Anything mysterious that you love beyond reason is a kind of magic.
That means for me, music is magic. I don’t get it. I can’t play an instrument. I can’t read music.
I can sing after a fashion, but I’m just a mimic. I hear it, and I sing it back. Besides, I’ve been out of choir for well over a decade, and my range is not what it used to be.
This means that most music falls into the realm of magic for me. Especially instrumental music. Especially the guitar.
So it shouldn’t surprise you that I love seeing when people have made music based on my books.
I stumbled on the two of these recently, and I thought I’d share them with you….
This one is exceptionally cool, you don’t see a harp guitar very often….
Share and Enjoy…
pat
53 Comments
Spiffy. Not really sure what the second one is, but I can see it going with the movie (which is what I think it’s supposed to be, rather than a specific song from the book).
Durp, mistyped. I meant I think it’s supposed to go with the book and would fit into the movie really well.
Yeah, I think it’s meant to be more that “wordless music” that lies in Kvothe’s heart.
I miss the magic; been playing guitar for nine years. I imagined Kvothe as a one man (boy) symphony and it gave me something to aspire for.
These are beautiful! The harp guitar is by far my favorite though.
Damn, but I wish the sound quality were a little better on Youtube. Although it’s interesting, I always imagined “Sir Savien” as a very minor piece, full of lots of diminished chords and whatnot to emphasize the tragedy.
Question for Pat – have you written out any more of the lyrics for “Sir Savien” than what’s in the book, or are we not allowed to know that?
Those were really nice! Fits the books real nice
And since you love that guitar-magic, have you heard Estas Tonne (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gphiFVVtUI) and John Butler (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdYJf_ybyVo)?
Find them really brilliant!
Thanks, Anech, never heard John Butler before.
I came across Estas Tonne busking at a street market… he had cleverly trapped quite a large crowd of people within his music as their dinners became lonely and cold, whilst he was pulling about three different voices out of the guitar at the same time, annnd seemed to be off somewhere daydreaming and not paying any particular attention to playing, hehe <3
He also talks about stories allot indoors.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ka9HqzgjJQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CK7nzsuAAl0
(skip 5 mins into the second one if you arent interested in the waffle and totally ignore the first one.)
Personally, I can just about play the triangle.
Good lord he’s hot.
Sounds like someones weakness might not just be for red heads.
Both are great. I always pictured Sir Savien with a more epic sort of sound. Sort of Stairway (Zepplin) meets Father of Death (Protomen) as arranged by Dan Fogelberg who does sad ballads like no one else.
You do not play an instrument!? Wow, how did you write Kvothe’s musical parts then? I mean you got serious musicians blitzed! wow!
I have to say the one entitled Sir Savein sound more like what I’d pictured for Tintatitorum (sp?). But both quite beautiful!
Did they earn their talent pipes? That’d be a cool gift.
Claims to know nothing about music, writes about it incredibly well. Elodin would be proud.
Both pieces are magnificent. However the Piece by Ken Bonfield was beautiful and mesmerizing.
It’s so funny you posted this. I’m reading The Name of the Wind (for the second time) and I just finished the chapter when Kvothe first plays at the Eolian. I’ve been dying to hear what his music might have sounded like. I love the second video. I feel like it is spot on. Beautiful!
These are both well done. But the second piece has such grace. Wonderful use of the strengths of the instrument. And so well played. Never rushed. And great touch with diminuendo. Will be listening to that one again. Pat, this composition and performance are flattering, indeed.
Seems to me that one of the great aspects of reading about Kvothe’s peformance at the Eolian is that you are Reading about it. That enables you to imagine so many different musical possibilities for Sir Savien that the act of singling out one rendition of it and labeling it as such sort of diminishes it, in a way… The universality of the experience becomes defined with boundaries.
I like not knowing definitively what Sir Savien sounds like, as much as I would LOVE to hear it. I enjoy hearing possibilities. And it leaves it open for me to try my own rendition.
Perhaps it is the act of imagining the music that is the music. Hm? : )
This this this this this. While it must be incredibly neat for the author to find fans writing their own renditions of music you write about, as a reader I love “feeling” the music through words. It’s what makes them even more beautiful, exactly as corey stated here. To imagine the grandeur, or the simplicity (as Kvothe can pull off both!), makes it so much more worthwhile to never put an exact live tune to the imagination.
Especially because you’re so goddamn good with words, Pat. Thanks for sharing your joy in finding them, though!
I completely agree. Sort of like seeing a movie based on a book you love, though (as with the movie) it can be entertaining and you can appreciate the tribute.
(As Jyska and Styk apparently said first, below.)
The best part about music is that its even more magic when you get it, play it or read it.
Like Feynman said about appreciating the world more because of the knowledge gained through science, music is a never ending exploration of wonder. There’s the melody, then there are the notes, and then there’s the not-notes, and the silent harmonics that your body feels rather than hears, and all of these pieces fit together into a single song, or album, or concert, and they remind you of the worth of a man’s soul, and of your place in the universe, and of just how important music, song and indeed musicians are to our development as humans, and how lost we’d be without them.
Well… Except for Rush. Rush sucks.
I’ve pretty much been convinced that music is magic for a while now.
Especially after the blog with the video of the old man you posted not that long ago (last year maybe?) who completely changed when they put a walkman on him with his favorite music.
And some of the stuff Bobby Mcferrin puts out about music is just about as amazing and interesting as it gets.
Doesn’t get much more magical in this world than art.
If you like instrumental guitar check out Stevie Ray Vaughan’s version of Little Wing.
But doesn’t it kind of ruin it? Like seeing a film adaptation of a book and going, “Oh… that’s not how I imagined so-and-so character.” Doubly so, since you’re the author.
Not really. It’s like when I see someone’s fanart of Kvothe.
I usually think, “That’s a cool idea of what he looks like….”
This makes me want to read the book for the fourth time… I wonder the reason behind this magic that keeps me fixed to this book… It is just inspiring, amazing, wonderful and it has so many other qualities that I can’t propperly describe… I wonder what kind of feelings the third book bring to me
If you look for a song for Kvothe I found this one, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-Me145cLs4 it made me think really of him… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B_Jbzl2Vkv8 this one made me laugh, plass, giggle like idiot and want to dance… good music…
There is a song that, while not inspired by the Kingkiller books, always reminds me of them. It’s called Handsome Patrick and it tells a story I often imagine as belonging to Kvothe’s parents. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gChcWzvVmJ4
Pat, you should definitly someday start “singing” tinker tanner in here and anyone who can sing further ads a verse…would love to see where this ends!
Okey, first off. They do a great job. But… the first video has quite bad quality. None of the stuff sounds as I “hear” Kvothes music in when I read the books though. But that is to be expected since we all experience books differently. My Kvothe sounds more like Esbjörn Hazelius: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KwDGbMUnFN8
I must apologize for my bad spelling. I might have rushed the post. A little bit. :)
I wasn’t highly impressed by the first video either. Coming from a home of musicians I always imagined Kvothe’s music much more complicated. The first is really just a bunch of overdubbing. Which for the most part is just amusingly fun.
If anyone has an interest in badass overdubs I was impressed by this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSLPH9d-jsI
thats all one guy! Anyway –
The second is pretty cool, just because that harp guitar is amazing. You really don’t see that shit very often LOL. Reminds of something I’d see at a World Music Fair or Concert.
You’d love Albuquerque. I walk my dogs past our Flamenco Institute most nights. They often leave the back door open, and we can hear them making ancient, gypsy music with their guitars, and their hands, and their feet.
There are young people, tweens and teens, who I’ve seen begging their parents to let them stay just one more hour so they can dance to more gypsy music.
And in regards to a previous post, is Elodin our Yoda? I think maybe he is….
Not to get off track, but are we getting a Story Board tonight?
That would be awesome, since it’s pay day and I totally wont have to cook. LOL.
I play guitar for some years now and when it comes to magic on one guitar I think nothing beats this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezRiiVpSmKc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=alf1lpsVnJw “jackass jackass”
It sure made me smile with glee when i saw it.
That was… awesome. Exactly as I imagined it :)
If you like this kind of stuff, check out:
This classical guitar blog
He doesn’t post much, but the stuff he does is amazing. Look back through it to find some cool historical instruments as well.
On another note, I broke a fingernail this weekend (on m if you are keeping score at home) and when I play it is as if someone cut off the whole finger (sigh)
I have been reading this Blog forever and never joined, and now I am amazed enough to join and say something.
I cannot cannot believe that Pat is not a musician! I grew up with music, and when I am reading I am thinking ‘here is someone who really knows what it is like to play.’ I tried to find a tune to catch ‘sunlight on the water’ until the sun went down and I had to change to ‘shades of the moon’. But I am not so magic, and cannot play either.
For every song played, I hear the tune in my head. Tintatatornin. Bast’s almost lullaby.
This musician plays Sir Savien not how I imagined, but no less perfect for that. If this song had Sir Savien’s true words, I know I could cry for it.
I cannot believe that Pat does not play, but knows how a heart feels when it is playing. That must be another kind of magic.
Reading these books challenged me as a musician and made me want to be better. There is nothing quite like performing and having a hush descend on the room…unless it is having your audience pick up the chorus to your dark minor key song and sing it with you, descending into hush for the verses. Gave me goosebumps. In many ways Kvothe set the bar too high for me to reach for, but that moment I think he would have understood.
What blows me away is that Pat does and claims *not* to be a musician! But then writing like he writes *is* another kind of magic, and another one that challenges me.
Guitarp?
Pat, I have not read a fantasy book in years. I read them as a kid, but nothing felt fresh as I got older. One day in a bookstore getting technical books, I wanted to feel childhood again, so I went to the fantasy section. I saw your book thinking “There is nothing fresh in this genre, why try?” but I read the first couple pages and saw hope. I bought it. I devoured it.
Pat, you didn’t just provide me with a good book, it goes beyond that. I was a child again. I dreamed again. I felt it again. Whatever “it” is, I thought was dead. I thank you for that experience. I thank you for your sweat and blood that you put into your work. We never get time back, but for a moment, I think I did and it was sweet bliss.
Pat – you may not play – but your love/appreciation/fascination with music is clear in your writing – clearly you have ‘studied’ music even if you haven’t studied ‘performance’
– echo above comment – I used to generally stick to sci-fi but your book was recommended to me and it did not take me back to childhood but surpassed my childhood memories of fantasy-lit – I thought ‘this is everything fantasy can be but usually isn’t’ then I read Martin and thought ‘this is everything fantasy shouldn’t be but its awesome in its own way’ – (most fantasy avoids stuff like leprosy and incest and the bloody flux, etc…..)
at any rate, as a musician and lover of music, the only instrumental guitar I’ve heard that moves in the way Kvothe is described as playing in your works is that played by Paco De Lucia – a brilliant classical-flamenco player, now maybe there are many like him – but he’s the only one i’m familiar with – I strongly recommend youtubing him for anyone interested in seeing/hearing something amazing –
It is certainly easy to ‘hear’ a score while reading these books–at least for me. All of the major characters have their signature leitmotifs, as does each special geography and group have it’s tonal quality. Rather than a guitar, I imagine Kvothe’s leitmotif heavy on mandolin, lute and cello, depending upon his mood, something like Carlos Nakai meets Yo Yo Ma for much of the traveling scenes, Jeff Beal-like soundtracks for the city — and so on.
I ascribe that to the richly descriptive prose, since it is also an easy leap for some to imagine how the characters appear, as well. This series is, for me, like stumbling upon an old and dear friend who has wonderful tales to tell-and is a gifted storyteller, as well. It makes it easy to welcome Kvothe’s world into our own and add our experiences and perceptions. Thanks, Pat, for the inspiration!
The way you wrote of Kvothe performing Sir Savien made me cry. And I had an almost perfect idea of what the song sounded like from the few verses you wrote.
Can a man hope to ever see the full text of the ballad?
Dear Pat,
Waiting for Day 3 is murdering me. In the face. With a rusty implement. Sloppily, I might add.
I HOPE YOU’RE HAPPY, ROTHFUSS.
Very Sincerely Yours,
Anxious Reader
I just read this, and I have to echo PangurBan’s astonishment.
As a professional musician, I have always dreaded the inevitable portion of each fantasy book dealing with music, as it is invariably both well-meaning and completely off the mark. Whether it’s the lyrics that don’t pay attention to meter, or the oblivious lack of form and construction, or the assumption that music is an innate skill that springs forth from a musician’s fingers (or voice) fully formed, with no sacrifice whatsoever… It’s simply painful to read. I know, I know, nobody can suspend disbelief in the realm of their own expertise, but I hate the music portions of these books. It’s just something that I usually skip past, and pretend it never happened. Like we all do with “Rocky V.”
But not in TNotW or TWMF. Reading these, I thought “this is a man that gets it! He knows what being a musician is really all about. He obviously is speaking from years of experience.” And when I’ve recommended these books to all my friends, the accuracy with which you write about music is always one of my selling points in getting them started on reading it (which is all it takes to make a convert).
Since reading that first book years ago, I have believed that you were an experienced musician. I am astonished that you are not, and even more awed by your ability to write as if you were. I don’t know if you have time to read all these comments, but if you do, know that you have seriously impressed one musician, for what it’s worth.
Not about music exactly pat, but have you seen this trailer someone did for NOTW
Pretty impressive
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhe_kgofY9A