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Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's (Philosopher's) Stone


Datameister

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Put it this way - if the A.I. sessions had just leaked, I wouldn't be celebrating very much.

well the 2 c.d academy promo has about 95% of the music

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I find AI more rewarding than what I have heard of Potter. This could change by the time I listen to the sessions, but for JW it's challenging stuff and I'm not surprised many find it boring. On the other hand, I've never made it through any of the Potter OSTs without getting bored. I'm hoping the HPPS sessions will change that.

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I'm one of the sheep JW fans that likes all the big blockbusters, not so much Nixon, Missouri Breaks or Sleepers, for instance. For me, it's more:

Star Wars Trilogy

E.T.

Jaws

Superman

Hook

Close Encounters

Indiana Jones Trilogy

Home Alone and 2

Harry Potter 1

Jurassic Park

The Mission (Amazing Stories)

Those are my favorites.

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Williams' most popular scores are popular for a reason - and it's not just the fact that the films themselves are better-known. The scores that fans frequently cite as their favorites tend to have very clear, deliberate, accessible emotional content. Williams says what he's trying to say loud and clear - or quiet and clear, but clear in any case. He doesn't bend the rules of film scoring very much at all, but he combines elements in strong, memorable, novel ways. Some people prefer his less "obvious" works, and that's fine, but I tend to gravitate toward the big titles, too.

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I think what amazes me the most about AI is Williams' ability to really "get" the material and mood of the film itself, and translate it to music. It's unbelievable.

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Danger. The A.I. and POA overpraising is now activated. The thread will detonate in T-minus 10 minutes. The option to override automatic detonation expires in T-minus 5 minutes.

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AI is a damn fine score, as I've said many times I consider it Williams' best non-franchise score of the decade. SS is wonderful too though, choosing between the two is tough. SS is Williams doing all the things Williams does best, while AI is something different. Neither style is necessarily superior in my book.

But both beat PoA.

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Danger. The A.I. and POA overpraising is now activated. The thread will detonate in T-minus 10 minutes. The option to override automatic detonation expires in T-minus 5 minutes.

I see what you did there. You made a reference to that movie. Uhhh... Happy Gilmore.

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Anyone else like The Accidental Tourist? I love that score.

Oh gosh, that is one of few Williams scores that can really bring me to tears. I hate to listen to specific tracks. I always just let the whole album play through whenever I listen to it. It's really wonderful

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I think HPSS>>> A.I.

I think it's really HPPS = A.I. (almost, but not quite, on the same level as Jurassic Park = Schindler's List)

They are both 2 top-notch scores, but in different ways. And I admit I would have liked to see HPPS win the Oscar that night...

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What a year- AI, SS, and FotR battling it out for the score Oscar that night. Why can't we have that anymore? Nowadays we're lucky to have one or two passable nominees, not to mention the recent horrid list of "winners" before Giacchino's well deserved win this year.

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A.I. and PoA are also great.

but like I said HPSS climbed into the top 5 Williams scores of all time for me

Top 5? :)

JW has written Jaws, E.T., Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, Raiders, Temple of Doom, Schindler's List, The Last Crusade, Jurassic Park, The Phantom Menace, Prisoner of Azkaban...

But yeah, for me, it's definitely in the Top 15. ;)

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It's a heavy-handed score, for sure and it stately reinforces the weaknesses of Columbus' direction. As such it was rightly critizized for its overbearing nature when the movie came out (by now, the nostalgic waxing already has set in). That it has its charm is without question, but Oscar-worthy? Hardly...

You're a fool. And you will lose...everything.

A.I. and POA are easily the most overrated scores among JW fans.

HP1 is the best score JW composed in the 2000's. My favorite since Hook. The first sign that we were in for a treat was the trailer. On November 16 it was obvious from the WB logo (all of 5 seconds of music, mind you) this was a JW modern classic.

I just got visions of angry geeks in wizard costumes yelling AVADA KEDAVRA while storming the Dorothy Chandler pavilion after the winner enevelope for the 2001 best score is opened and FOTR is proclaimed winner. Howard Shore is battered senseless till he hands over his trophy to Williams. It takes an incredulous, openmouthed Williams to calm the geeks down - they only leave when he promises to take care of the whole Potter saga - and that one jolly tune with celeste and swirling strings will from now on attached to any motion picture score he will write in the future. This day then is declared as official holiday by JWFan.

:)

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My bad for bringing the old argument "A.I. vs HPPS" up again uselessly.

I too believe A.I. is a superior work and probably even more deserveful of an Academy Award, but I didn't want to make charts. I'm such in awe of Williams' artistry when listening to HPPS that I wrote the statement more from the guts than the brain (and yes, I think he should have won for it, in my very humble opinion).

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I just got visions of angry geeks in wizard costumes yelling AVADA KEDAVRA while storming the Dorothy Chandler pavilion after the winner enevelope for the 2001 best score is opened and FOTR is proclaimed winner.

I had a similar mental vision in 2002, only it was angry fans in Dumbledore outfits outside Warner Bros. demanding first film be released in widescreen in Australia, then a security guard comes out and sprays them away with a high-pressure hose.

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My bad for bringing the old argument "A.I. vs HPPS" up again uselessly.

I too believe A.I. is a superior work and probably even more deserveful of an Academy Award, but I didn't want to make charts. I'm such in awe of Williams' artistry when listening to HPPS that I wrote the statement more from the guts than the brain (and yes, I think he should have won for it, in my very humble opinion).

Shame on you. :)

Hey it's all opinions. HP:SS is a good score from Williams but in my opinion, he's done better.

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My bad for bringing the old argument "A.I. vs HPPS" up again uselessly.

I too believe A.I. is a superior work and probably even more deserveful of an Academy Award, but I didn't want to make charts. I'm such in awe of Williams' artistry when listening to HPPS that I wrote the statement more from the guts than the brain (and yes, I think he should have won for it, in my very humble opinion).

Well, there's no right or wrong here. It's a matter of taste. ;)

I bet if you looked hard enough there are people who prefer the Indy IV score to these 2. But that doesn't mean he or she is wrong!

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Hey it's all opinions. HP:SS is a good score from Williams but in my opinion, he's done better.

I think it was perfect for the film. My problems with the score (twinkly, a little childish occasionally) are matched with flaws I see in the film.

I'm not going to say no one could've scored it better, because that's fanboy talk and total rubbish, but it got the score it needed.

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I dont know if this has been suggestend (probably yes) but just in case.

The most feasible reason the early teaser music is not on the recording sessions is because it does not belong to those recording sessions. (It was recorded way before, and with other orchestra, probably one in the US).

So its a case of just bad luck for us. (now if you even add the musix box guys...)

If this score if officially realeased by one of the good labels we will probably have it.

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Tyler Bates maybe. His brilliant, original score to 300 demonstrated he would be perfect for the job. C'mon! Overly loud, plagiarized passages from Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within or Alien 3 with a loud choir to demonstrate Harry's loneliness since the death of his parents.

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  • 3 weeks later...

My edit runs just over 160 minutes, apparently (I also added the COS Harry's Wondrous World, to make the Children's Suite complete), so I'll have to burn it to three discs.

Is anyone interested to make a nice back and front cover for me for the third disc? I'm going to include the extras on that one, including both the suite for orchestra, and the CS.

The front cover should include the phrases "Children's Suite" and "Suite for Orchestra". The side spine is good if it's only the title of the film and "Children's Suite". Oh, and please leave space on the back cover for me to include the tracklist. Thanks in advance!

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My playlist is now 57 tracks, 2:23:38 in length. I removed the Owl's Flights, Diagon Alley inserts and the other alternates since they don't really do anything for me and I don't consider them necessary. I also settled on using the album versions of Quidditch Match, Harry's Wondrous World and Hedwig's Theme. I still have The Wizard's Pub, Christmas Music Box, Hagrid Plays the Flute and Fluffy's Harp programmed in there, although I may get in the mood to remove them or sequence them at the end. I like Christmas Music Box too much to delete it. I have Cast a Christmas Spell, Christmas at Hogwarts (album) and Hedwig Tries a Cookie at the very end of my playlist, although I've been skipping them.

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Could someone please list which cues from this set are not used in the film? I haven't got the DVD to check! ;)

So far I think I've figured out that 'Owls Flight' isn't, are there any more? Simple answers please! ;)

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"Potter Logo Version 1", "Lonely First Night", "It's Guarding Something", "Troll in the Dungeon", and "Owl's Flight" are completely unused in the scenes for which they were written. "Potter Logo Version 1" was tracked into "You're a Wizard, Harry", and "It's Guarding Something" and part of "Troll in the Dungeon" were tracked into the scene when the kids sneak out and petrify Neville.

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I listened to a good chunk of my set this evening, and noticed one thing: any time the music is meant to be scary or dramatic, it's ruined by 'playful' or 'comical' touches such as woodwinds/xylophone, and in the case of Face of Voldemort, to be absolutely frank, completely ruins it.

Even if he's more technically capable than many composers working today, he sure has a very strange idea of what's appropriate for communicating danger or tension. Maybe it worked in movies 30 years ago, but I don't think it does now.

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The woodwind/xylophone licks you're talking about aren't usually intended to be playful or comical. They're supposed to convey a sense of...chaotic tension, I would say. That's interesting that you hear it differently.

Now, Williams waaaaaaaay overuses that these days, or at least uses it in too much of a "starring role", but the problem isn't that it sounds lighthearted, IMO. And I'm really not sure what you're hearing in "The Mirror Scene"...there's none of that whatsoever. For a family movie, it's pretty dark scoring for a pretty dark scene.

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I'm talking about the very end where that 'ghostly' thing knocks Harry down. The music descends into a twinkly mess.

Chaotic tension? I guessed that's what it meant, but no, it doesn't work for me at all. I prefer subtler ways of conveying things.

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Well, a lot of KOTCS is more a self-parody than an actual Indiana Jones movie. And I think John understood that it was a comical fun movie, nothing serious. And after all, none of the Indy scores have been really serious. Sure, they had fight music or scary music, but definetly not serious.

I still say that the score from KOTCS is awesome. Maybe it wasn't as thematically developed as a lot of people expected, but if your hear The Jungle Chase and don't feel excited then you should probably stop listening to new Williams scores and stick to your favorites.

And I think it was a more cohesive listen than the second and the third prequels. Sure, maybe it hasn't got as much personality of its own as TPM, but there are plenty of fantastic moments to enjoy.

It's supposed to not be serious, after all. Stop taking everything seriously. It was a fun blockbuster movie, nothing more. Same with the other Indy movies and the Star Wars movies. There are far more engaging films out there that deserve the same or more praise that these ones get.

Just my two and a half cents. Like someone cares, anyway.

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