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Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 1 by Alexandre Desplat


Josh500

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I found the bonus tracks "Voldemort" and "Dumbledores" to be mere underscore for the most part, as was "Bellatrix" but I thought the latter was actually quite exciting to listen to. Glad we have that track at least! I actually am anxious to hear the music that will be in the Limited Edition set that plays for "The Tale of the Three Brothers". I initially thought the track titled "The Deathly Hallows" was for this part of the film until I saw the bonus track list. It'd be interesting to hear Desplat's music for that animated portion of the film as Hermione tells the story...

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Yup. While the "big set" is heralded for having six bonus tracks, three of those are the same that we can get today from iTunes.

I don't have a problem spending $4.50 on iTunes for three bonus tracks, but I don't want to spend $65 or whatever for three more bonus tracks.

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I'd never heard a Desplat score before HPDH1 -- somehow I'd managed to avoid every film he's composed for. In any event, I genuinely enjoy listening to this score. It doesn't have the Big Theme™ that I so often enjoy, but it otherwise sounds quite "lyrical". And you can certainly tell that Desplat is providing a very Williams-esque sound (once again, without the usual iconic Williams theme(s)). I read previously in the thread that Desplat is minimalist. If that's so, perhaps someone can enlighten me (a thoroughly non-musical film score fan) what that means in the context of this score?

Many thanks!

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Without getting into too much detail, minimalism is when a composer takes a simple rhythmic or melodic idea and repeats it ad nauseum over the course of a piece, either developing it or adding new layers to it, etc, all while retaining semblance of the original idea.

Of course, a lot of people just toss around the term when they don't hear long melody lines or dense textures and complex harmonies or busy writing. For a lot of people minimalist means just "minimal."

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Ok... allthough I like the Desplat score..

why, why so much effort for a Videogame - this is indeed more memorable then what Desplat has come up with

http://harrypotter.ea.com/DE/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Harry-Potter-and-the-Deathly-Hallows-Part-1-Game-Theme-Extended.mp3

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Ok... allthough I like the Desplat score..

why, why so much effort for a Videogame - this is indeed more memorable then what Desplat has come up with

http://harrypotter.ea.com/DE/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Harry-Potter-and-the-Deathly-Hallows-Part-1-Game-Theme-Extended.mp3

For this composer's sake I hope Danny Elfman doesn't play videogames.

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Ok... allthough I like the Desplat score..

why, why so much effort for a Videogame - this is indeed more memorable then what Desplat has come up with

http://harrypotter.ea.com/DE/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Harry-Potter-and-the-Deathly-Hallows-Part-1-Game-Theme-Extended.mp3

For this composer's sake I hope Danny Elfman doesn't play videogames.

What Elfman is in there? I don't think the style is particular Elfmanesque

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It doesn't sound that remarkable to me. It's the kind generic fantasy music that makes you go: "WOW! Amazing!" at first. But when you listen to it again... Well, to be honest, you probably won't ever listen to it again, because you won't remember about it as soon as it's finished playing.

Karol

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It doesn't sound that remarkable to me. It's the kind generic fantasy music that makes you go: "WOW! Amazing!" at first. But when you listen to it again... Well, to be honest, you probably won't ever listen to it again, because you won't remember about it as soon as it's finished playing.

Karol

Very well description of Desplat's Potter soundtrack but i never wowed at all. But it's so true that you won't remember about it as soon as it's finished playing. The motives are so generic and unmemorable.

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The video game piece started promising but suddenly plunged into the awful trailer music style choral chanting. Is there anything more generic these days? The ending with the melancholy slower theme was actually the best part, not the bombast of the beginning.

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What are we talking about here? Desplat's score or the video game music?

In the last couple of posts? The video game music.

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That video game music is from the HP7 game, composed by James Hannigan.

I reckon he did a pretty good job on HP5 and HP6, especially HP5 since he used John Williams' themes nicely in there (not on album, but available elsewhere).

The HP7 theme sounds pretty good to me and I'd like to hear more, especially if familiar themes get used again as well.

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The film starts with a quiet statement of Hedwig's Theme similar to the one used in the beginning of HBP, thank God!

I think I may have heard it a couple of other times in cues not on the album, but I have to see the film again to be sure.

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First the Hedwig statement during the Warner Bros. logo,

then Scrimgeour's speech and then the Obliviate cue starts.

The title of the film shows up during the beginning of the Snape to Malfoy Manor cue.

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I'm a bit confused as the timeline goes. We see a montage of everyone leaving and prepping, and yet, we then cut to see the meeting in the epilogue. Snape says "saturday after next"

So what... Harry sits alone in his bedroom (the next scene) for...two weeks??

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I did. It was all tracked, no suite was specifically played. I forget exactly which tracks it used, but I know it included "Lovegood" (which didn't it not play during the actual scene in the film?), "Fireplaces Escape", and "Sky Battle".

There is no extra scene after the end credits, for those who always wonder when watching movies, heh. The only Harry Potter film to feature anything after the end credits was "Chamber of Secrets" (a short scene of Diagon Alley, with a book titled 'Who Am I?' with Gilderoy Lockhart on the cover in a straightjacket).

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I've seen the film today and, while it doesn't quite highlight the music to the extent I wanted to, it actually sheds some light as to why the score is the way it is. Well, to be honest, there is no place for JW's like music in here. It's not Desplat's fault, really. The film itself doesn't allow this kind of fantasy treatment. Any kind of deviation would have been too much. It isn't that heavily scored, which is a good thing. And there is no significant material missing, maube apart from few very faint statements of Hedwig's theme. It's usage as a "dying innocence" theme is an inspired idea. So in the end, I would put a blame on the general approach to this story rather than on a composer. He just scored the film accordingly. And it makes for much more satisfying album now that I know the context (I haven't read the book).

Karol

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Yes, it takes like 5 seconds of screentime so the only thing that highlights the moment in any way is the music really. But even then you're in the middle of an action scene so there's no time to linger on it.

Karol

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Glad the bird was at least of some use during the series. He may be a "smart bird you've got there, Mr Potter", but what use is it if it doesn't actually do anything!

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I did. It was all tracked, no suite was specifically played.

*adds another point to the "Why Deathly Hallows is unremarkable" list*

I forget exactly which tracks it used,

What a great testament to the score's lingering impression.

Ok... allthough I like the Desplat score..

why, why so much effort for a Videogame - this is indeed more memorable then what Desplat has come up with

http://harrypotter.ea.com/DE/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Harry-Potter-and-the-Deathly-Hallows-Part-1-Game-Theme-Extended.mp3

Sounds heavily like King Kong.

Hannigan's Main Titles for parts 5 and 6 were much better.

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