\u201cWe had mashed up this medieval western cowboy feeling,\u201d says series creator Ira Parker \u2014 and after bringing in composer Dan Romer, \u201cA Knight of the Seven Kingdoms\u201d possessed \u201cthat little bit of sparkle in there that gives you coming-of-age childlike hope\u2026 It\u2019s an adventure story.\u201d<\/p>\n
Music is intertwined with the story. The first season takes place during a tournament in which lonely knight Ser Duncan the Tall (Peter Claffey) finds an apprentice in the young Egg (Dexter Sol Ansell). Their journey highlights the smallfolk of Westeros more than the previous installments.<\/p>\n
Music supervisor Alex Stacey says Parker knew from the beginning that songs would be central to the show. \u201cHe was like, \u2018I just wanna hear music at all times because a festival is happening. Anytime Dunk is walking through the village, we should hear a fiddle player playing somewhere,\u2019\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Stacey and fellow music supervisor Evyen Klean came on board in the script phase to help plan out the multitude of songs that are heard as the characters travel through the tournament.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour brain starts forgetting if it\u2019s part of the score or if it\u2019s actually happening in the reality of the show,\u201d Romer says.<\/p>\n
![\"Daniel](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1781611210_224_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Daniel Monk, left, and Daniel Ings in \u201cA Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.\u201d<\/p>\n
(Steffan Hill)<\/p>\n
The series\u2019 musical landscape also includes a myriad of folk songs, such as the drunken tavern tune \u201cAlice With Three Fingers\u201d and the childish rhyming couplets of \u201cThe Hammer and the Anvil.\u201d The writing team researched medieval songs and kids\u2019 rhymes to develop the tunes. Djawadi also returned to write the melodies, with lyrics written by Parker.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s my secret favorite part of the writing process,\u201d says Parker. \u201cIf anyone needs a funny songwriter on a show, I\u2019m very happy to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n
To craft the score, Romer went back to research he had done for the 2017 medieval comedy \u201cThe Little Hours\u201d about the tonality of string instruments from that time period. The score took roughly six months to craft and involved the creation of new tools to build the earthy and whimsical sounds, including a cello based on Mongolian string instruments.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted to have a feeling of a lonely cowboy out in the West but there are instruments that we associate with that [genre] that wouldn\u2019t feel like Westeros,\u201d says Romer, who substitutes electric guitars and slide whistles with fiddles and real whistling.<\/p>\n
The music in \u201cA Knight of the Seven Kingdoms\u201d toes the line between indulgence and realism. Many of the show\u2019s most intense moments, like Dunk burying his mentor or the climactic trial by combat, have no score at all. Parker says of the sound design, \u201cEverything should feel tactile. It should be focused on the rain and the trudge of your footsteps and the mud, the things that you hone in on when you\u2019re having an out-of-body experience.\u201d<\/p>\n
Other sequences allow the bombastic possibilities of the series to take over. A pivotal reveal at the end of Episode 3 was edited using the UK version of \u201cThe Apprentice\u201d theme song as temp music during postproduction. This guided Romer to build a song around the heightened tempo and emotions of the scene, including the use of an operatic choir.<\/p>\n
![\"Tanzyn](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1781611210_583_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Tanzyn Crawford in \u201cA Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.\u201d<\/p>\n
(Steffan Hill)<\/p>\n
The show also features two references to the original \u201cGame of Thrones\u201d theme. The first moment is played for comedy: As Dunk readies himself for adventure, the theme begins to swell before cutting to him in a bout of sickness.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe needed something else that sounded like the call to greatness that wasn\u2019t part of him yet. And there\u2019s no greater call to greatness than the \u2018Game of Thrones\u2019 theme,\u201d says Parker.<\/p>\n
The second instance comes at the end of Episode 4 when Dunk recruits Prince Baelor Targaryen to join his side in his trial by combat. Romer says it was planned from before he joined the production that Dunk\u2019s theme would blend into the \u201cGame of Thrones\u201d theme in the moment he has a chance to be a hero. \u201cThat four note riff, the \u2018Da da dada da da,\u2019 being able to put that underneath something that I was writing was such an enthralling experience because it immediately makes it so recognizable and so memorable.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the series\u2019 most bold musical decision comes at the end of the last episode. As Dunk and Egg embark on their next journey, the opening bars of \u201cSixteen Tons,\u201d a 1947 song by Tennessee Ernie Ford, close out the season. It\u2019s the first use of anachronistic existing music in the franchise\u2019s history.<\/p>\n
The song was proposed early in development by Parker, but it was the reaction from \u201cGame of Thrones\u201d author George R.R. Martin that cemented the tune\u2019s presence.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe said, \u2018You know, this was the ringtone for a very dear friend of mine on my phone who had just recently passed away,\u2019\u201d says Parker. \u201cWhen he told me that story I just sort of felt like, \u2018Maybe this is right. Maybe this is supposed to be there.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Parker, Season 1 is just the first test of how his series can transform what an installment in the franchise can be. \u201cI like that we\u2019re inching it forward just a little bit. \u2018Game of Thrones\u2019 in 2026,\u201d he says. \u201cEvery now and then, when something is right, we\u2019re going to try it and see if we feel like it works.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cGame of Thrones\u201d was known as the fantasy show for people who don\u2019t like fantasy, thanks to language…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":362684,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[69418,6223,4566,423,69417,48,52,51,47,50,49,330,6341,147410,10368,69421,1860,147411,3044,147409,69419],"class_list":["post-362683","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-dunk","tag-end","tag-episode","tag-game","tag-knight","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-music","tag-parker","tag-romer","tag-score","tag-seven-kingdoms","tag-show","tag-spinoff-series","tag-story","tag-theme-song","tag-thrones"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362683","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=362683"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362683\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/362684"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=362683"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=362683"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=362683"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}