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Freaking brilliant moments on the "Hook" album worth special mentions!


Josh500

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In anticipation of the release of the "Expanded Hook"... :)

I am not talking about entire tracks or pieces, but brilliant moments, since there are so many of them on this wonderful album. Give us the time stamp, if you can, and tell us why you like this section so much, why you think it's so freaking brilliant!

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Some that I like (not the most spectacular moments, but little things that caught my attention):

The fiddle section in "Presenting the Hook" (1:40-2:10): so piratey... this might be the precursor to that "fiddle section" in HP:PS, you know what I mean! Hehe.

The track "Hook-Napped" is one fantastic track, made up of two cues... I like 0:50-1:12 especially! So dramatic, menacing, masterfully orchestrated!

In fact some of these moments are very reminiscent of "Tintin"...!

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In "Hook-Napped" I also like the section from 2:15 onward... when those strings kick in, as if from far away! Conjures up images of the high sea. So mysterious and atmospheric.

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"The Flight to Neverland" also has some wonderful and brilliant moments! When "Tinkerbell's Theme" starts at 1:54... and at 2:31 when those strings go up and down, almost drunkenly. The music here is not just mysterious, you see, but it captures that "have I completely lost my mind and even if I have does it matter because what I am looking at is so freaking beautiful" kind of sense perfectly!

The entire cue is outstanding. It drips with atmosphere and swashbuckling mischief.

Yes indeed! One of the hidden treasures on the album, I'd say. Normally people don't mention this track as one of their favorites... "Prologue," You are the Pan," "The Ultimate War," and "The Arrival of Tink and the Flight to Neverland," sure, but not this one.

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The women's chorus in From Mermaids to Lost Boys singing the Neverland Theme. Such beautiful impressionistic music for the underwater world in the spirit of Debussy and the like.

The choral music in Farewell to Neverland. Williams seems to be so in tune with the feel of the scene. It is soundpainting at its best, the slightly blueish tint of the moment captured perfectly in the score. Also the magical flute solo in the same track beginning at 4:14 as Peter sees the statue of Pan in Hyde Park as he wakes up. One of the most magical moments of music I have ever heard.

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Also, may I just say that Tinkerbell's theme is one of Williams' most underrated pitch-perfect themes he's ever written. Nobody ever talks about it, but that piece of music would've suited the character of Harry Potter even better than his own theme did. Development-wise, it's wonderful.

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The strings, woodwinds and brass in Hook-napped? Man, what a classic JW cue. That part just after the pause (in the movie, when Wendy faints) that sounds so much like the future Hedwig's theme is bone-chilling.

This entire score is momentous. Better play the hell out of the album while it's still necessary.

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Also, may I just say that Tinkerbell's theme is one of Williams' most underrated pitch-perfect themes he's ever written. Nobody ever talks about it, but that piece of music would've suited the character of Harry Potter even better than his own theme did. Development-wise, it's wonderful.

Absolutely. I think it is easy to forget some of these pitch perfect themes since this man writes them so often with such clarity and skill. Tinkerbell's theme is particularly spot perfect though. It is inseparable from the character so that it feels like neither could exist without the other.
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Also, may I just say that Tinkerbell's theme is one of Williams' most underrated pitch-perfect themes he's ever written. Nobody ever talks about it, but that piece of music would've suited the character of Harry Potter even better than his own theme did. Development-wise, it's wonderful.

Yes, agreed!

Although I am not sure about this theme being more suited to HP than his own theme... This theme has a somewhat ethereal, fragile, and mythical quality about it, might be somewhat too tame for a boy wizard out on a magical adventure, in my book. It's perfect for Tinkerbell, though!

This entire score is momentous. Better play the hell out of the album while it's still necessary.

Yep. Just my thought! ;)

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It's a one-off ending motif.

The family is reunited, Peter has seen the light and is thrilled to live the awfully big adventure. Williams summed it up pretty well musically, no?

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Actually, you're right. When the kids are lost. You hear it briefly when Tootles looks out the window and before Wendy shows the book. So it's like the family's theme.

Does this score have the greatest number of themes/motifs ever in a Williams score?

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The family is reunited, Peter has seen the light and is thrilled to live the awfully big adventure. Williams summed it up pretty well musically, no?

The entire score is a masterpiece, period. :)

Actually, you're right. When the kids are lost. You hear it briefly when Tootles looks out the window. So it's like the family's theme.

Ah yes. The "Family Theme."

Kinda like the "Friendship Theme" in HP..

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The opening passages of "The Ultimate War" is one of the many moments from that score that will never get old.

The more I think about it, Hook is probably my favorite score of all time.

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The choral music in Farewell to Neverland. Williams seems to be so in tune with the feel of the scene. It is soundpainting at its best, the slightly blueish tint of the moment captured perfectly in the score. Also the magical flute solo in the same track beginning at 4:14 as Peter sees the statue of Pan in Hyde Park as he wakes up. One of the most magical moments of music I have ever heard.

Great one indeed, Mikko.

I also love that little moment when Peter goes to the nursery and stares and the painting with the pirate ship and we heard Hook's seconday theme. So evocative, such a feeling of danger and adventures up ahead

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Farewell Neverland, 9:07 - end

I love this theme - there's something so magically 'definitive' about it, like you can tell the journey is over with a happy ending.

You Are the Pan

1:48 - 2:20 - one of the most moving melodies I think he's ever written.

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The choral music in Farewell to Neverland. Williams seems to be so in tune with the feel of the scene. It is soundpainting at its best, the slightly blueish tint of the moment captured perfectly in the score. Also the magical flute solo in the same track beginning at 4:14 as Peter sees the statue of Pan in Hyde Park as he wakes up. One of the most magical moments of music I have ever heard.

Oh I used this SO many years as a background music while putting the kids sleep. There is something magical in the choral parts there and it always worked: I fell asleep first...

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The choral music in Farewell to Neverland. Williams seems to be so in tune with the feel of the scene. It is soundpainting at its best, the slightly blueish tint of the moment captured perfectly in the score. Also the magical flute solo in the same track beginning at 4:14 as Peter sees the statue of Pan in Hyde Park as he wakes up. One of the most magical moments of music I have ever heard.

Great one indeed, Mikko.

I also love that little moment when Peter goes to the nursery and stares and the painting with the pirate ship and we heard Hook's seconday theme. So evocative, such a feeling of danger and adventures up ahead

Oh I love that small cue (it is not on the album though). Another absolutely evocative moment where Williams succeeds in capturing multiple hues of the scene at once, the old memories, the unsettling feel, the seafaring.

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I've been listening to this album a lot these past few days, and I keep discovering new things!

In the last track "Farewell" I absolutely love the gorgeous flute solos, starting at 4:15 and then again at 5:45! How come I never noticed those before?

Amazing how Williams always seems to come up with the right tone: these sound somewhat disillusioned, heartbreaking, and yet slightly magical... as if a remnant of Neverland is still left in the air... as we soon find out, as Tinkerbell shows up between these 2 solo renditions.

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I just saw Incanus already mentioned one of the scenes I was talking about...

The choral music in Farewell to Neverland. Williams seems to be so in tune with the feel of the scene. It is soundpainting at its best, the slightly blueish tint of the moment captured perfectly in the score. Also the magical flute solo in the same track beginning at 4:14 as Peter sees the statue of Pan in Hyde Park as he wakes up. One of the most magical moments of music I have ever heard.

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"Banning Back Home", is stil my favourite cue.

This is good, but compared to the other tracks... urghhhh!

Also, I can't really listen to the second track and that song sung by the little girl. Well, I can, but these are not my favorites, is what I am saying.

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The last part of "Farewell" takes a page right out of Home Alone, but that's not necessarily bad. In fact, I love Home Alone, and I love the last part of "Farewell."

Something very exuberant, Christmassy, and delightful about it!

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The last part of "Farewell" takes a page right out of Home Alone, but that's not necessarily bad. In fact, I love Home Alone, and I love the last part of "Farewell."

Something very exuberant, Christmassy, and delightful about it!

The similarity you hear is because the same intervals are used-- the first two notes of "Somewhere in My Memory" are the same as the first two notes of the Neverland Theme, from which the end of "Farewell Neverland" is derived.

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The last part of "Farewell" takes a page right out of Home Alone, but that's not necessarily bad. In fact, I love Home Alone, and I love the last part of "Farewell."

Something very exuberant, Christmassy, and delightful about it!

The similarity you hear is because the same intervals are used-- the first two notes of "Somewhere in My Memory" are the same as the first two notes of the Neverland Theme, from which the end of "Farewell Neverland" is derived.

Well, yes, but not only that.

There is one section, an accompaniment played by strings, that's exactly the same as heard in "Mom Returns..." I don't have the time stamp now, but listen to it again, and you can't miss it!

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This score reminds me of Temple of Doom in terms of how dense and bombastic it is, although Hook has a bit more heart to it. I think it's a strong album presentation, showcasing its broad scope, for example "Banning Back Home" is so American and domestic that it contrasts the film's aesthetic difference between reality and the fantasy of Neverland. "The Banquet" and "The Never-Feast" always spring to mind when I'm being overfed in these work related junkets I attend. "Remembering Childhood" and "You Are the Pan" are beautifully melancholy. "When You're Alone" is pretty, but I'd rather hear a more experienced vocalist have a crack at it. "Presenting the Hook" is amazingly fun and does a lot in about two and half minutes. The "Prologue" almost rivals Star Wars in the way you open an album with a bang.

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Hook reminds me of ToD, Last Crusade, Home Alone, Empire of the Sun, Harry Potter PS and CoS, and Tintin.

What a gem of a score! I've never quite appreciated it up to now, but I am definitely starting to!

"When You're Alone" is pretty, but I'd rather hear a more experienced vocalist have a crack at it.

Has this never been re-recorded?

Not with the BPO, not with any other artist(s)? :blink:

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In the context of the film, I do appreciate the raw quality of it, though. She's not squawking or anything, she's just singing like a child. I prefer that to something like the kids singing in the back of the train on The Polar Express.

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I really wonder, though, whether there'll be an alternate version of the song included on the Expanded Hook...

And there's one other song that JW wrote for the movie, isn't there? Besides the 2 that are on the OS album, I mean! :)

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