Lin-Manuel Miranda talks writing songs for The Kingkiller Chronicle

The Kingkiller Chronicle is an ongoing series of fantasy novels about Kvothe, a young musician/university student/magician/ninja who wanders the Four Corners of Civilization trying to solve the mystery behind who killed his family. It’s written by a guy named Patrick Rothfuss, an eccentric author with a magnificent beard who pays incredibly close attention to worldbuilding and whose fans have been clamoring for another book in the series since the last one was released in 2011 and is anybody else getting déjà vu right now?

I’m oversimplifying; George R.R. Martin and Patrick Rothfuss are very different authors with their own styles, but comparisons can be drawn, which might be part of the reason there’s a lot of buzz around Showtime’s forthcoming TV adaptation of The Kingkiller Chronicle, with Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda serving as executive producer.

Miranda is also writing the music for the show, for you see, Kvothe spends a lot of his time playing music, and also talking about playing music, and describing the quality of the music he plays, and so on. Miranda has a lot of context to guide him when composing melodies for Rothfuss’ lyrics. He recently answered some Twitter questions and revealed that he’s part of the way there with at least three of the songs:

“Lady Lackless” is a folk song about a box if you’re a child and something else if you’re older. The lyrics:

"One a ring that’s not for wearing,One a sharp word, not for swearing,Right beside her husband’s candle,There’s a door without a handle,In a box, no lid or locks,Lackless keeps her husband’s rocks,There’s a secret she’s been keeping,She’s been dreaming and not sleeping,On a road, that’s not for traveling,Lackless likes her riddle raveling."

You are not imagining the euphemisms; “Lady Lackless” is kind of The Kingkiller Chronicle’s version of “The Bear and the Maiden Fair” from A Song of Ice and Fire. There’s also a more sinister version if you’re into that. Once The Kingkiller Chronicle show hits the air, I can only hope the rendition of “Lady Lackless” is as entertaining as “The Bear and the Maiden Fair” was on Game of Thrones:

That’s still one hell of a way to end an episode, all these years later.

The Chandrian rhyming tune starts off sinister and stays there. The Chandrian are a group of shadowy, malevolent beings who have been alive for a very long time. They are also the group that killed Kvothe’s parents, purportedly because his mom and dad were writing a song about them, and the Chandrian do not want people to know anything about their nature or history. They’d prefer common folk consider them a myth, and most do.

But not Kvothe. His quest to discover the secrets of the Chandrian drives the narrative, although two books in we still know precious little about them. We do have this wicked creepy children’s song about them, though:

"When the hearthfire turns to blue,What to do? What to do?Run outside. Run and hide.When his eyes are black as crow?Where to go? Where to go?Near and far. Here they are.See a man without a face?Move like ghosts from place to place.What’s their plan? What’s their plan?Chandrian. Chandrian.When your bright sword turns to rust?Who to trust? Who to trust?Stand alone. Standing stone.See a woman pale as snow?Silent come and silent go.What’s their plan? What’s their plan?Chandrian. Chandrian."

Again I reach for a Game of Thrones comparison; this reminds me of “It’s Always Summer Under the Sea,” the eerie rhyme Shireen Baratheon sings over the credits of “Kissed by Fire” in season 3. Hit it:

Eeugh.

Finally, there’s “The Lay of Sir Savien,” a tragic ballad that requires an instrumentalist to play two harmonies on a lute at the same time. (Maybe get two people to play lutes?) It’s got male and female vocal parts, and is apparently so beautiful that anyone who hears it cries. Here are snippets of the male verse…

"Still! Sit! For though you listen longLong would you wait without the hope of songSo sweet as this. As Illien himself set downAn age ago. Master work of a master’s lifeOf Savien, and Aloine the woman he would take to wife"

…and the female:

"Savien, how could you knowIt was the time for you to come to me?Savien, do you rememberThe days we squandered pleasantly?How well then have you carried whatHave tarried in my heart and memory?"

There’s no equivalent in A Song of Ice and Fire because the characters are too busy plotting each other’s deaths to learn complex lute harmonies. The closest thing may be “Hands of Gold,” a song that, in the books at least, is about Tyrion Lannister’s tragic relationship with Shae, sung by Ed Sheeran and the Lannister glee choir in season 7:

With Game of Thrones going off the air, there are a lot of fantasy shows in the pipeline, all of them eager for a part of its mindshare. With its musical inclinations and wholly original world, The Kingkiller Chronicles is one of the more interesting contenders; I’m eager to see if Showtime and Miranda can find the right tone.

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h/t Newsweek