Berklee Alumnus Ramin Djawadi '98 Stuns with Game of Thrones Finale Music

As the first scenes from the June 26 season finale of HBO's Games of Thrones lit up the screen, it wasn't a shot of Jon Snow or Cersei Lannister that let fans know this episode was going to be different—it was a piano.

"The piano is not really in the language of the Game of Thrones score," composer and Berklee alumnus Ramin Djawadi '98 told The Hollywood Reporter regarding how he came up with the stunning 10-minute piece "Light of the Seven" to open the season's closer. Djawadi, who majored in film scoring and guitar performance at Berklee, has created music for Game of Thrones, including the well-known theme song, since the show's start. It's a gig that lets him "run wild" with instrumentation, he told the magazine. 

"I thought it was great that we ended up with the piano, because there’s nothing like it,” Djawadi told Vanity Fair. “The decay and the impact of that sound is just unique. You cannot imitate it with anything else." The haunting quality of the piece was amplified by adding only a few more elements: an organ, strings, and two boys singing. 

"Sunday’s Game of Thrones finale crowned a number of victors... but perhaps none of them had a bigger night than Ramin Djawadi," wrote Derek Lawrence of Entertainment Weekly, one of several magazines that published a story about the score this week. 

"The real winner of those first 15 minutes is the music," Lili Loofbourow of The Week wrote. "The musical direction puts this episode up there with the best stuff Game of Thrones has ever done." 

Listen to the full piece here: