Review: Game of Thrones Soundtracks

Preview and purchase the Game of Thrones soundtracks and episodes at Itunes

Photo credit: Entertainment Weekly

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The first time I remember hearing Ramin Djawadi's score was on a film I very much looked forward to and thoroughly enjoyed: Iron Man.  The music didn't much impress me, most of it sounding like the contrived music preceding a professional wrestler's entrance into the arena.  Despite this, a few songs appealed to us Marvel reading, Nintendo playing fans, sounding like something out of a Capcom arcade game.

The next time was the remake of Clash of the Titans and I remembering being altogether more satisfied with this album.  The leitmotifs were rather simple, but catchy and did the film more justice than its visual direction did.  I don't know if I just liked Ralph Feinnes in the role or if it was Djawadi that made me love  Hades, god of the underworld, and I'm inclined to think the latter.  Tracks built up with a melodic intensity in ways reminiscent of the late, ever great Jerry Goldsmith. This work was better, some tracks more than others, than Iron Man was, but as an album, nothing to blow the hair back.

It was only when heard his compositions for HBO's Game of Thrones series did my appreciation for Djawadi skyrocket.  It's hard not to talk about how good I feel the series is. It's even harder to separate my appreciation of other facets of the show, it's dramatic narrative and acting to start, from my appreciation of what Djawadi set the GoT world to.

The theme song is catchy like some of his prior works, but also reflects the complexity that is the show's, and the novel series', intricate plot.  To me it almost sounds like someone is composing a medieval tapestry with violins and cellos and that people are at work conspiring.  And many tracks on both the first and second season albums have a stringed eloquence to them that adds feature film depth to television, something, in my opinion, that is very hard to achieve.

When watching a scene displaying the Red Priestess presiding over a seemingly dark ritual, I heard an extremely eerie and haunting melody almost chanted in the night air with her disciples.  The track is called "Warrior of Light" and its leitmotif seems to be the theme for Stannis Baratheon and the Lord of Light he and Melissandre stock their faith in.

"Warrior of Light" - starts off incredibly haunting and then turns heavier toward the end of the track.

  In tracks like "Don't Die With a Clean Sword" this eerie melody is made louder and thrust into battle, much the way Stannis' troops are to the Lannisters. The notes seem to powerfully invert things.

Speaking of Lannisters, I haven't been able to get "The Rains of Castamere" out of my head for weeks now.  It is called the Lannister Song and tells a somewhat sad story from what I can gather.  We can thank George R.R. Martin, author of the A Song of Ice and Fire series, for the lyrics to the song and only wonder if he collaborated with Djawadi for the musical part of it.  Even if not, it is the theme for members of House Lannister and when the soldiers or "smallfolk" sing it, it makes me feel like I'm somewhere between high fantasy and historical reality.  It sounds like a royal anthem or drunken sea shanty, depending upon how you look at it and definitely takes you somewhere else.

And the score on the East side of the Narrow Sea is no less interesting.  It reflects the often quite different environments and cultures that are present in Essos with the Targarian side of the story.  When in D'othraki lands and with the horde there is a very tribal sound, but an eclectic one.  Again, I'm no musician, but at times it sounded like a fusion of African drumming, Peruvian flutes and with a Arabian tones all at the time time.  A melange of different cultural sounds, different from a more European Westeros, but no less regal.

Then you have tracks like "King in the North" that sort of convey a certain royal dignity and hope that only gets you further immersed in the events of the series.  Djawadi does a great job with it all, whether it be playful score behind "The Sword Dance" or the ominous and dreadful drumming and string-work in "Three Blasts". It's amazing how so much disparity, of character and setting, is so artfully mirrored in the series' score, and yet still retains a cohesion. Despite the diversity, all the tracks sound ancient and mystical.  Djawadi has made me a believer in dragons, white walkers and the Red God.  The show would simply not be as epic without his haunting and mystical contributions.

Did you like the Game of Thrones soundtrack or what music you hear in the series?  What are your thoughts on this or other Djawadi works?

Update 6/13/13

Djawadi did it again for the Season 3 soundtrack, now available for purchase.  Imagine the Unsullied marching and dragons flying to silence or the Red Wedding with the Rains of Castamere and you'll realize just how important orchestral score is to even a TV show.  Tracks to check out for sure "Dracarys", "White Walkers" and of course "Mhysa", a tribal reworking of Daenerys' leitmotif.

Update: 1/19/2016

Season 3 - Suggested Tracks:

         Dracarys

        Mhysa

Season 4 - Suggested Tracks

Let's Kill Some Crows

Thenns

The Real North

Season 5 - Suggested Tracks: 

A Dance With Dragons