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Harry Potter 7CD Collection - MUSIC discussion


Jay

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Oh that's cool! So JW's sketches must have been scanned and sent to orchestrators in digital form back in the early 2000s, passing through any number of hands. Not hard to imagine how something like that can leak.

 

I understand his modern process involves those handwritten sheets being sent directly to the music preparation team, who extrapolate the full orchestral score themselves (as his orchestrations are so detailed, they don't need a third party to fill any blanks). I wonder if that makes it more or less likely for sheet music leaks of, say, the Star Wars sequel trilogy? :ph34r:

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I find it more disturbing that orchestras just refuse to record these suites. Meanwhile, the seemingly endless and pointless deluge of re-recordings of the Brandenburg Concertos and the Night Music continues.

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So, I was randomly looking through the cue list and got stuck again on these:

7m2 My Dad Conjured the Patronus
7m2A String Overlay

 

From the leaked sheets, do we have any clue what the string overlay is? Which ending to Lupin's Transformation is the original and revised one, was the original recorded in one piece with the rest? How come the flute overlay is not mentioned?

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The string overlay is a rising figure (compare it to the effect you hear just before the Close Encounters title appears on the screen) that accompanies the pizzicato strings that were supposed to underscore Harry and Hermione fleeing from the werewolf. Does that help?

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2 hours ago, Holko said:

So, I was randomly looking through the cue list and got stuck again on these:

7m2 My Dad Conjured the Patronus
7m2A String Overlay

 

From the leaked sheets, do we have any clue what the string overlay is? Which ending to Lupin's Transformation is the original and revised one, was the original recorded in one piece with the rest? How come the flute overlay is not mentioned?

 

The string overlay has never been heard. It's just a bunch of high, dissonant chords. I think it must have been for the original ending, which is the quiet version with the pizzicato strings. The loud ending with the low brass and percussion was recorded separately.

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Thanks, these were very helpful!

37 minutes ago, bollemanneke said:

The string overlay is a rising figure (compare it to the effect you hear just before the Close Encounters title appears on the screen) that accompanies the pizzicato strings that were supposed to underscore Harry and Hermione fleeing from the werewolf. Does that help?

 

35 minutes ago, Datameister said:

 

The string overlay has never been heard. It's just a bunch of high, dissonant chords. I think it must have been for the original ending, which is the quiet version with the pizzicato strings. The loud ending with the low brass and percussion was recorded separately.

 

Could I ask for just a bit more similar further assistance? Short descriptions about these pieces will satisfy my curiosity.

3mE The Great Hall Ceiling - I assume what we have is 3m12 Revised.

4m3+4 Enter Winter - I assume what we have is 4m3+4 new Woods Walk and Birds Flight

7m7 Ext. Whomping Willow - I assume what we have is 7m7 Rev. Whomping Willow Revisited.

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Great Hall Ceiling: replaces the oboe outro with a Hedwig's theme statement (beginning) that closes the cue.

Enter Winter: a themeles, rather aimless piece of music that doesn't capture the scene at all and leads into the revised cue after the Hedwig's Theme/Past Theme are over.

Whomping Willow: rather nice cue, reminds of Hedwig's Theme but isn't, a little more magical and optimistic than its revised version.

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On 12/31/2018 at 10:27 AM, Jay said:

Hmm, I'll have to ask Mike about this bit then. 

 

Hey @Jay, just wondering if you ever got a chance to ask Mike about that little segment? It was in reference to the Double Trouble March section of Trouble Takes Many Forms sounding like two slightly different takes of the same cue back to back (as the film itself only uses half the cue as it appears on the LLL, and doesn't appear to have room for anything more -- unless something was deleted after Williams scored it). Cheers!

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10 minutes ago, bollemanneke said:

One of the DVD games contains this cue and there they use the 'two versions' on the set back to back as well, so the film version is probably an edit.

 

Interesting, so maybe it started earlier in the film -- before they actually enter the room?

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If you line it up, the final notes line up with Neville catching and taking the candy. Feels weird to have Seamus's monkey business scored, then nothing for the rest.

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Finally started listening to this set. I'm not a big fan of these micro tracks 50 seconds 45 seconds it's really off-putting. The music works better in large pieces

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Could anyone tell me whether the cue Sir Cadogan's first appearance in the movie (so when the ghosts ride into the Great Hall) can be considered source music, or is the orchestra unseen?

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The orchestra is unseen: in both instances, a couple of ghosts on horseback break through the window of the Entrance Hall (only in ghost form, the actual real window doesn't break), and run into the Great Hall, that's it.

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On 5/12/2019 at 11:03 PM, JoeinAR said:

Finally started listening to this set. I'm not a big fan of these micro tracks 50 seconds 45 seconds it's really off-putting. The music works better in large pieces

 

Completely agree. The stop-start nature of these bitty pieces really spoils any potential listening enjoyment. I'd much prefer some editing to combine into longer tracks but then everyone would cry foul. It's great to have all the unreleased music though so I'm not complaining, and we still have the OST album presentations.

 

I suppose it's the nature of the beast these days, films get edited up to the last minute and composers need to keep revising things. It does often preclude longer music cues that flow more naturally though which is a pity.

 

Seems Potter has some of the shortest cues that Williams has composed in his career.

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Would like to see your cue list when it's complete. Will you be omitting anything, that is? Will you use crossfades? I'm assuming you'll be ignoring any alternates?

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Philosopher's Stone has 4 tracks under 1 minute, 3 close to it from the 45 track main program. Average track length is 3 minutes.

Chamber has 4 tracks under 1 minute and 1 close to it from the 47 track main program. Average track length is 2.9 minutes.

Azkaban has 2 tracks under 1 minute and 5 close to it from the 41 track main program. Average track length is 2.6 minutes.

Unacceptably and unbearably fragmented, I agree.

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I'll try and remember to post it when it's done. A lot of MM's tracks, like Summoning the Patronus, really work very well for me, but I'm totally against unchronological combinations and I think every track ending should sound like one, so that means The Newspaper and the film version of the first Boggart is one track, hardly cross-faded but definitely one cue.

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10 minutes ago, Holko said:

Philosopher's Stone has 4 tracks under 1 minute, 3 close to it from the 45 track main program.

Chamber has 4 tracks under 1 minute and 1 close to it from the 47 track main program.

Azkaban has 2 tracks under 1 minute and 5 close to it from the 41 track main program. 

Unacceptably and unbearably fragmented, I agree.

 

Thanks for the sarcastic reply. This is typical message board behaviour. Can you not accept that some people may have views that differ from your own?

 

FYI, I dont like tracks under 2 minutes so your stats don't apply to my preferences. However, I'm sure my view will not in any way hamper your enjoyment of short cues.

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Do you sit there watching the seconds tick and get irritated if it's 1:50? Or are you looking for a satisfying amount of exploration and elaboration for the specific idea/motif/scene that is the subject of the track? 

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The first two scores are very theatrical, you can literally listen start to finish and hear the story unfold.

 

PoA, for all its brilliance, doesn’t have that unfortunately. But in the film it’s a knockout.

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13 hours ago, JTWfan77 said:

The stop-start nature of these bitty pieces really spoils any potential listening enjoyment. I'd much prefer some editing to combine into longer tracks but then everyone would cry foul.

I wouldn't. I wonder how many people would.

Perhaps it's just a vocal minority?

Personally, I don't quite comprehend why music fans would be opposed to changes that improve the listening experience.

 

On 5/8/2019 at 7:47 PM, Jay said:

Yea the concert ending is really fun and it's too bad it was never recorded at the HPSS or HPCOS sessions

Wow, that's cool! Didn't even know that existed. :D

 

What (re-)recordings exist of the Children's Suite?

I'd be quite interested in a set of as-alternate-as-possible versions.

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6 hours ago, Docteur Qui said:

The first two scores are very theatrical, you can literally listen start to finish and hear the story unfold.

 

Indeed. The only two big assembly problems I have with those two is not joining Aragog and Spiders Attack (the former ends in a crescendo seemingly very much intended to transition directly into the latter, leaving seconds of silence makes it awkward and takes the energy out) and the recreation of Neville Stiffens at the time when you just want to get into the action finale, instead of putting Troll in the Dungeon as an intro to the Troll track and It's Guarding Something as a finale to Moving Stairs.

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1 minute ago, Holko said:

Indeed. The only two big assembly problems I have with those two is not joining Aragog and Spiders Attack (the former ends in a crescendo seemingly very much intended to transition directly into the latter, leaving seconds of silence makes it awkward and takes the energy out)

 

I wonder if @Jay could comment on this - was it an oversight not to join these two tracks?

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