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Where there any circumstances in HA2 that limited the abiliy of Williams to work in the movie? With CoS, we know that he wasn't able to devote himself fully to the score, which makes the reprising music somewhat more forgiveable.

The original poster seemed to be asking our favourite FILM edits of music (=edits made by the filmmakers to fit the final cut of the film), not the album edits created by Williams to present a better listening experience. But everyone seems to be talking about the album edits instead.

Can't provide the timecodes, but I can tell you the statements that are actually on the film. There are very few, actually: -Bounty for a wookie (Boushh negotiating): the first tuba statement is unused, but the second one (on woodwinds) is used. That's actually the only "big" appearence of the theme. -"Han Solo Returns" was not used, but was replaced with an insert, which does contain a more sinister version of the theme (low woodwinds) -"Luke Confronts Jabba" has a really short statement of the theme when Jabba is awakened. That's in the film as well. And tha

If I'm not mistaken the insert is meant to replace the first section of the "wizard band" portion of the cue (not the way it's presented in the LLL soundtrack). In the film Hermione's feather is used exactly where the cue was meant to begin. Then the original cue starts later than it should and goes into more tracked music. I'm sure Jason is able to explain it much better than I did.

But many of them are unused in the actual film. Only a few statements survive.

It's definitely an old-fashioned way to arrange an album, considering that nowadays the "mass market of people" very seldom listen to a full CD. But I see the point of Williams wanting to present a "concert version" selection of the score. However, I've never been able to understand the point of presentig the full version of the main theme(s) both at the beginning and ending of the album. Most of the times (as Williams himself likes to describe often), themes are presented gradually through the film, until they are stated fully towards the end. That sounds like a good "concert version" wa

Generally speaking, I'd say the main theme of any score is the theme that is heard most prominently/frequently. Based on these two aspects, the "Childhood" theme is clearly the winner: it's (by far) the most quoted theme in the score, and has many prominent moments. It's definitely the theme that a regular viewer would hum after watching the movie - the one that sticks out the most. Before I had any active interest in film scores, "Childhood" was one of those melodies that I knew and identified with the movie. Long before I even paid attention to other themes.

That "prologue" theme does appear twice more in the score: first in the unused section of the first Hook-Peter scene and later right before the final duel begins. But I agree with you: Childhood (which I've always considered Wendy's theme or the Neverland theme, following John Takis' analysis of the score) is clearly the main theme of the score.

About "Images of Sean", if I'm not mistaken, according to Jason's spreadsheet the first two minutes of the cue are actually two alternative versions that score the same thing (Anderton watching Sean's hologram), and therefore, the beginning of the scene should not have any music. Am I remembering it correctly?

That's right, but I think some of it also has to do with the traditional way Williams works. He writes one score at a time, and doesn't do multiple recording sessions (except for the recent SW films). That leads to some very early scoring (January/February for a May release for each of the prequels, for example), with no oportunity for late revisions or additional music.

The score was recorded in January 2002, four months before the premiere (and earlier than both TPM and ROTS). Hardly "the last minute". Williams could've scored the scenes if the recording sessions were conducted in March. I don't know they had to record so early because of the schedule of the LSO or because Williams needed to start on Minory Report by February.

I think Nemesis is referring to the fact that Williams began scoring the first few reels without having watched the entire film (because it was still being edited). I believe Hook and War of the Worlds are the only two cases (at least with Spielberg) in which Williams had to start scoring without having watched the whole film. The film was released in December 1991 and started shooting in February of that same year. So yeah, it was a short production period for such a big film.

I basically agree with this. The Chamber theme is much better used and explored in the concert version than in the film cues. It's a shame Williams didn't have the chance to use the theme to its full potential in the movie (basically, by removing all the quotes of the Stone's theme and substituting them with the Chamber theme). And I agree about Fawke's theme as well: its use during the film is really excellent, and the interludes of the concert version aren't my favourites.

He compared the first two books, saying that HP1 was harded to adapt because it was very episodic, and the actual plot doesn't start until the second half of the book.

And the booklet of the Special Edition double CD contains a list of all the takes recorded for every cue in the film. Main title was recorded 5 times, with significant differences, and the last three were used to create the final edit.