For now JKR and JW have gone their separate ways. With my fan-hat on I hope that the introduction of a new composer was just a temporary glitch in the Potter-works. Although with my sensible hat on I desperately hope that I'm proved completey wrong by Patrick Doyle's music. Otherwise I am surely just setting myself up for dissappointment? I've listened to the soundtrack twice through now, and my reaction is a mixed one. The biggest danger of turning each Potter book into a film is that we lose the sense of it being a series. This is something I felt Peter Jackson dealt with effectively when making Lord of the Rings: he kept three distinct films without losing the sense of continuity. It is a mark of the way this has not been done in the Harry Potter films that the music in goblet of Fire pays little homage to its musical predecessors. Bearing in mind that there have so far been 3 directors for 4 movies, one of the things which balanced the scale to remind us that it is indeed a series was the consistency in composition. Instead of honouring the legacy that has helped create the success and distinctiveness of the project, Doyle has only paid it lip-service. He has chosen instead to follow his own route. Some call it brave. Others call it foolish. I'm going to wait and see how it fits in with the film before I make a final judgement. But in the meantime... I'm in love with Harry Potter's Love. I have been on the verge of tears listening to it, it's absolutely beautiful. Perhaps exactly what you'd expect from a non-Williams love theme, but I can't wait to see how it's going to be used in the film. The Story Continues and Foreign Visitors Arrive are both strong, memorable tracks. They are good themes which I imagine would be returned to at various points. And Voldemort sounds surprisingly familiar, with very similar chord patterns to Shore's score for Tolkien's trilogy. Magic Works is my favourite of the Weird Sisters tracks. Some have suggested that (particularly in light of the "international" flavour of The Quidditch World Cup) Doyle has made the soundtrack "broader in terms of culture and expression". Well, only in the sense that the storyline required that of the soundtrack. The story itself is more broad in those terms. The same people observe that Williams' theme for Hedwig was "happy-clappy" wheras Doyle has made it more approriately sinister. These critics seem to have forgotten the nature of the stories. They are getting darker as the story goes on you see? To have a sinister Hedwig's Theme in Philosopher's Stone (note I'm deliberately resisting dumbing-down for my American friends) would have made no sense, as would a happy-clappy one in Goblet of Fire. Such comments add no more to the discussion than to say "Oh good, the composer knows the story then!" Some have said that John Williams' music was never more than "background music" and thank Doyle for finally giving the series a "score". Now, I must be careful because this particular opinion is from someone who has seen the film. But I do disagree. The mark of a score is not only that it goes along well with the movie, but that the music stands up in its own right, once the frenzy of the film has faded away. It's not an overstatement to say that this is one of the hallmarks of music by John Williams. My own experience shows this. I am one of many people across the world who loves the music of John Williams and owns many of his CDs. And yet, I have never seen an Indiana Jones movie, and only seen one Star Wars movie. I am content with the music as it stands. It's so much more than background music. On the contrary, I would say that it is Doyle's music which sounds more like "filler" a lot of the time. There are strong themes, some which I love. But there are also some pretty awful ones. "Hogwarts March" I cannot stand. I thought this film was supposed to highlight the British boarding school aspect of life more than ever before? So why on earth do we have an awful track that sounds like it's been taken stright from an American High School's marching band practice? A sense of magic has been lost in Doyle's ideas. And the waltzes of this movie will never stand up to Aunt Marge's. I hope I'm wrong. I hope that the way these pieces are used puts my criticism to shame. But the fact that the music needs the film to come to its defence already shows a weakness in the concept.
