Docteur Qui

PS5 version drops tomorrow! I can't wait to play, I've heard nothing but good things!

Look, as much as I respect Cristobal's work, it seems obvious to me that he sees himself as an artist first and screen composer second. There's nothing wrong with that, but in common practice the composer is there to do a job, answering to the producers first and foremost. You could be the most sought-after screen composer in the world, but if you're not easy to work with and not taking notes well, you're going to have a bad time. I don't work in Hollywood but I have a lot of experience in the screen industry, producers often suck and have terrible ideas and taste, but if you want to get paid and work on more stuff you have to just suck it up.

Just downloaded it. So the catalogue is not huge. It’s just a few games for now. But hopefully it’ll expand before too long (and not as glacially as their games catalogue). I noticed they don’t list the composers for any of the games, either overall or for individual tracks. I have to say that’s a disappointing move, they deserve to have full credit for the works they’ve contributed.

Nintendo have created their own music streaming app, available with an NSO subscription: This is wonderful news! The catalogue looks huge.

No question

I mean, in a way the cut-and-paste work on CoS feels appropriate because the film itself is fairly uninspired and relies heavily on the groundwork laid by the first film. There’s very little to the film that feels fresh; if you’d told me they were filmed back-to-back I wouldn’t be surprised (and I suppose they pretty much were, considering the very tight turnaround). The plot structure and set pieces are almost identical: Privet Drive -> Diagon Alley -> Hogwarts -> Quidditch -> Forbidden Forest -> Secret Chamber -> Great Hall finale. Going completely fresh for the third film makes perfect sense from an aesthetic perspective. The childlike, rich whimsy of the first two films is completely absent in PoA, which gives way to more absurdity, weirdness, darkness, longing, tragedy etc. Sure, Williams could have thrown in more established themes, but it’s obvious that PoA genuinely inspired and pushed him, and it shows. Knowing how close he was to returning for the final film really gets my imagination going. I’d have loved to hear what he would’ve done.

You’re very welcome. This is also a very lovely piece. I can definitely hear the JW inspiration, it fits very neatly with the material he wrote for Hook. The recording and performance are also very nice. As for feedback, all of this is personal opinion so take with a grain of salt: This is a wonderful example of a solo instrument taking centre stage with lyrical writing, while the piano accompanies. However I always appreciate it when the roles are more dynamic in an arrangement; passages where the piano takes the leading role and the solo instrument (violin in this instance) is the accompaniment, for example. The violin doesn’t always need to be legato and lyrical, or even melodic - it can play countermelodies, secondary motifs, rhythmic gestures, percussive parts etc. You can really take advantage of the instrument’s (and more importantly, the player’s) abilities, such as using double/triple stops, pizzicato, different bow techniques etc. For a lyrical piece like this, that can easily be overkill - and maybe unnecessary - but whenever I write for any instrument I ask myself what is possible on the instrument, and what is necessary or appropriate for the piece I’m writing. Is there any room to go further with the instrument (its range, extended techniques etc)? If so, great, and if not, at least you explored it. I’ve been very inspired by JW’s collaborations with Anne-Sophie Mutter for my string writing lately, and while many argue that they’re a bit too liberal with the virtuosic techniques I think they’re a wonderful celebration of the instrument and its capabilities.

Oh thanks for the correction. I hope it makes production. I didn’t know that the Valyria series was even in the works, let alone a pilot filmed. I had only heard about the Bloodmoon one with Naomi Watts. Personally I feel like Valyria should stay off-screen; the mystery of the place is what makes it so potent and interesting. Not only that, it doesn’t feel like it would fit with the largely grounded HBO house style considering all the crazy blood magic shit going on. At the very least it would need to be animated, or a feature film with a massive budget. All those volcanoes and dragons! I can’t bring myself to begrudge D&D for wanting to move on other projects, or the actors for that matter. They pitched seven seasons for seven books. That said, as soon as it was apparent it wouldn’t be possible they should’ve handed the reigns to someone else to finish the job. I was a defender of the final seasons when they aired. I didn’t love them, but neither were they the travesty often depicted. However I just finished a full rewatch, and in binge mode the drop in quality is pretty staggering; you can feel the show dumb itself down in real time as it got more popular. They wasted so much time on breakout, meme-worthy characters like Pod and Bronn (god I got sick of him), at the expense of the leads. The entire Stark family were insufferable by the end of it. And while Dany’s fate was clearly locked in from the beginning, the work to get there wasn’t done. It’s made even more egregious when you see what’s happening with Rhaenyra in HotD - parallels abound with that character, and IMO they’re doing with her what should’ve been done with Dany, and doing it much better.

I’d like to challenge your opinion right there - you’ve reached the point that many professionals do, which is that you know enough about your craft (in this case, music) to realise how much more there is to still learn. That’s a good thing - beginners usually think they know more than they do. It’s good because it will challenge you to improve. I am a professional composer and musician. I’m telling you right now that you have produced something of professional quality. That is not easy to do. Don’t be caught up by the fact you have musical dyslexia - I know people who are fluent in sight reading (myself included) and we would struggle to achieve what you have. We all have our strengths and weaknesses, the important thing is to focus on what you are good at (which is obviously a very, very, VERY good ear) and base your practice around that. Stop comparing yourself to JW right now - he is widely regarded by just about everyone in our profession as the best of the best, and for a good reason. He is the exception, not the rule. Strive to his excellence, but don’t compare, you will always fall short and that destroys self-esteem and motivation. Now go forth and keep doing your thing! Do it for yourself, but if you share your music then we get to enjoy it as well.

This really takes the sting out of waiting another 2 years for the next season of HotD. I love Dunk and Egg, bring it on!

I'm really glad that Aegon's conquest is in production. It makes perfect sense to follow up HotD with this story, and I really, really want to see Balerion the Black Dread depicted with a HBO budget.

This is fantastic. You've perfectly captured the early Potter style and the quality of your mockups is very impressive. I also love that you went for a sequence not in the films - that's a great idea and I could imagine it while listening to the piece. If you end up doing more of these please share, I'd love to hear them.

It's also why the show will nearly always compare unfavourably to early Thrones; those character depictions had the benefit of nearly two decades and 5 books of Martin's writing to draw from, whereas the showrunners and actors of HotD are pretty much crafting it themselves, presumably with GRRM's blessing.

I always scratch my head reading a lot of the criticism about the book vs. show characters in HotD. Particularly - and this is important - there are no characters in Fire and Blood. It's just series of historic figures, written by a fictional maester, centuries after and from the accounts of several biased sources. I haven't observed it here mind you, just on the larger internet. I keep reading things like "Allicent/Daemon/Rhaenyra would never say that", but a recurring element of the text is that there is no knowing what those people were really like, as the sources cited are frequently contradictory. It's completely fair to not like the show's depiction of said characters, but I find the argument that they're "wrong" very flimsy.

I thought that was a solid season. Very clearly not what the writers had intended in its entirety, but I thought they did a good job considering. I'd much rather a slower pace with fluff scenes than the hyper-speed and illogical pace of latter GOT. Highlights were definitely Rook's Rest and the two Allicent/Rhaenyra conversations. Regarding the latter, I've seen some truly bizarre criticism that the show is spending too much time on their relationship. Their relationship is the show. Given that the source material is a series of facts and rumours presented by multiple unreliable narrators, of course they needed to ground the show in a real human relationship, and I'm glad that's the one they chose. You don't cast powerhouses like Emma D'Arcy and Olivia Cooke and not have them play off one another. I may be in the minority but I really liked Daemon's Harrenhall ayahuasca sabbatical. Add in the pure delight of Ser Simon Strong and Alys Rivers and you've got a great cocktail of scenes and characters playing off one another. This is an example of a pace of writing that needed to be exactly as long as it was; any shorter and Daemon's kneel at the end of the season would've fallen as flat as King Bran. What the season lacked in many areas (and it did lack, don't get me wrong), I was completely sold on the work they did depicting the self-reflection of Daemon, Allicent, Rahenyra and Criston. In fact I think the greatest achievement the show made was making me empathise with Criston Cole, arguably one of the most despicable main characters since Joffrey. It was also more than welcome to see Rhaenyra's religious fervour/god-complex begin to flourish. Her expressions while presiding over the Red Sowing were disturbing, and it makes perfect sense for the character. Ending the season flipping the devoutness and impulsivity of Rhenyra and Allicent was very smart. I just wish we got to see the battles they'd very clearly planned to depict. Oh and I really liked Djawadi's work this season. He continues to mature as a composer and the Classical flourishes in the music this season were very on point. I also really like the new theme he introduced (featured heavily in Rook's Rest and the finale montage). It's been stuck in my head for days.