NYCComposer

What do you think of this track? You'll have to line it up with a muted

SCORES Williams > Doyle > Desplat > Hooper. Best Williams score is Azkaban imo. BOOKS 1. Prisoner Of Azkaban 2. Sorcerer's Stone 3. Goblet Of Fire 4. Chamber Of Secrets (big gap) 5. Order Of The Phoenix 6. Deathly Hallows 7. Half Blood Prince The first 4 books have a beautiful balance of tone between introducing more whimsical/funny/magical bits, and also showing the backstory and the growing threat of Voldemort. In POA for example, on the one hand there's Hogsmeade and the Marauder's Map and Patronuses, on the other hand there's Dementors, and the whole story of Sirius Black and Peter Pettigrew. The first four books are also mysteries. And they get longer out of necessity... because the mysteries, and the big climactic revelation scenes, get longer and more complex. POA and GOF are really masterfully crafted. The last 3 books are needlessly huge, and less cohesive. They also get oppressively dark. And the mystery/twist elements (e.g. Draco using the Room Of Requirement, Snape being the Prince, the true allegiance of the Elder Wand) didn't impress me as much. FILMS: 1. Prisoner of Azkaban 2. Sorcerer's Stone 3. Deathly Hallows Part 2 4. Goblet Of Fire 5. Chamber Of Secrets 6. Order Of The Phoenix 7. Half Blood Prince 8. Deathly Hallows Part 1 Really did not like the Yates films barring Hallows 2. They are like summaries of the books... unintelligible if you haven't read them, but disappointingly disjointed and shallow if you have. Hallows 1 is where he takes this to the extreme, the whole film is just a series of emotionally disconnected vignettes or tableaus with no discernible arc. The early Columbus films stand the test of time more and more in retrospect. Cuaron is a genius of course.

It would have to be any 4 from Doyle (Harry In Winter, Foreign Visitors Arrive, and the climactic Voldemort track are all great), and "Possession" from Hooper's HBP. Doyle's soundtrack was absolutely ripped to pieces when it first came out. But when you look back at all 5 post-Williams soundtracks... Doyle's has the most, and the most memorable, themes. With "Family Portrait," "Buckbeak's Flight" and "A Window To The Past" Williams was moving towards a more melancholy and serious Potter, and Doyle continues very competently with tracks like "Harry In Winter" and "Voldemort." Hooper's two scores are usually mixed so low, and are so ambient, that they hardly make any impact (e.g. Dementors In The Underpass and much of the battle at the end of the fifth movie). When he does get thematic, with the Room Of Requirement, Flight Of The Order Of The Phoenix, Dolores Umbridge, Dumbledore's Army, Fireworks - all of these tracks have a sort of obnoxious obviousness and inappropriateness to them that makes them "pop out" of the film. "Possession" is one track that works very well. The building string lines and that beautiful bichord dissonance at the end, aptly communicate the emotion of the scene. Desplat's scores have been, to my ears, almost entirely underscore. I saw Parts 1 & 2 back to back and when it was over I didn't really have a consciousness of any theme, except there was some vague choir music associated with Snape. There was a lot of Remote Control type music over the battle sequences - loud, energetic, very appropriate to the scenes, but absolutely nothing to make it stand out and say "This is Harry Potter and not Movie X." Probably the best part of Part 2 was when they tracked "Leaving Hogwarts" over the epilogue. There was a feeling in the theater as if everyone had perked up and was listening with rapt attention. Despite the fact that music hadn't been in the movies for ten years... mostly everyone recognized it!