ocelot

Hasn't anyone noticed MaGonagal's motif? When you are about to meet her the first time on the steps at Hogwarts, you see her hand, Williams has that cat sounding motif on violin. That is definitely hers. There's also diagon alley, and a whole bunch of little themes here and there.

Can't we all post on that thread so that there are more people making them understand ?

OK, now I'm getting even more upset that Williams isn't doing the whole score

I want MP3's!!!!!!! What are they of? I'll tell you something about Media Ventures, they have the best sounding orchestra samples... I think that's about it as far as the compliments go... no no, I have to say that at least Zimmer has people working for him but then gets them to a point to go off on their own as composers, I don;t know many other composers that do that. I'm not quite sure what they have to do to get there.... But some of them do get to compose after a while and become their own composers. But yes, a lot of the compositions are not Zimmers own on his movies. That goes with the territory over there. There are some films where his name is on the title credits but the compositions are someone elses. The studios just want his name if he is too busy to do the whole thing because his name is so big. He would then probably compose the main title and the rest is handed to others.

It's a toss up between Korngold, Steiner and Williams, but of course I went for Williams.... Chicken that I am!

His 3 against 4 or 2 is not new. He's always done it. Check out ET "over the moon" amongst other things.

I love some of it. Great writing.

Onne was rearranged by Williams for his Cinema Seranade CD, the first one you mentioned I think.

It was at the Barbican I believe. I was there and it was great because it's a small venue and we were right up close.

A friend of mine works there and now he's moved up to be one of the composers. It is owned and run by Zimmer and he has a stable of composers, orchestrators and engineers working to get movie after movie out. Some of the composers get their own gigs after being there for a while and just work under the banner but most work directly for Zimmer on the films he is working on.

The music playing during the precrime thingy was 2nd movement of Schubert's unfinished symphony. The Tchaikovsky was not from Swan Lake but from one of his later symphonies. 4 or 5. It's the 5/8 movement.

good, yes! excelent... debatable

Fantastic!

That's too funny! What were they trying to do? Put Harry Potter and LOTR in one book?

I read that article a few days ago and didn't know whether to post it or not. I agree with a lot of it and understand where the person is coming from. I think he appears more snobbish than he is because of the writing. He's also positive about Williams, most people who talk about classical music are not.

I don't really know Jane Eyre, but both PI and Angela's Ashes are amazing. Especially the latter. I can't stop listening to Angela's Ashes.

I know it's been recorded by Williams but it hasn't been released yet (except for the ones on the OST) Williams talked about having it released but no word yet. What I do have is the written orchestral score of the children's suite, and that is available at Hal Leonard catalogue number 04490215. I know it really doesn't do any good without having all the music to go with it. Also, it would be neat to have naration saying something like and here is Hogwarts Forever played by the french horns etc etc etc. Oh, you also do have Diagon Alley on the OST but not the full version. I wonder if they are waiting to get someone to write a narration before they release the whole thing.

The type of scoring needed for Harry Potter (adventure scoring) is done 100 times better by John Williams than any other composer out there today. Catch me if you Can is a bank robbery thriller type movie. Many composers out there can do a great job doing that tyoe of scoring. Not many people can even do adventure scoring, and as i said, none as good as Williams. In saying that, yes, it is more important for him to do the Potter movies. Besides, there are going to be so many, it is like Star Wars, only better. Many themes still to come, and development of those themes, many chase scenes, etc etc etc.....

The children's suite is like a young persons guide to the orchestra and features different sections of the orchestra. 1. Hedwig's flight (full orchestra featuring celeste and strings) 2. Hogwarts Forever (horn quartet) 3. Voldemort (2 bassoons and contra bassoon) 4. Nimbus 2000 (full woodwind section) 5. Fluffy and His Harp (contra bassoon and Harp) 6. Quidditch (full brass section) 7. Family Portrait (clarinet solo and cello quartet) 8. Diagon Alley (chamber group with recorders into full orchestra) 9. Harry's wondrous world (full orchestra) that's the score I mentioned in the above post. The other suite is the one that consists of the movements chs058 wrote in his post (without "quidditch" and the 5th movement being harry's wondrous world as he corrected, not hogwarts forever)

Going back to books.... There is a Star Wars book called "The Truce at Bakura" by Kathy Tyers. In it is the following dedication - "I can't think of Star Wars without remembering the opening fanfare from its soundtrack. I can't imagine an Imperial Star Destroyer's long, triangular silhouette without hearing ominous triplet rhythms. And who can picture the Mos Eisley cantina without that inimitable jazz band? It is with grateful admiration that I dedicate this novel to the man who composed the musical scores for the three Star Wars movies: John Williams

Isn't he going to be doing his own film works next month? He always does his own stuff at the bowl. Is it different this year? Damn, I always look forward to that every year!

Which one was Aragorn? Who was the cute guy helping the three hobits and is engaged to Liv Tyler's character? Now I didn't like what he was wearing at all, far too much, he could have shown more skin IMHO!!!!! And as for Legolass/Justin Timberlake/Elf man, now he was cute too, however out of all the cute guys I have to say that there wasn't enough of the women, like Live Tyler... I would have loved to see more of her (fully clothed and kicking ass of course)

Unless you work in Hollywood, in music, which I do and have spoken to a lot of the guys that do work for Williams and studdied under them, do not presume to know what John Williams does or does not do. He does orchestrate himself, he knows exactly what he likes and he is far above the rest of them out there when it comes to orchestration. His "orchestrators" transcribe his music, they do NOT orchestrate at all!!!!!! This is also the reason why he is NOT doing the WHOLE of Harry Potter 2. If his orchestrators did more than just transcribe his work, he could finish the whole score in sketch form and then have them do the rest, which is the case with a lot of composers out there. Instead, he says 40 minutes is all I can do myself, and he gives the rest of the work to someone else to do. I am not saying this as a fan on this board but as someone who knows what the score is. And Don Davis? Yes he is a good orchestrator, but no where near the level of complexity and maturity of Williams. Please, every working composer out there marvels at how far forward Williams is.

What people are failing to point out and sorry, but I am upset right now is that Williams composes classicaly. His orchestrations are unparalleled and he is the LAST of the great old school composers. All the others you guys are mentioning are fine doing film music, but they sound generic. It's all deneric film music. You don't hear a score by these composers and have bassoons up high on a melody and every brass heard seperately and every instrument in the orchestra shining left right and center. Only Williams does that. He writes like a classical composer, the only one out there that does so. When you hear brass from the others, it's just that BRASS, loud and overbearing. There's no subtleties in their writing. SOmetimes it's like, oh look, here's 6 horns blasting away withohut the other brass but that's about it. With Williams, it's tuba, bass trombone, trombones unison, trumpets and trombones, horns, horns and trumpets... every combination imaginable to create different pallets and solos from all of the above, the same goes for his woodwind writing, and his string writing is far above any other composer out there especially his frasing and the textures. Nowadays his percuission writing has reached a complexity that I have not heard from anyone else. No, no one else can replace him and I'm saying this as a composer, as an oboe and english horn player, as someone who studied classical music all my life and it was my major and minor and otherwise, and as a listner and fan. No one. Anyone who tackles Harry Potter has a huge obstacle in front of them. A comparison that is unatainable by all of the composers out there. When it comes to adventure scoring, no one else can even reach half of what John is able to do. Don Davis? Don is a good composer, but his Jurrasic Park score suffered from exactly what I'm talking about. It's big, it's brash, but it has no memorable themes, no subtleties, no clear cut orchestrations, and no playfulness. It's just one thing, BIG. It's the biggest mistake composers out there do when tackling an adventure score, they think it should be big and it just ends up being boring by the end. It should be everything, from sad, to happy, to playful, to big, to small and it should take you on the adventure. That's what John does and it's the one thing none of the others do. There is a reason that Spielberg says that John basically writes the film with his music. The same mistake was made by Shore in LOTR not to mention the mummy scores. They are all like one wave of HUGE SOUND. No subtleties, no emotion, no playfulness like in the indiana Jones music, no bravado like in Star Wars, no "wonder". That's it. It's that sense of wonder that John captures every time. Magic.

The orchestral score of the Childrens suite is at Hal Leonard. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone Childrens Suite for Orchestra Catalogue # 04490216 $60