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Tracklist for New Potter Film.


Ollie

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"Ginny" has a VERY Williams-esque rendition of Hedwig's theme, complete with the swirling celeste line underneath the melody. It's very nice. :)

That it does...if only the same Williams-esque quality could extend throughout the whole score!

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Well Hooper did speak to Williams, apparently.

What did they talk about?

The Weather ? ROTFLMAO

"Ginny" has a VERY Williams-esque rendition of Hedwig's theme, complete with the swirling celeste line underneath the melody. It's very nice. :)

That it does...if only the same Williams-esque quality could extend throughout the whole score!

Okay, I have heard two full cues today on aol radio, and none of them was close to William's style; very much like the last Hooper score, just... well, more boring.

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I've listened to over half the score now and whilst I am impressed with the general improvement over OotP, I am concerned again with the number of tracks that just seem to amble in the low strings without actually going anywhere. There is however enough variation between tracks for me to genuinely like this album. I read a comment over at the imdb forums saying "this isn't real soundtrack music, Harry Potter needs a soundtrack like The Dark Knight." In my books that's a seal of approval for Hooper!

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It's disheartening to see TDK considered a benchmark for all future scores.

But this is the same population that considered Powell's Hancock 'background elavator music to give shopping centres a sense of calm and well-being'. God help us all.

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I really doubt that many gave Hancock a second thought, especially considering how crap the film was. If I didn't buy the score after hearing you talk about it I would have never realized, and the casual movie fan who would make such a comment would have no such knowledge (not that I think Hancock is all that impressive either).

I'll have to see about this new Potter though, as I've been disappointed by the last few scores for some odd reason.

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Well I thought Hancock was a half-decent film, and I still love the score to bits - my point was a general one though.

My opinion of the last two has completely reversed. Doyle's is way too bold and brassy, and some of it just annoys me. Whereas the worst thing about Hooper's is it just doesn't go anywhere much of the time, but when it's good, it's decent, functional and appropriate Potter music. Shame about the synth choir.

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I've listened to over half the score now and whilst I am impressed with the general improvement over OotP

Improvement? good lord,that a snoozefest. This is the worst Potter soundtrack

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I'd say HBP and OOtP are about neck and neck for me. Both have some nice highlights, areas of great boredom, and a lack of any real themes or cohesiveness.

But I consider it evidence that Hooper is a weak composer, not that Williams is automatically superior. There are so many other composers who would've written better than this in their sleep.

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If Hooper is a weak composer, doesn't that make Williams automatically superior?

Why couldn't it have been Murray Gold? There's a guy who can write some themes.

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I can't even find a track to put on some kind of "film score highlight" playlist

and yes Williams is automatically superior. Williams is a legend and is not even in the same plane of existence as Nicholas Hooper. I don't get how some people get their perspective

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It's decent, but I was bored by it, probably not my kind of score. The highlight would be the Quidditch theme from POA and even that doesn't sound too well.

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Williams is a legend. Nicholas Hooper is not even in the same plane of existence.

That's better.

I'd say HBP and OOtP are about neck and neck for me. Both have some nice highlights, areas of great boredom, and a lack of any real themes or cohesiveness.

But I consider it evidence that Hooper is a weak composer, not that Williams is automatically superior. There are so many other composers who would've written better than this in their sleep.

BRUCE BROUGHTON!!!!!!!

If anyone deserves to score a HP it's him.

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James Hannigan could do it. He's been scoring the Harry Potter games better than Hooper's been scoring the films.

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BRUCE BROUGHTON!!!!!!!

If anyone deserves to score a HP it's him.

Yeah, I could live with that, or with a score by [virtually any experienced composer out there except for Tyler Bates and the like]

I have heard now enough of the sore to become thoroughly disappointed. You would never imagine that this is music for a probably action-filled, engaging, emotional FANTASY movie. I sort of liked the last score, but now that even Umbridge's theme is gone and there is nothing to really replace it other than a Latin chant without a memorable melody... Speaking of melody... Hooper is really the master of anti-melody; his stuff is about as complex as what I had to play in my first piano lesson. I guess almost anyone with a keyboard and synth choir could come up with comparable stuff. Okay, parts of it may be pleasant to listen too (if you don't fall asleep), but overall.... Please, John, what do we have to do to get you back?

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I know my opinion on this is quite unpopular, but I really do want Horner to do Harry Potter.

He would at least fit in my [any... ] space. Horner can write magic if he wants to or is inspired... and even his self-rip-offs like Pagemaster are way superior fantasy scores in comparison to Hooper's approach

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After listening to the score in full, I have to say that Hooper has blown his audition for DH. Williams has to come back, it's the only logical option. Plus, the rest of David Yates' crew is already listed at IMDB, except for the suspcious absence of Nicholas Hooper. I don't understand how the people at Warner Bros let this score happen - it's not completely awful, but it's just not exciting enough for the major plot developments in HBP, plus they had another 6 months to fix it! Williams could have easily written a new score in 6 months - anyone could have! I don't know, I do feel like Williams will be back, I'm expecting the announcement within the next few weeks...

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James Horner before 1990 would have been perfect for HP. In fact I mentioned that while listening to the opening of Something Wicked This Way Comes I felt that I was listening to a glimpse of what a Horner scored Potter film might sound like.

After listening to the score in full, I have to say that Hooper has blown his audition for DH. Williams has to come back, it's the only logical option. Plus, the rest of David Yates' crew is already listed at IMDB, except for the suspcious absence of Nicholas Hooper. I don't understand how the people at Warner Bros let this score happen - it's not completely awful, but it's just not exciting enough for the major plot developments in HBP, plus they had another 6 months to fix it! Williams could have easily written a new score in 6 months - anyone could have! I don't know, I do feel like Williams will be back, I'm expecting the announcement within the next few weeks...

The IMDB is nothing to go on. Composers are usually the last to be attached to a film. The fact that the score remains in the film probably shows that Yates was satisfied.

Mediocrity in movies these days does not suprise me. Transformers 2 has nearly made $300 million in about 10 days.

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I really doubt Warner gives a damn about the score, the movie will pretty much make the same amount of money no matter who scores it, unless maybe if Hanna Montana did the music, then it would make more.

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Correct.

I'm sure Warners would would love to find some best selling artist and have them contribute a song or two. Fortunately its been reported that JK Rowling has refused to go that route.

It was also reported that Warners did everything they could to keep Williams on the first three films.

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Well, I just listened to the score in its entirety. For the most part it's just not very engaging. My biggest complaint is the orchestrations are totally unimaginative. Many of the tracks progress all the way through with scarcely a single instrumentation change or climax making for a very flat listening experience. As an example of this I cite "In Noctem," "Snape & The Unbreakable Vow," "Wizard Wheezes," "Dumbledore's Speech," "Living Death," "Into the Pensieve," "The Book"...okay I think I've satisfied myself that I wasn't making an unfair statement. Granted from track to track the tone obviously shifts, but another complaint would be if there IS an overall arc to this score I certainly didn't catch it on my first listen. It also suffers from a lot of boring homophonic passages (they're all the rage these days, aren't they). When I think of Harry Potter, John Williams' constantly burbling string lines and countrapuntal brass passages are the first things to spring to mind. "CHORD - CHORD - CHORD" does not service the Potter franchise in the same way and there's too many tracks of just that in this score. Typical examples of this can be found in "Opening," "In Noctem," "Snape & The Unbreakable Vow," "Dumbledore's Speech," etc etc.

There's very little within this score that carries an identity specific to the Potter Universe (with a few notable exceptions). It's generic enough that many of the tracks could just as well have been titled "Fantasy Theme #3B" and sold as needle drop production music for student or low budget films. In short, its a disappointment.

Based on the first listen the only track I'll be adding to my 'Master Playlist of Awesome' is "Farewell Aragog" which although a little cliche was still a very pretty listen.

I should note that I'm typically a pretty harsh first listener and grow more fond of things as I listen to them more, so I'm sure given a few more listens I'll rescind a few of the things I've said here.

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Must be loud enough in the movie then.

The Variety one almost seems a bit like written by a fanboy.

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It was also reported that Warners did everything they could to keep Williams on the first three films.

Given the way the movies have gone it was probably a good idea to jump ship.

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Based on the first listen the only track I'll be adding to my 'Master Playlist of Awesome' is "Farewell Aragog" which although a little cliche was still a very pretty listen.

not quite there for me. I thought the only tracks that didn't completely suck were Ginny because of Hedwig's Theme and The Weasly Stomp.

and to prove I'm not acting like a total Williams fanboy , Hooper's score to OotP was 10X better than this one

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It was also reported that Warners did everything they could to keep Williams on the first three films.

Given the way the movies have gone it was probably a good idea to jump ship.

You know it's a violation of message board rule 8.5.2 to question that Williams actually doesn't want to score anymore HP films.

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Mr. Olivarez, you go right on quoting regulation.

and to prove I'm not acting like a total Williams fanboy , Hooper's score to OotP was 10X better than this one

Oh dear. That's the most striking comment I've seen yet. Maybe I should sample this before purchasing.

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It was also reported that Warners did everything they could to keep Williams on the first three films.

Given the way the movies have gone it was probably a good idea to jump ship.

You know it's a violation of message board rule 8.5.2 to question that Williams actually doesn't want to score anymore HP films.

Right... but how is that sort of close-mindedness different from your 100% certain statement that Williams couldn't possibly want to come back? We've heard conflicting things about what happened with GoF and whether Williams really wants to return for DH. I wouldn't pretend to know what he's thinking.

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I actually play OotP once in a while. It's no Williams but still enjoyable to listen. HBP is probably a "one timer" and I'll put Weasley Stomp on a playlist somewhere

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I completely agree with Paleo's take on the score. It's hollow, it is not memorable at all, and it is not dramatic to me in the slightest. It is boring, useless, filler music that may barely even serve the scenes they are meant to accompany. Listening to it all the way through made me feel quite angry afterwards, actually. Like others have said, they had so much time to fix this score if they wanted to, but didn't. I am very, very scared of the fate of The Deathly Hallows. I am already not a big fan of David Yates's take on the films. I certainly don't think he has the talent to pull off any thrilling action, if the last film was any evidence, and from what I heard from this new one of him skimping out on the action in the finale. For anyone who has read the final book the last two films will be based on, there is one major setpiece of action to the next. It should feel thrilling and exciting, and I am worried it won't at all. Which is a huge, huge shame.

Though I am already worried about Yates, I am more worried now about Hooper. His style of music, which has now shown to be quite worse than I originally thought, will NOT work with the final story. It truly won't, if they really are doing it like the book and filling it with as many scenes as they can. I hope Warner Brothers will realize this and choose someone- anyone- to replace him and go for someone more action-oriented or even just capable of dramatic music.

I think now is an appropriate time for me to pull out this petition I did for John Williams to do Deathly Hallows a long time before all of this. It was posted in JWFAN news sometime before the Indy box set came out, and got about 500 sigs. Well let's add more... and maybe we can at least show Warner Brothers we are NOT happy.

All of this has actually made me quite angry as to how it could all turn out. I'm fearing the worst.

http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/William...lows/index.html

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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...

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Williams won't do the next movie, it's something we have to deal with and get over it.

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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...

I swear Musica42 made this post last time I checked.

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This score is a stinking pile of doodoo. Absolute rubbish.

1. Prisoner of Azkaban

2. Goblet of Fire/Sorcerer's Stone

3. Chamber of Secrets

4. Order of the Phoenix

5. This new pile of drivel

Bring on Broughton!

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Reading this thread, I'm not even getting this score.

I might see the movie, though... but it's definitely not a must-see.

Williams won't do the next movie, it's something we have to deal with and get over it.

Yes. You do that, Diego.

1. Prisoner of Azkaban

2. Goblet of Fire/Sorcerer's Stone

3. Chamber of Secrets

4. Order of the Phoenix

5. This new pile of drivel

The tracks "Fawkes the Phoenix" and "Chamber of Secrets" alone are better than Goblet of Fire the entire album, but OK, that's your opinion.

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