Hello and welcome to September’s diary entry. This month’s update will be on the briefer side as there are some bigger updates simmering in the back-burner that need more time to finish cooking. With that said, this month House Tyrell has been updated with Margaery Tyrell’s leitmotif and House Lannister with Tyrion Lannister’s leitmotif.
One of my goals for the first year was to upload the leitmotifs of the main characters of the main Houses of Westeros, which is close to 50 different leitmotifs. So far, with 5 months left on the calendar there are 16 leitmotifs on the website, so quite short of the 30 that should have been uploaded by this time. One of the main causes of the delay is the constant need for revision of already written music and the thus the need to write and rewrite music that fits well enough into the tapestry already woven. There is nothing both more rewarding and frustrating as writing music that fits a character or a house better than the previous version. Having to review all the previous written music to see what needs to be adapted or simply discarded can be painful, although not as much as listening to music that is not as good as it could be.
But sometimes it is difficult to know how to feel about a new leitmotif right after it’s been written and I feel I need to sit on a it for a long time before I commit to it. For example, Tyrion Lannister’s leitmotif is one that I had to write and rewrite many times, putting each and every attempt aside and not listening to it for weeks (sometimes months), to see how I felt about it when I would eventually go back and listen to it again. The goal was always to create a leitmotif that resembled Tywin’s but with the right balance of slight mockery and casualness that make Tyrion who he is, and all without sounding silly or a parody.
The version that is finally uploaded today was written at least 3 months ago and had been ready to be uploaded for last month’s diary entry, but I wanted a bit more time and let the music win me over. A month later I can say that when I listen to it I can picture a cocky Tyrion at the beginning of A Game of Thrones, flailing his Lannister name left and right to get what he wants without a care in the world, but also a deeply hurt man who, if not careful, will become as bad as the father he mocks.
At the moment there are a score of leitmotifs in this musical limbo where they await to be either discarded, rewritten, or enshrined. Hopefully some of them will see the light of day soon enough. See you on the next diary entry!
Music of Ice and Fire 