A lot has been made about how A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms cleverly used the iconic Game of Thrones-House of the Dragon theme music. There was the hint of its triumphant strains before our hero, Dunk, emptied his bowels in a fit of nervous adrenaline in the first episode. Later, the familiar tune was used in a truly heroic way when Baelor Targaryen announced his intention to back the underdog Dunk in his combat trial.
A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms differs from HBO’s other Westeros-set shows in that its score, composed by Dan Romer, is carefully tailored to fit its smaller-scale adventures. The vibe is more Western, less medieval epic, with some humor in there too.
In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, Romer talked about how he and showrunner Ira Parker came up with A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms‘ sonic mood.
“The assignment sort of became, ‘Let’s make a Venn diagram where we have cowboy music on the left and music that could exist in Westeros on the right. What is this in-between spot?’,” he explained. The whistling motif heard throughout the season is part of that, because “the whistle has been around for as long as humanity.”
However, Romer recalled, the Venn diagram concept was set aside when it was decided needle drops would also be used—a first for any Westeros show. Both appear in the season finale; as fans will recall, there’s a jazzy intro (Kenny Dorham’s “Alone Together”) as a bemused Lyonel Baratheon finds his pal, Ser Duncan the Tall, trying to recover after that devastating trial.
“I found out about the needle drops when I was already making the music, and I was so pumped when I saw it,” Romer told THR. “We’d discussed replacing the jazz needle drop at the beginning of episode six with score, but there’s nothing in this world that could hit this emotion the way it was being hit [with the needle drop]. It’s a fantastic beginning to the episode, and I’m really glad we did it.”
Then, over the season-ending credits, “Sixteen Tons” by Tennessee Ernie Ford—an upbeat toe-tapper with downer lyrics—plays us home. The choice fits in with “the emotion of whimsy” that Romer said he aimed for with his score. It also helps cement A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms‘ unique place in the Game of Thrones universe because, as the composer explained, “a good franchise can experiment with different kinds of music.”
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