Welcome to November’s update which itself is an update of last month’s update (riveting, I know). Jokes aside, I had wanted to work on music for the past couple of months but the thought of finding a neat way of displaying the material is taking up all my energy. So, without further ado, let’s take a look at books and maps!
The Book
In last month’s update I showed a clip of an early-stage book presentation. As I explained then, I liked the idea so much that I started to think of migrating the entire website to that format using PowerPoint presentations but the idea died a quick death soon after. The idea of using the book-format presentation wasn’t dead, though. It just needed some rethinking.
Instead of uploading the PowerPoint presentation I came to the conclusion that videos where the way to go, trying to preserve as much of the experience at the expense of the freedom to explore the book non-linearly. The videos will be uploaded to the Music of Ice and Fire’s Youtube channel, which means that instead of uploading videos of single themes everything will be compiled by region, and these will get updated when enough there is enough new material to warrant it. The website will remain pretty much the same but with the addition of a book presentation in video format.
So what’s so great about this book-format if I don’t care about how cool it looks compared to a my dull white-background website? Well, there are countless videos of score analysis using the color-coding technique that I find really neat, and that had always been my goal: to present the music in real time with a break-down of each leitmotif as it comes and goes, revealing all the intricacies of the music, and the book presentation is the closest I have come to that. (But also, I like that it looks neat)
Here is the current state of the book:
“Music of Ice and Fire: Noble Houses of the North, by Maester Ludwig.”
All the text describing each theme and character in detail is still missing but it’s on my to do list for this coming holidays. The rest is pretty much there, though: A house list with a map, a genealogy tree of each house to find any character, a description of the character with all the themes of said character, and a detailed breakdown of each theme. The book is very easy to navigate, full of links to click and move around, to explore the music as one pleases. Perhaps in the future there will be a chance to have the presentation uploaded but for now the videos will have to do.
The Map
Of course, at the Winterfell library you can find not only books but also maps! I decided that the best way to show music from places wasn’t a book but a map so I took what I had learned about the book presentation make a presentation that uses a zoom-in/zoom-out system. There are some kinks that need straightening but I find it very enjoyable to zoom into a region of the map and listen to that music. In this video below you can hear the themes of The Wall and the Dornish desert.
That’s been all for this month. Now I’m looking at my list to-do list for this year and realize that there is a lot of stuff to do in only one month. So, I better get back to it. I hope to see you in the next diary entry to tell you all about it!
Music of Ice and Fire 