A far cry from the catchy theme songs of the ‘80s and ‘90s, TV music has become a cinematic excursion into previously uncharted territory. With fantasy epics like Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon, composer Ramin Djawadi transported viewers into the world of Westeros and Essos with his sweeping symphonies. Not to mention Djawadi’s main theme for the Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon opening credits is possibly the best piece ever written.
Because Djawadi's music from Game of Thrones was so memorable, the composer reprised new versions of the themes in House of the Dragon, using recognizable parts from pieces like "Dragonstone" and "Breaker of Chains" to represent the Targaryens. But with a new series must come fresh new ideas, and the musical score is as integral to production as the writing and acting. In a behind-the-scenes exclusive, Djawadi offered some insight into his creative process.
Djawadi breaks down the differences between the Houses and their musical themes
In a video interview from the official YouTube page for House of the Dragon, Ramin Djawadi expressed his excitement about returning to the franchise before taking a deeper dive into the process of creating the show's iconic themes.
The Targaryen theme is sonically, I would say, the closest to Game of Thrones," Djawadi says. "Electric cello is the prominent sound. With the percussion and the rawness, I think, just because of the dragons, I found that very fitting. It creates a lot of power," Djawadi commented of the orchestral makeup of one of House of the Dragon's most recognizable pieces.
The music for House Hightower, on the other hand, had a distinctly different sound.
"For House Hightower, the non-treated sonic quality differentiates the two," according to Djawadi. "Violin and cello and strings, that's really more their sound. In terms of the religious aspect, a chord progression, I guess, that the melody is based on has a sense of purity to it."
Though they aren't always the main focus of House of the Dragon, House Velaryon still has an important role in the series, and Djawadi had to incorporate that into the music as well.
"House Velaryon is very different. There's a flute element to it that completely separates it. I think the flute-ish sound, just because they're at sea, that it's like a seashell almost, like this horn that [would] be blown on the ship or something. So it has that kind of connection."
Not only do the different Houses of House of the Dragon have their own themes, but so do the characters themselves. Starting with Rhaenyra, Djawadi explains that the heir to the Iron Throne has more than one theme to emphasize her complexity as a character.
"What's interesting with Rhaenyra through the different seasons so far is not only are we modifying her theme, but her change can be so significant that we actually have multiple themes for her. We have a theme that is more of a pure melody, and then we have a theme [when] she's at war. Some of her melodies, harmonically, feel almost too safe, and by changing it up, it really shows the significant development in her character."
In addition to building out the themes from returning characters, season 3 introduced new characters such as Ormund Hightower, Alys's duplicitous cousin, who required a unique sound to go with his unique character.
"What's interesting with Ormund is it has to do a lot of things," Djawadi says with a chuckle. "There's the militaristic aspect. It has to be very powerful. It's melodic. I feel like there's almost something elegant to it as well with him. There's a percussive rhythm to it that, when you hear it, is supposed to indicate that he's always plotting. It's kind of like a ticking clock, almost."
Djawadi reveals his process for scoring House of the Dragon's battle and death scenes
Beyond the themes for House of the Dragon's characters and Houses, there's the underlying score enhancing the show's big action sequences. Djawadi finishes out the video discussing the music behind one of season 3's biggest scenes, the Battle of the Gullet.
"What's interesting in episode one is actually for the Battle of the Gullet, the approach is that we actually have a theme that kind of builds up to war itself. So it really is supposed to connect all the different characters and locations. Because we all know it's all going to lead up to this one thing. So I find it very interesting how effective that actually is."
"Especially for these long battles, I think they can be very effective because it can be just tiring when you have all these sounds coming at you at once," he continued, discussing the creation of a score for action-packed scenes and how sometimes less is actually more. "So there are some interesting stretches with more atmospheric music that still will get the message across, but just because it's action doesn't necessarily mean it's just drums pounding away."
And of course, there are the death scenes in House of the Dragon, which, according to Djawadi, require a more nuanced approach.
"I think what can be very effect sometimes is having less music or smaller music with some of these big deaths, because it's really effective to bring the music down and make it more internal. It just really gets down to a couple of instruments, and just play it really small, and I feel like that really gets under your skin that way."
Just as House of the Dragon tugs at our heartstrings with expert performances and storytelling, Ramin Djawadi is a master of manipulating emotions through his musical score. Frankly, I don't think either Game of Thrones or House of the Dragon would have had the same impact without this brilliant collaboration.
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