be. I seriously fall to pieces just listening to the track."
When it comes to Daenerys’ story, next year we can expect Djawadi to return to some of the Dothraki themes he wrote for Season 1. He’s always written some his most evocative stuff for Daenerys, and I’ll look forward to hearing what he has in store for Season 6.