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Philosopher's Stone was the first OST album I owned. At that time, I only had the 1997 SW set and the TPM UE, so I assumed that a soundtrack album always included the complete soundtrack. I had seen the film and the Diagon Alley/Great Hall music was one of my favourite pieces... and I just couldn't believe it wasn't on the set. That was my first encounter with the frustrating nature of the OST albums.

Which means, the actual film version is missing!!! Jokes aside, this is a great set, one of the best ever for sure, both for the awesome music and the presentation. I do wonder, though, why do so many of you think that the original Banning Back Home is so superior? Not counting the free improv section (which is really fun) I don't really see any objective reason to call it superior to the revised version.

Yes. The insert includes both the new music and part of the original cue in a shortened form, until it fades back into the ending of the original cue.

Do you know the exact ending point of the Insert? I always thought that it ended when it segues into the original cue material, but now I'm not sure, because I realize the original cue is shortened (I always thought it was a film edit).

As Jay put it, it fits in the sense that it contrast with the orchestral score that comes later. It's a gradual introduction to the world of magic. In fact, removing the Prologue track from the beginning of the soundtrack creates a better listening experience, in my opinion, as it's such a spoilery track.

Yes. Furthermore, in the London scenes, there is no music whenever the scene deals with the "real word". The music is used for when the "magic" creeps into the scenes (Wendy's first appearance, the haunted nursery scene, Wendy telling her story...) and is interrupted when Peter breaks the magic (when he closes the window for example). Once we get to Neverland, the film is scored pretty much wall-to-wall (although some sections were ultimately unused). It's an interesting way of scoring the film, similar to the first Harry Potter films. No music when there's no magic.

I find TLJ to be the weakest SW score, or at least, the one that I'm least interested in. Despite its great moments, thematically is lacking and relying heavily on reused music. ROS has stronger new themes and some good developments or previous themes (Ben, Rey). The result is quite stronger, in my opinion. TFA is the best of the trilogy, without a doubt. Much less dependent of previous scores, with awesome new themes, it has a strong and coherent narrative. But all three prequel scores are way above any of those three in every possible way.

The structure of Crusade is, at least on paper, perfectly balanced. Each 20-minute segment has a beginning, middle and a chase at the end. Part 1: Double prologue. Part 2: Venice and the boat chase. Part 3: Nazi castle and the motocycle chase. Part 4: Berlin and the aereal chase. Part 5: Desert and the tank chase. Part 6: Emotional climax. It's way more "perfect" than any of the other two films. Which is why it feels almost "too" neat.

It's a good recommendation, but I don't agree with the idea. Even though the first Banning Back Home is great, and maybe even superior, my criteria for what's in the main playlist is to always follow the actual film score. "What Williams always intended" would include the original Never Feast, Ultimate War, or The Flight to Neverland. Or The Departure from E.T. without "Steven's fix". Or the original Binary Sunset. The final film score is always a result of the collaboration between composer and director.

Having listened to all 3 Discs as presented (in three consecutive evenings), I've changed the placement of a few tracks, and I've just listened to the complete film score (without all the extras) for the second time, from beginning to end. It's now impossible to listen to all the themes without thinking about the lyrics, which creates a very different listening experience indeed! I've made three small changes: -I've removed the prologue (it's a musical spoiler and it's not part of the film score, so I've moved the first track to the very end of the additional music section.) -I've incorporated both non-Williams source cues to the main score presentation. (I always include the source music if it's composed or arranged by Williams. For me, it's part of the score, the same way When You're Alone or the Pirate Town music is). -I've swaped the Lost Boy Chase tracks, to include the film version on the main programme. Awesome set and awesome score.

I've listened to the first two discs (planning to listen to Disc 3 tonight) - and I'm reading the liner notes for each CD after the first listen. As everyone else has said, magnificent release of one of the best soundtracks ever. Couple of comments/nitpicks. The liner notes (which are awesome) say that both versions of Banning Back Home are longer than the actual scene in the film. That's not correct, is it? The film version is featured without edits in the final film, as far as I know. (The album version, which I always liked less than the film version, is FANTASTIC in its extended form! Great solos!) Thinking about how to create my own playlist while keeping the Film Presentation & Musical Album concept, I'm thinking that the five additional tracks at the end of Disc 2 could be incorporated into the Disc 3 program, right? I'm assuming the only reason they are not there is because lack of space, but I think it would be a more logical place. After all, Disc 3 contains a lot of alternates, so the "Additional Music" belongs there, I think.

Jane Eyre and The Force Awakens, I would say. I don't think TLJ and ROS are great as a whole (though they have great highlights of course). The Post and The Fabelmans are too small to be considered great (although I love the simplicity and the beauty of the two themes from the Fablemans). And Indy 5 has great themes, but is a very uneven score because of the copy-pasting.

It's fascinating that Williams actually remembers and/or cares about such small details. That being said, I will probably switch those cues, as I prefer to have the actual film verion on the main program.

The lenght of track 12 is wrong, if I'm not mistaken.

I agree with that. I don't like to "spoil" the score by placing the final/concert/end-credits version of the main theme at the beginning. That being said, what's your opinion about the "Prologue" from Hook? In a way, it's a spoilery track, and it doesn't belong to the opening of the film. On the other hand, it was composed for the teaser, and the beginning is just magical. So I don't know about my playlist yet.