JNHFan2000

I would actually say that, as of now, he is a front runner for awards nominations. His character is not an easy one to portray and Considine hits every note and plays every layer of the character perfectly. I have a lot of respect for Considine as an actor and person for him to allow the show to do to him (both physically and mentally) with him. He is not the brightest one in the room and he looks terible in the latest episode, but he really makes it work

One the most beautiful pieces Newman has written. In a library of beautiful pieces.

I've been wanting to write more regularly and more seriously about music, films and series for a while now outside of posting in the threads. I've done this particular review/breakdown around march and thought about posting it finally. I've written the same sort of piece for seasons 2, 3 & 4 and want to finish the other seasons before started other stuff. I wrote about the music of Game Of Thrones because I wanted to start with something I knew really well. Mind you, I don't have a degree in music or know a lot about orchestration. I know every instruments in a symphony orchestra and most of the time can pick out which one is playing. I can read notes and play a little piano myself. Other than that not musically literate. So some things might not be completely accurate in their discriptions. I'm still learning and would like some feedback about my writing. Enjoy and season 2 will probably be posted somewhere at the end of the week or next week. Throughout it’s 8 season run, Game Of Thrones has a lot of praise. Especially towards the writing, directing, movie level production and acting. For me personally, a big part of why this show is so good has to do with it’s music, composed by German-Iranian composer Ramin Djawadi. From the first episode to the last, Djawadi has used a specific sound that is immediately recognizable as part of Game Of Thrones. Djawadi chose to focuse on using strings (mostly cello), brass, drums, choir and distinctive solo instruments. Almost of of the music was recorded in Prague and performed by The Czech Philharmonic Orchestra and choir. Over the course of 8 seasons Djawadi has composed over 40 themes and motifs. Each theme represents\ing a character, a house, a group or a location. There are a few characters who get their own theme later in the series, next to being accompanied by the theme for their house. For example, characters like Arya Stark, Jon Snow, Jaime Lannister and Cersei Lannister. The most famous and publicly recognizable theme from Game Of Thrones is it’s “Main Title”. The main title is used in every episode over the title sequence which shows the map of Westeros. The theme starts with drums and strings playing the underlying rhythm that continues throughout the entire track. The actual melody starts at 0:09 on cello and consists of 9 notes that are repeated multiple times. At the 1-minute mark a new section is introduced which brings a sense of adventure. Throughout the track the string section grows bigger and bigger until a choir joins and the track finishes softly on dulcimer and kantale. The melody and underlying rhythm are used multiple times thoughout the season. “Game Of Thrones” is a reprise of the theme used over the end credits in multiple episodes. ‘The Kingsroad’, “Jon’s Honor” and “Finale” use the rhythm to let the audience know that all of these different characters excist in the same world. I feel Djawadi has created one of the best TV Main Titles. Almost everyone will recognize the theme, even if they haven't watchdc the series. It's incredible. There are 8 other themes introduced in the first season. Starting with the theme for House Stark in “Goodbye Brother”. The melody is performed by a solo cello, which then is joined by the string section. The melody speaks to the love this family has but also to the heartbreak and sorrow it endures during the course of the series. The most heartbreaking performance of the theme comes in “Kill Them All” where Robb & Catelyn mourn Ned’s death. Other statements of the theme come in a more dark/twisted way in “Winter Is Coming” and in “King In The North”, where it is more heroic. The theme for House Baratheon is first heard in “The King’s Arrival”. It begins again on cello in a sort of dance like rhythm, which at 1:00 changes in a fanfare for drums, strings and horns. This is the only time until the first episode of Season 8 that this version of the theme is heard again. After this the theme is heard much more downstated and is used more as a theme for The King/Queen and The Iron Throne in the series. In “You’ll Be Queen One Day” it acts as a sort of love theme for Joffrey & Sansa. While in both “Black Of Hair” and “You Win Or You Die” there are small hints to the theme, playing second fiddle to the theme for Joffrey Baratheon. A set of dark bass notes repeated a couple of times. The music focusing on Jon Snow’s storyline at The Wall contains a theme for The Night’s Watch. It is heard in full in “The Wall”. A dark and brooding theme, there aren't any big melodies, it’s more texture based. Therefor it’s not very pleasant to listen to, but it does fit well with the location. It features prominently in “Nort Of The Wall”, the first scene of the series. In it’s second half the cue transitions is some quite abstract thriller/action music. Further statements of the theme appear in “Jon’s Honor” and “The Night’s Watch”, where in both cues it is combined with the main theme. Then there is the music focusing on Daenerys Targaryen, her brother Viserys and the Dothraki in the east. This music has it’s roots a bit more in world music. There is less orchesta and more specialty solo instruments like Taiko drums, the Duduk and choir. “Love Is In The Eyes” presents the theme for Daenerys herself. In this cue it is still quite small and doesn’t have much power. When later in the season and the series she becomes more powerful her theme gets bigger. It is than mostly used together with the theme for the Dragons, which appears for the first time in “Finale”. This underscores the moment Daenerys rises out of the ashes of a fire with three newborn dragons beside her. The Dragons theme is anchored by a choir, grand, majestic and powerful. Viserys gets his own theme in “A Golden Crown”. It’s a sort of snake like theme played on harp and string, which fits the character well. The Dothraki music is more tribal. In “To Vaes Dothrak” their theme is heard on the Armenian Duduk. Although it’s heard multiple times in the season, it only appears once on the album. This theme also doesn’t appear again until the end of season 5 and on the album of season 7. Lastly, there a few other tracks worth mentioning. “A Raven From Kingslanding”, “A Bird Without Feathers” and “Await The King’s Justice” have hints of a theme which will reveal itself fully in Season 3. “The Pointy End” underscores the scene where Arya first learns swordfighting and which will expand in a theme for her in later seasons. “Small Pack Of Wolves” is the only other action cue on the album. It’s full of aggresive drums and cello for the street fight between Ned & Jaime. Action music in not really where the first season is about. This is something that will change exponentially in the coming seasons. Especially season 6, 7 & 8 have a lot of action music. This first season album showcases the thought Djawadi has put into creating the music for Game Of Thrones. There are 9 themes introduced in this first season, some of which will return quite a lot in the seasons to come, while others we won’t ever hear again. The whole score is quite downstated and light on action, which might throw some people off. I for one think it’s a wonderful start to a score that will grow, both in themes and in scope, in the coming seasons.

I am still not able to see the 3rd season!!!! I want to watch it on Disney+ to boost numbers, but I'm getting impatient. And where is that album!?!?!?

Exciting. The first score is my no 1 or 2 Pemberton score. Glad to see it's a big orchestra

Another small nitpick. Am I the only one who absolutely hates that it's being called: The Lord Of The Rings: The Rings Of Power. The only thing that you can call Lord Of The Rings are those books and those 3 films. All the other stories aren't that. They should've either called is just The Rings Of Power or something with Middle Earth in it. In my library I've changed the names of the albums as well. They all just begin with The Rings Of Power. I just can't put The Lord Of The Rings in front of it. It doesn't fit

Up - Michael Giacchino I love this score. It's very dear to my heart. And contrary to a lot of other people I think he 100% deserved that Oscar. It's incredible. He get's so much emotion out of Ellie's Theme. And the action music in "Escape From Muntz Mountain", "The Small Mailman Returns" & "Seizing The Spirit Of Adventure" is some of the most dynamic action music he's written I feel

https://screenrant.com/marvel-werewolf-by-night-early-reactions-disney-plus/ First reactions are in. I'm excited about this. It looks very promising. And from these reactions it looks like Giacchino got away with some gore and blood. Which I think is exciting. Marvel is most of the time at it's best when it does serious. The runtime supposedly is 52 minutes. Just under an hour. It really is a 'Special'.

There's one big thing that I honestly don't when I watch the Opening Title. Why didn't they choose to name the actors or show them. For f**k's sake, they should've hired Alan Lee to illustrate the characters like in the credits of Return Of The King & Battle Of The Five Armies. Hell, they could've asked John Howe to illustrate something, he did some of the conceptual designs on the series, so he was already there. That would've been soo cool. To go over all of them, by the place on the map they are or something. Then with Shore's music that could've been something outstanding. And now it's just, like Jay said, some weird sands which form a tree or something. And Shore's music is just kind of sitting there. It's a wonderful piece, but I don't think the images itself raise the music to an even better level.

Episode 1x6 The Princess And The Queen Another very strong episode. This really is the best show on tv right now. The writing is truly brilliant. There were so many discussion and lines that were just so well written. Incredible! Allicent and Viserys First off, Olivia Cooke is very good. I was actually surprised how not weird it felt seeing another actress in the role. I really believed she was the same person that Emily Carey portrayed. And I got a few Cersei vibes from her. Great to see. Allicent is playing the game with full force. But 2 of her pieces are having their own fun. Ser Cole is now her personal guard and trains all the children. But he is actually only training Viserys & Allicen't boys. And that's the moment Harwin Strong intervenes and shit goes bonkers. Cole is straight up 'Fatal Attraction'. He is a bit of an prick now and the way he treated the boys from Rhaenyra I thought was despicable. Than Larys Strong. Wow, this is a character the series was sort of missing, a very good conspirator. He reminds me very much of Littlefinger, but I feel he's even more dangerous. He is quite scary and is very dangerous. The final scene between him and Allicent, showed that Allicent should not try to stab him in the back, because he will do it to her before she'll get the chance. The way he implied that she'll reward him when the time is right is threat that I wouldn't take lightly. I was surprised to see Viserys is alive. And credit goes to Considine for letting the show make him look like that. He looked truly awful. It's sad how happy he got when Rhaenyra proposed the marriage to their children. I also got some Tywin Lannister vibes from him, in the way he is completely oblivious to the factwhat their children are doing. Rhaenyra & Laenor Emma D'arcy took a bit longer to get used to, but that opening scene of her giving birth was incredible. The 2 long takes were amazingly done and her acting was very good. But Rhaenyra and Laenor have been very careless. I know Laenor is gay, but to have 3 children with Harwin Strong is really stupid. All 3 have dark hair so everyone (well except Viserys) knows that it's not from Laenor. If I were them I would at least have produced one child together, so people wouldn't suspect so much. I also thought it was great to she Aemma's line from the first episode brought back. Aemma told Rhaenerya that a woman's battlefield is the birthing bed. Rhaenyra is doing now what she has feared she would become for a long time. It's interesting to see that Rhaenyra seems to really love her children, while to me it looks like Allicent is only seeing them as pieces on the board. Lord Strong & Harwin Strong Lord Strong was a truly good Hand Of The King. He sacrificed his own place in court for the safety and name of the King. That's what a good hand is supposed to do. But because he couldn't, out loud, speak of why he wanted to resign (which Allicent really wanted him to say) Viserys dismissed his notice and kept him as Hand. Lord Strong that demands to see Hawin off the Harrenhall so he get take up his duties as heir to House Strong. I felt it was truly sad to see them both die. Lord Strong was a great character and it was sad to see Harwin struggle to get his father out. He really did get nothing out of his relationship with Rhaenyra. It did feel really like Game Of Thrones, that every character can just die. Daemon & Laena These scenes were incredible. Their flight together was cool and Vhagar is an absolute beast. She's so big and it was really cool to see her. Then the mirroring of the first episode. I felt it was difficult to watch when Daemon had to make the same choice as Viserys had. But the shocking thing was that Laena already made the choice herself. Earlier the said to Daemon that she didn't want to die as some fat lord/lady but die a dragonriders death. And that she did. This was so so well done and I shed a tear for her. This scene worked so well because of Nanna Blondell's acting, the VFX team on Vhagar and the writing and directing. I thought it was incredible that Vhagar was hesitant about burning Laena even thought Laena kept calling Dracarys. Then to see Daemon actually care about her death was a wonderful character moment. I felt it was one of the best scenes of the series so far and I'm sad to see Laena go. Especially played by Blondell, she was terrific. Small things - The whole thing with the dragon eggs is interesting. The way it works and the way dragons only listen to one person. - Djawadi had some great moments this episode. The opening scene, flight scene and death of Laena were the standouts. - I hope Otto comes back, I actually missed him and Ifans. Now that Larys has killed his father 'for Allicent' is would be a clever decision on Allicent's part to persuade Viserys to name Otto hand again. - The little dragon at the start was very well realised. It felt like a mix between an dinosaur and a bat. It was quite disturbing actually. - I feel both Aegon & Aemond are little shits. And I don't know how fast the rest of the series will go (time jump wise). But I'm dreading the moment these two grow up. - John Macmillan is wonderful as Laenor. Very good. - The moment Rhaenyra walked away from Allicent's chambers and the bloodtrail behind her on the floor was horrific. - The small moment between Rhaenyra & Viserys was nice. Lovely to see their relationship is good

Cool

Enchanted - Alan Menken I love this score. It's so much fun. And I love Narissa's theme. It's just so powerful. I'm excited to hear what the sequel score sounds like in November.

https://www.darkhorizons.com/jones-officially-retires-his-vader-voice/ Jones Officially Retires His Darth Vader Voice

A few more recent ones who all have lot's of nice moments Happiest Season - Amie Doberty is quite nice Wild Mountain Thyme - Amelia Warner Emma both from Portman & Waller-Bridge Last Christmas - Theodore Shapiro Long Shot - Beltrami & Hawkins Crazy Rich Asians - Tyler And Love Actually remains a favorite of mine. The Holiday by Zimmer has some wonderful moments as well.

If that's Nathan Johnson's music, I'm very hyped. This sounds wonderful. And in the Empire article on the film Rian said that the score is grander and more melodramatic than the first, which makes me excited