Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Video Game Soundtrack Now Available

[Henry B 50]

(I believe iTunes Plus features better sound quality.)

This soundtrack, composed by James Hannigan, is everything the film soundtrack isn't - that could be a plus or minus, depending on your point of view. Lush orchestrations and whimsical fancy abound. If you thought "The Kiss" was boring, then check out this soundtrack's heart-racingly romantic yet comically overdone "To Catch an Owl" for your love theme fix.

On the negative side, a lot of editing has been done to combine cues that are short or were recorded in "loop" style. Worse, Hedwig's Theme and Nimbus 2000 have been removed for licensing reasons! For a complete score bootleg that includes the Williams-based material, PM me. However, you should still buy the soundtrack. Hannigan and the others involved have a right to profit from this, and the sound quality is superior.

[John Crichton 4]

How does it compare to Soule's work on the first few?

[Henry B 50]

It compares well. I don't think Soule delivered consistently on Potter, though there are some standout cues. Order of the Phoenix has the advantage of being orchestral and choral, not synthesized. The music is all pretty excellent.

I'm just annoyed that Hedwig's Theme and Nimbus 2000 had to removed (although you can still hints of Harry's Wondrous World and Nimbus 2000), not just because they're gone but because there's some awkward editing and synthesized effects (e.g. gong crashes) used to cover their absence.

[Kendal_Ozzel 36]

No check for you, Mr. Williams...

[Henry B 50]

I found a bootleg with the Williams material! PM for a link.

[GoldsmithFanatic2000+ 0]

How does it compare to Soule's work on the first few?

It's in a different league. Soule's scores are nowhere near as good as Hannigan's is.

This score is better then Hooper's score to the actual film itself. Easily.

[Henry B 50]

It'll take me a couple days to send out links because I need to go through this bootleg and remove material that's already on the soundtrack release, then put it in order.

[Henry B 50]

Okay, I've responded to your messages.

It seems that the bootleg I acquired was not totally complete. I know off the top of my head that the Fred and George escape sequence, which features some of those cool Nimbus 2000 variations that should have been in the film, wasn't included. However, this is almost everything. Enjoy!

Here's my Dumbledore vs. Voldemort edit, if you didn't see it.

[Dr. Know 326]

I'm surprised there isn't more buzz here concerning Hannigan's dare-I-say brilliant contribution to the Harry Potter film/video score canon. I have to say I found it far more enjoyable than both Hooper and Doyle's efforts, and a cut above Soule as well. Henry is right, though, that the iTunes release is woefully incomplete, lacking as it does Williams' themes.

[Pieter Boelen 740]

Having listened to most of Henry Buck's version, I must say I'm impressed. Very good stuff, nice usage of Hedwig's Theme and Nimbus 2000 as well. Interesting variations. Good stuff.

[John Crichton 4]

Minor bump: I've finally gotten a chance to listen to this as well (complete with Williams-based material, thanks again Henry). I have a challenge for everyone here: forget this is a video game score, if that bothers you. Get it, and just close your eyes and imagine that you're listening to the film score for OotP. Because this is the way it should have been.

[redfoxden 0]

I haven't heard Hooper's score, but I enjoyed Hannigan's. I'd really like to hear the expanded version. *Hint* *Hint*

[Pieter Boelen 740]

Has this interview with James Hannigan on the score for the Harry Potter 6 computer game been posted yet?

There's also music clips available on Amazon.com now.

So... why did they not swap composers? Have Hooper do the game and Hannigan do the film!

[Henry B 50]

Ooh, sounds good, if a little Mickey Mousey. I suppose Hedwig's theme will again be edited out of the soundtrack, though. Disappointing. For what it's worth, I've heard (please don't take this as official news) that some demo cues from the Hooper's film score (like the one that just showed up on the official WB site) were actually recorded at the recording sessions for Hannigan's game score. Could there be some sort of collaboration between Hooper and Hannigan?

[paleo 63]

I just listened to the HP:OotP game soundtrack for the first time (I had no idea that you can download all of them at Amazon), and I must say, I really liked it. Sure, I certainly missed the JW themes (wonder what they sound like; never played the games), but it is a nice score with its own identity and recurring themes. It was maybe a bit obvious that Aunt Marge's Waltz was sort of a temp track for Courtyard Frolics, but on the whole, quite original and enjoyable.

I did like Cooper's score, too, however. I know, it's certainly not in the same league as any of the JW scores, but I found it to be a big improvement over Doyles imo loud, uninteresting, and extremely schmaltzy GoF score (yes, I do prefer Cooper's sensitive approach to the love theme )

[Nick Parker 3,040]

Ooh, the best part of the Harry Potter films: the scores based on the mediocre games! Why is that? (I do think that Hannigan was the best composer attached to Harry Potter besides John Williams, by the way.)

[Koray Savas 2,251]

Could there be some sort of collaboration between Hooper and Hannigan?

More like a collaboration between Hooper and Williams. Half-Blood Prince was delayed because Hooper was upset with how his score for Order Of The Phoenix came out, so he wanted to change that for this film. Apparently he spoke to Williams about it.

[Nick Parker 3,040]

I would be very interested to read the source you obtained that from, Koray.

[Koray Savas 2,251]

It was an audio source.

[John Crichton 4]

Yeah, that voice in the back of his head.

[Koray Savas 2,251]

But seriously, I'm not joking.

[Jacob 0]

It was an audio source.

And what was this audio source?

[Koray Savas 2,251]

A person.

[Nick Parker 3,040]

Stop toying with us! Is there some kind of legitimate recording that can be linked to for verification?

[Koray Savas 2,251]

No, since it was a conversation I had with someone.

[Nick Parker 3,040]

Ooooohhhh, the nickel finally drops!

[Koray Savas 2,251]

A nickel? Where?! It's mine I saw it first!

[Pieter Boelen 740]

Now that's a VERY interesting notion, Koray! Sounds a bit unlikely though to delay the whole film for that reason.

I sincerely hope the HBP score will be the best non-JW one to date though.

[Luke Skywalker 1,795]

Could there be some sort of collaboration between Hooper and Hannigan?

More like a collaboration between Hooper and Williams. Half-Blood Prince was delayed because Hooper was upset with how his score for Order Of The Phoenix came out, so he wanted to change that for this film. Apparently he spoke to Williams about it.

mmm that sounds like hooper is afraid that Williams may kick him for Deathly hallows and wants to make friends with him to evade that

[Henry B 50]

The soundtrack can now be purchased on iTunes and Amazon MP3. I can tell from some lousy edits that Hedwig's theme has once again been surgically removed. Otherwise, though, it's great! Lighter than Order of the Phoenix, but in a good way. The themes from the previous soundtrack return, and I'm actually getting attached to them.

[SF1_freeze 131]

If Hooper really spoke with John Williams we can expect more of the old themes to return, which would be great.

But i'm sceptical, as Hooper said in an audio interview last year he doesn't like arranging other peoples music...

[Henry B 50]

Okay, back to Order of the Phoenix - I've finally extracted all the music from the game in pristine, CD quality sound. Now I can redo the edit, replacing compressed MP3 music and inserting the missing stuff (e.g. Fred and George's escape). Only problem... there are 481 files. The music is severely fragmented across different WAV files. This is going to take a little while to sort out. If anybody is interested, I can send out the whole batch of files. Most of the cues are completely intact and sound great. Then there's the action music, which is really complicated. It seems that Hannigan recorded about twenty-five ending cadences per action piece. Jeez. There are also some synthesized cues and stuff from the previous game soundtracks by Jeremy Soule.

[Laserschwert 475]

Okay, back to Order of the Phoenix - I've finally extracted all the music from the game in pristine, CD quality sound. Now I can redo the edit, replacing compressed MP3 music and inserting the missing stuff (e.g. Fred and George's escape). Only problem... there are 481 files. The music is severely fragmented across different WAV files. This is going to take a little while to sort out. If anybody is interested, I can send out the whole batch of files. Most of the cues are completely intact and sound great. Then there's the action music, which is really complicated. It seems that Hannigan recorded about twenty-five ending cadences per action piece. Jeez. There are also some synthesized cues and stuff from the previous game soundtracks by Jeremy Soule.

I already went through combining most of the in-game music with the album-release (so that Williams' themes are included). I've removed all of the music from the other games though. If it's of any help I can upload them.

By the way: I've just bought Hannigan's "Half-Blood Prince"-score online. Again, very nice work, reprising a few of his Phoenix-themes.

[MattyO 62]

The official website for HBP: www.harrypotter.com contains what sounds to be new music from the film. I assume it's Hooper's work, but there is a distinct Chamber of Secrets feel to it.

[Henry B 50]

Well, after going through the WAV file rips, there's still some missing music that only those MP3s I found before featured. Those must have been ripped from a console version of the game. I can tell now because their file names references levels and events that never occur in the PC version (e.g. fighting brains in the Ministry of Magic).

[Henry B 50]

Okay, no more confusion. I've finally found a pretty definitive source for this game's music:

http://www.moviemusi...tter5gamecd.htm

Track Listing:

• The Story Begins (0:45)
• Titles (1:59)
• Cho and Harry (0:48)
• To Catch An Owl – Short (1:47)
• The Inquisitorial Squad (2:00)
• Dolores Umbridge (2:22)
• Death Eaters (4:16)
• Life At Hogwarts (2:24)
• Welcome to Hogwarts (2:04)
• Wand Combat (2:33)
• A Task In Hand (1:58)
• Evading Filch (2:17)
• The Dark Arts (1:45)
• Courtyard Frolics (1:35)
• The Invisibility Cloak (1:04)
• Fred and George (1:20)
• Stealth and Scurrying (1:49)
• The Department of Mysteries (2:20)
• Exploring (2:12)
• A Gathering of Friends (1:09)
• Walking the Corridors (1:16)
• Navigating the Grounds (1:25)
• Darkness Falls (3:00)
• Beware Umbridge (1:02)
• A Sense Of Urgency (1:44)
• The Room of Requirement (0:34)
• Occlumency With Voldemort (2:00)
• Dumbledore and Voldemort (2:23)
• Menu One (1:13)
• The Room of Rewards (1:04)

Running Time: 54 minutes 08 seconds

Hannigan mentioned there were 55 minutes of orchestral score, so this promo seems to be complete, save for some of the short stingers. It's unlikely to end up online, however, so I'll work on recreating it, checking the track times against the commercial release and the game rips (and also developing a chronological order option). Should be done in a few days. I'll also include the short orchestral stingers and the available synthesized music. According to Hannigan, there are about 15 minutes of synthesized score, so I'll work on determining what's his and what's Jeremy Soule's. Some of it is obvious because it uses Hedwig's theme and some music can be ruled out because it's on the commercial releases of Jeremy Soule's soundtracks. Otherwise, I'll do my best to try to identify Hannigan's style.

[Pieter Boelen 740]

That sounds very interesting indeed! Have you got any idea if a more complete Half-Blood Prince would also be feasable?

I like the OST of that very much as well, but I'd much prefer having Hedwig's theme included, as apparently has been done.

[Luke Skywalker 1,795]

i'm getting curious about this score, specially after the dissapointing hooper scores...

[Henry B 50]

Almost finished. This turned out to be way more complicated than I thought. The OST is full of edits, needless synth overlays and obnoxious amounts of reverb. I had to replace a lot of it with material from the game (fortunately there's little noticeable drop in quality since almost all of it comes from the PC version). Most of the edits are completely seamless. One thing that occurs to me, though, is that HBP includes music from OotP, so there may be something on there that helps to fill a gap or fix a rough edit.

That sounds very interesting indeed! Have you got any idea if a more complete Half-Blood Prince would also be feasable?

I like the OST of that very much as well, but I'd much prefer having Hedwig's theme included, as apparently has been done.

Yes, eventually. First I need to rip the PC and PSP versions of the game. The PC version is doable, but I've heard there's some new encryption on the PSP version, so that's a complicating factor. Also, there's apparently a lossless version of the commercial soundtrack that was sold at nettwerk.com, but it's no longer available and I haven't been able to find a trace of it anywhere. I'm not going to work on an edit until I can track this down. The good news is that the commercial album seems to be totally devoid of the edits and synths that plague OotP, so it should be much more manageable. Hedwig's theme actually wasn't used much, so there will be little restoration work. I don't know what the situation is in terms of unreleased music. Also, it seems to feature true CD quality sound (44100 khz as opposed to OotP's 32000).

[John Crichton 4]

i'm getting curious about this score, specially after the dissapointing hooper scores...

The game score for OotP at least is much, much better than Hooper's. I've been enjoying Henry's old version for a while and I'm definately interested in an update (the amount of work this guy can put into score edits is ungodly! ).

[Henry B 50]

i'm getting curious about this score, specially after the dissapointing hooper scores...

The game score for OotP at least is much, much better than Hooper's. I've been enjoying Henry's old version for a while and I'm definately interested in an update (the amount of work this guy can put into score edits is ungodly! ).

All thanks to my good friend insomnia! By the way, the new OotP edition will be a little delayed so I can incorporate better sounding recordings from the HBP rips.

My only major problem with HBP is that there seems to be little thematic structure. There are a few once recurring motives, but nothing on the order of Harry's theme (i.e. the love theme) from OotP. Thankfully, Hannigan at least throws in cameos of most of the OotP themes. Hedwig's theme is only used a couple times, though quite wonderfully (unlike Hooper's boring lifts from the Philosopher's Stone score). Overall the score is "louder," with more boisterous orchestrations and showstopping cues.

[John Crichton 4]

All thanks to my good friend insomnia!

Was there a lot of HBP recycled for OotP? Did they even bring Hannigan back?

[Henry B 50]

You mean OotP recycled for HBP? Yeah, a few cues. Plenty of Jeremy Soule material from the previous scores too. However, I think on the whole Hannigan wrote just as much music for HBP as he did for OotP, if not more.

[John Crichton 4]

You mean OotP recycled for HBP?

...If I'm going to ask questions, they should at least make some sense. Yeah.

[Laserschwert 475]

When you tackle HBP be sure to include the longer intro to "Quidditch", it's so awesome.

[Jay 37,346]

Henry, this project sounds awesome, I'd love to hear it when you are finished

[John Crichton 4]

I listened to the old version of this again recently, and it really is great. It's everything the film score should have been. Hannigan is able to incorporate Williams' themes organically rather than have them stand out like a sore thumb.

[Henry B 50]

I'm almost finished, but I just moved into college and classes are starting. I'll try to get it out soon.

[Luke Skywalker 1,795]

screw college!

[Pieter Boelen 740]

Did anything ever happen with this? And how about the music from HBP that wasn't on the soundtrack release?