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But it contained music in the spirit of Harry Potter and the magical atmosphere Doyle's one lacked. Williams also used about 20 percent of his Potter material through constant Hedwig's theme statements often hidden in other tracks and with his Quidditch theme in the end.

Oh man, i thought that this discussion would be over. You sound like most of these stubborn composers who enter a franchise and destroy their scores and identity through beliveing they have to change everything. Exactly the opposite is true! In a Blockbuster franchise with established (!) themes you have to continue the identity and reuse some of the themes including the main theme without loosing the spirit and the established sound. So around 20 percent of the scores have to be somewhat similar and the rest will be the composer's choice. Doyle completely ruined the spirit and identity. It just didnt sound Potter at all for about 90 percent of the film . Even Hedwig's theme (the only one returning !) was morphed into his much too bombastic, dark style. The film lost it's magic and most people just watch Harry Potter because of the magical flair. So Doyle maybe created a good soundtrack album score but it was inappropriate for a Harry Potter movie. I remember at that time going out of the cinema being upset big time because i didn't feel the Potter atmosphere. Goblet of Fire therefore is my least favourite Potter movie mainly because of the inappropriate score. The only good Doyle scored scenes for me were the Quidditch Championship, the Graveyard and the Entering the Ball Room scenes. But as scores i enjoyed both Hooper scores in the movie more than the Doyle score which ranks last of all Potter movies.

The Emperor's theme belongs among my top five favourite Star Wars themes and it emits the pure evil perfectly that the Emperor stands for. The most development and the most energetic statements occur in RotJ but also in TPM and ROTS it is used very well and properly.

Dude, nice! Care to elaborate? Nothing's confirmed yet and I probably won't know until right before they start production next year, but I'm in talks with people! Thats nice, i hope for you that it will work out and that you'll get the job By the way what would you do on the production?

Would be interesting, although i don't know how often i could participate

Best Potter movie with the best Potter score and probably John Williams most original and creative one in the 2000s movie 5 and score 5

Usually that mean's a high quality theme if he composes parts of the score beforehand. Hook and PoA were great scores. One reason for that surely is that he took more time for his musical ideas and themes. I can see that happen for Tintin too and it also means it will be easier for him to score Deathly Hallows if the theme parts of Tintin or at least the main theme is finished already

I saw the movie and i have to tell you its good that Hooper will leave the Potter Franchise. The music in the film is even worse than on the soundtrack. Nevertheless the film is good and the score couldn't ruin that much. It is mixed too low, partly tracks from OOTP are used and there are only three instances of Hedwig's theme in it, all in the first 30 minutes of film. Two statements are on the soundtrack and the third statement is played during the Hogwarts Express scene and contains also the B-theme. But after it Hedwig's theme isn't heard again. The only other Williams material is the track during the Quidditch match using the basic Quidditch Third year motif. The end credits play without the Hedwig's theme introduction but they are animated this time. Strangely Fireworks from OOTP is used there.

I love Director's Cuts if they are properly done (fleshing out the movie, properly rescored scenes with state of the art digital effects). The ideal director's cuts are the Lord of the Rings Extended DVD versions. They were in postproduction as if they were the real movies and went through all stages from animatic to new recorded soundtrack. In the foreign non english countries they also got the original synchronized voices. So it seems that the theatrical versions are just cut versions of the extended although in reality it is the opposite (I also loved the Star Wars Special editions - although i can understand that the older Star Wars fans felt a bit betrayed about these )

He scored the rough cut of Prisoner of Azkaban in March 2004. He actually worked with Cuaron during filming and composed "Something Wicked This Way Comes" for the Hogwarts choir to sing. Are there any more in detail interviews, stories especially about the scoring process on Prisoner of Azkaban? Can you post any links if you know something on the net about it?

How did the interview go Maestro? Can you tell us a bit about it and when will it be released at FSM?

I don't have Hollywood Sound yet. Is that the one with the Reivers suite? It's more focused (cutting stuff not related to the scherzo theme) and the performance is much more frenetic. Hard not to whistle along with this. The Hollywood sound contains only three JW pieces ( Flying theme, Jaws Main theme and Star Wars Main title). It is basically a compillation of 16 oscar winning scores. So you have for example the Lawrence of Arabia Overture, Wizard of Oz and even two Disney tracks (Beauty and the Beast and Pocahontas) It is conducted by John Williams and he used the LSO (!). I would definetly recommend it but mainly for the non JW stuff.

I don't want to know how much you paid. EMI is the most expensive mainstream music store I know. Special package? Explain. The CD is a must have for Scherzo for Motorcycle and Orchestra. Hm, i thought the prices were okay, given that it included the cheaper special package. I paid about 55 euros for 4 CD's ( 16 for Schindlers, Fiddler on the Roof about 20 and for the two others in the package cheap 19 euros - i think i made a good deal) The special package included "The Spielberg/Williams collaboration" album and the "The Hollywood Sound" album. These two CD's are in a light carton labeled as "Sony music, Two classic Albums one low price, limited edition, john williams x2". Its obviously quite new because it was produced 2009. I didn't even listen to "Scherzo for Motorcycle and Orchestra" yet as i thought it would be the same arrangment as on the OST. So what's different here. Nevertheless i will listen to it in a minute and hopefully understand why it is a must have

Well, i will always come back to Williams music in the end and he is the master. No living composer comes close and his output allows listening to very much material spread over a lot of different genres. Nevertheless also in my case i go through different phases. When i watched the final Battlestar season i listened to a lot of Bear Mc Creary's music, almost exclusively.I had a Start Trek phase that started with "The Enterprise" out of TMP and also had a LOTR phase. I even recently listened to the Lion King (The best Zimmer Score and one of my alltime favourites, shame Zimmer only did it twice really good -Gladiator and The Lion King). (I'm soooo looking forward to Bear Mc Crearys unbelievable season 4 and Daybreak soundtrack - if he continues on such a level he could become a new Williams) But after and between these phases i always go back to john Williams and considering i'm just increasng my Williams collection there is much new to explore. There are a lot of great Williams scores i only heard suites out of it. Over a week ago i made a great buy in Vienna's EMI music shop. I found an old Schindler's List soundtrack from 1993 and "Fiddler on the Roof Anniversal" and also a Sony special package with "The Hollywood Sound" and "The Spielberg/Williams Collaboration" and as i type that i listen to the latter. I still don't have the ET soundtrack but this CD has the "Adventures on Earth" Suite which i didn't know already and its astonishingly great. As long as i can discover such Williams juwels i will come back to JW and even if i someday will have heard most of his work i will probably have forgotten so much already that i can constantly come back to relisten with short breaks of other composers. So to put it short, there is a reason i'm on this board and i think i will never get tired of the maestro

And to be honest, some of the questions i posted are overlapping themselves and are not as respectful worded as necessary. But these should more or less be suggestions what to ask. Of course you cant ask all of them in the way they are written and some of them would be very difficult to get right without being a bit insulting. But it is important to be critical in such an interview and also to mention the dissapointments fans had about his score and the weakpoints. I'm sure a lot of you are curious what he might answer regarding a critical interview... And i did not carefully build the questions in a diplomatic way which would be required if i did the interview. Maybe i just had to get my anger about the obmitting of the original themes to paper/screen. So don't take half of my questions too serious, they couldn't be asked that way but you all get my points what problems with Hoopers approach exist and this can be mentioned in a polite and respectful way. And the other less critical half can absolutely be asked and there was also put some thought in it. For example why he changed the orchestra or why he changed the credits. Or if he reads reviews about his scores and takes that serious or not... By the way, the Potter fans will accept almost every score they get, even if it isn't that magical. But subconsciously even they rate the film worse if the score is average and better if the score is great. Wise people say that the music defines almost the half of a movie. With average music a good film stays good, with bad music a good film gets average and with great music a good film gets very good and almost great

Great, with that comment you discourage all the thought that was put into questions and regard all those who post here as dumb and not worthy to be taken serious With all due respect please think before you make a post like that. Otherwise you really can't be taken serious!!!

Nobody is interested in the standard answers we all know already before given. Like how much fun it was scoring it and what his "themes" look like. A little insight into the scoring process is interesting and new. Most of the interesting things relate to the original themes and his use because its the weakpoint of the score and nbdy really understands Hoopers behaviour. How can it be disrespectful to mention the weakpoints. I can't stand the usual cheering on everything thats done for a movie, like in dvd extras. Everyone says it was their best working experience and they are so proud and blablabla....

Great you got him for the Interview. That will be a longer post but i hope you can use my input. And i want to beg you to be critical in your interview approach, that's the only way to get satisfying answers to some of our concerns here. Even if you post the critical questions just on this board and not in the FSM issue. Please at least ask some of those . (If you dont want to ask critical questions just tell him that you got some printed questions not by you from a fan and give him a printed sheet with thecritical ones. So he at least knows about the problems a lot of us had with his soundtracks. Maybe that changes his approach if he does Deathly Hallows) Here are the questions: 1) Did you know about the dissapointment by a lot of filmmusic fans about the lack of all original themes except Hedwig's in Order of the Phoenix and if you knew, did that change your approach on the Half Blood Prince? 2) A typical phrase from director, producer, etc... regarding the abandoment of the original themes was that the films got darker and there had to be a different approach taken. In my opinion there was a lot dark original material which could have reprised as cameos just for continuities sake. Just to create a short sense of "Hey there is a known melody, great". It would in no way diminish your own work to have more short cameos of original themes just to satisfy the fans. What's your opinion about that statement? 3) Is there a special reason why you only ever played Hedwigs theme at max 20sec and stopped then. Is there no way to here it in its entirety again if you are the composer? 4) Is it true that you spoke with John Williams for Half Blood Prince and what did you talk about? 5) What is the reasoning as a composer to abandon almost all original material after 4 films in a blockbuster franchise? 6) Why did you and Mr Yates change the established ending of the first four Potter movies for OOTP from the Hedwigs Signature theme and animated Credits to a Screensaver Picture with no Hedwig's theme Cameo 7) Why do you all think just because the films changed a bit and got darker to throw away so much continuity in music. It's not necessary to change that much to keep the audience interested. Look at the Star Wars movies, they had continuity and similar approach for sicx films and were very successful. (But they also had the same composer) 8) We counted and in whole OOTP you played Hedwigs theme about 5 times for a total of 1min time in a 1hour 45min soundtrack !!!!! That's not enough for a main theme in a blockbucter franchise even if you hadn't written it. What's your opinion on that and will it occur more often and longer in Half Blood Prince. In the soundtrack it is only played for 25sec total!?!?! Why that, it is the franchise main theme after all!!! 9) Are you involved in future Harry Potter films? If so is there a chance to collaborate with John Williams on the last one? 10) I loved the "Farewell Aragog" track and i think its one of your best melodies. It would be a great theme for Hagrid. Is it somehow connected to Hagrid and may it return if you are still involved in the franchise? 11) Was the choir you used in Half Blood Prince for the great "In noctem" for example real or synth? 12) Why did you use the London chamber orchestra instead of the great LSO. Were budgetary restraints in play? 13) Is it important for you what filmmusic fans think about your approach and music? Do you read the reviews of your OOTP soundtrack? Does that change your approach for future film scores? 14) Did you know about the Williams theme for Fawkes the Phoenix from the second Potter movie? It is a fan favourite. Would you mind to cameo it in future films just to satisfy the fans? (Did you use it in Half Blood Prince for Fawkes scenes) 15) I listened to some Half Blood Prince tracks and noticed in Ron's victory you were inspired by Quidditch Third Year from PoA. That's exactly what we fans want to hear. Just some familiar glimpses of John Williams original Potter music. Thank you for that. 16) What original themes did you use except Hedwig's theme and the Quidditch Third Year motif in Half Blood Prince? So that's all i could think of by now

I swear Musica42 made this post last time I checked. ??? dont know what you mean, thats my personal opinion on this score

The Score is quite unimpressive with a lot boring tracks and always similar chord progressions. The biggest problems are the lack of any structure and themes in it. There is no build up of themes, there are very few developments of motives and no overarching plan from beginning to end. I don't understand why Hooper wasn't forced to relay more on the original Williams material if he isn't capable himself to write decent themes . I don't believe the producers dont care. If it's true what richuk said once that this score was close to rejection, the chances are very high that they will choose another composer for DH. Hooper at least managed to maintain the magical feeling while Doyle completely destroyed his movie through the lack of magical music. The sad thing is that all those Potter fanboys always cheer on the latest score even if bad like GOF or mediocre like this one. Warner could get the impression if they accept everything why bother with another composer. Hooper is also very stubborn and strange in his behaviour with ignoring most of Williams themes. He acts like a child and obmits almost all original music. He didn't even play Hedwigs theme at full once!!! If i would have been a mediocre television composer i would try to cover my music with at least a bit great Williams music to leave a better impression afterwards. He probably doesnt get that. If he would have done that and used Fawkes theme, A window to the past and Double Trouble sporadically there wouldnt be a lot discussions about him now. At last i want to mention the things i liked about this score: Aragogs Farewell is nice, Ginny (because of Hedwigs A theme and the nice motif concluding it) is good and "In Noctem" is magical music The best thing out of this soundtrack would be the recurring Williams Quidditch motif in Ron's Victory. That's a very short but great track...

Score and Movie both 5 for me. I truly love RoTS. The film had exceeded my high expectations on every level and i really think it is on par with Episode IV. Only TESB is better. Regarding the score i like TPM better but RotS nevertheless is a 5 star score for me. Mainly because there are a lot great unreleased cues which should have been on the OST with some powerhouse renditions of the force theme and the unbelievable good Padmes Procession and Building the Death Star track.

Could be, in 1:29 there is the start of the azkaban quidditch motif (just a bit changed)

The score for Brokeback Mountain had about 60 minutes score and won the oscar (Crazy Academy i know). So the 60-70 minutes of very strong Crystal Skull music is more than enough to love the score and rate it at least solid 4. There are tons of scores which only have 10-20 minutes outstanding music...( In case of the new Star Trek, just the end credits with the TV series theme)

Terminator Salvation was a mediocre film with a bad score. I never liked Elfman scores, but he rarely wrote something that uninspired. The new main theme does nothing to me and isn't even original. It is just a weak ripoff of the original Brad Fiedel Main theme. Additionally the music was mixed badly in the movie... I don't get why some of you claim that the fiedel main theme was in the movie. (Then it would have had at least some kickass music moments). There only was the start of the main theme, the short badamdamdadam motif three times overdubbed (!!!) in it. That ISN'T the Original MAIN theme, it's just a motif

If you listen to all the star trek main titles, the new one will certainly rank last. It's by far worse than even the tv main themes like voyager or deep space nine. The score is just pushed by the good movie. So the story, acting, sound and visual effects overshadow the underwhelming music.