SCORE: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (John Williams) - A Complete Score Analysis

[BloodBoal 7,541]

Too late for that! Well, not too late, you still got a week, but that seems difficult to achieve...

[Incanus 5,828]

Darn!

Oh I have made some revisions, mostly small, correcting typos etc. to the original post in the past months.

[BloodBoal 7,541]

What? You're making Director's Cut (well, Writer's Cut would be more appropriate) of your reviews, now?

[Incanus 5,828]

Well not a writers cut as such but it is easy to correct some small mistakes and it is also tempting. This is the world of internet. It is always on the move Bloodboal, always changing. So I improved my analysis a bit. It is not like I wrote new paragraphs to explain the existence of the older ones.

[Jay 40,305]

Well not a writers cut as such but it is easy to correct some small mistakes and it is also tempting. This is the world of internet. It is always on the move Bloodboal, always changing. So I improved my analysis a bit. It is not like I wrote new paragraphs to explain the existence of the older ones.

[Incanus 5,828]

If I may be so bold as to inquire, where has the analysis from the main post disappeared to?

[BloodBoal 7,541]

It has been taken hostage, and LeBlanc won't give it back until you release your Chamber Of Secrets complete score analysis!

[Jay 40,305]

I didn't do a thing!

Hmm, if you hit Edit on the main post its all still there. Weird!

I'm leaving for work now, and when I get there I'll figure out why it isn't displaying

[BloodBoal 7,541]

I hope for Inky's sake that he kept the original Word file. If not, well... Shame.

[Jay 40,305]

I just said its all still there!

[BloodBoal 7,541]

You edited your post!

[Incanus 5,828]

I just had to go to the Edit where the whole text was hiding and press Save Changes and now the text is all there. Phew! Luckily I do have a back-up file of the text.

This major crises has passed. Nothing to see here! Except the analysis of course! Read it!

[BloodBoal 7,541]

[Incanus 5,828]

Don't get your curls in an uproar! I'll finish my The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey analysis first!

[SafeUnderHill 205]

[BloodBoal 7,541]

[KK 3,308]

While Incanus is finishing his up, you can always take a look at my own analysis in the meantime

http://music-muse.com/2012/12/28/the-hobbit-an-unexpected-journey-howard-shore/

[Incanus 5,828]

Inky hasn't finished it yet. He's been quite lazy recently, but he told me it should be up within a week.

Thank you BB, always nice to get honest feedback. I will try to finish the Hobbit analysis/review ASAP. Life and work and all that secondary stuff intervened in a most unfortunate way in these past few months.

And in the meanwhile KK's excellent review is a good way to get into the analysis of the musical world of the Hobbit score.

[SafeUnderHill 205]

[JohnnyD 1,369]

I was curious about something:

Regarding Diagon Alley (2M4); does it segue with the scene in which it portrays?

I was always interested in wanting to see how John Williams' original composition plays out in the film.

[BloodBoal 7,541]

From what I remember people saying here and there, the cue is longer than the scene in the film, so there was probably some footage that was cut, and that's why they tracked Entry Into The Great Hall into that scene instead (because the original cue didn't fit with the new edit of the scene).

[JohnnyD 1,369]

Hmm; interesting. If that is the case, I would be interested to see any additional sequences that made the scene longer.

I would still love to hear how John Williams' original composition plays out in that scene.

[dennis 0]

This Score Analysis is really wonderful!

I am trying to watch the film and go step by step with the score analysis.

I have a question: Just after they come back from the zoo and the Uncle says 'There is no such thing as magic' we have a scene where Petunia takes pictures of Dudley asking him to 'Smile'

In my humble opinion, this scene till when Harry goes to pick the post, is not part of 1M3 and I doubt exists in any track.
Is it possible to double check?

Thanks in advance,

Dennis

[JohnnyD 1,369]

That scene you are referring to is a deleted scene later included in the extended edition.

The scene was not part of the original cut that John Williams scored. Therefore, the scene you refer to uses tracked music from another cue.

[Incanus 5,828]

That scene you are referring to is a deleted scene later included in the extended edition.

The scene was not part of the original cut that John Williams scored. Therefore, the scene you refer to uses tracked music from another cue.

Exactly. As far as I know Williams scored none of the deleted scenes.

[dennis 0]

That scene you are referring to is a deleted scene later included in the extended edition.

The scene was not part of the original cut that John Williams scored. Therefore, the scene you refer to uses tracked music from another cue.

Exactly. As far as I know Williams scored none of the deleted scenes.

Thanks a lot guys! That was very helpful!

[JohnnyD 1,369]

The only exception is in the extended sequence of The Flying Car in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. That deleted section was part of the original cut that John Williams scored.

[TheUlyssesian 2,590]

A couple questions.

 

1. Am I mistaken or is what you call the Philosopher's Stone motif re-purposed to a general Voldemort/dark magic theme. I seem to recall it being used in Chamber too?

 

2. What you call Harry's Wondrous Theme and Harry's Family theme. I think the former is one of the most elusive ideas that Williams has written. It is an absolutely outstanding theme but harmed by being so vaguely associated. I don't know what I am listening to when I am listening to it. So the Family Theme is clear, it is played often and kinda represents Harry's orphan-hood and loneliness and his yearning and memory for his family. It plays when he is alone at night at Hogwarts and thinking about them and then in grand fashion when Hagrid gives him his family album. But what about the Wondrous theme. I seem to recall one famous application, when he wins the Quidditch match for Gryfinndor. What are the other instances and what can be associate this theme to?

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,488]

1- it was misappropriated for COS, yes.

[Jay 40,305]

1. A theme repurposed in a later sequel is somewhat outside the scope of this article, no?  Now sure, it COS it got repurposed as a kind of general mystery theme, we all know that, but is that supposed to be mentioned in this analysis?

 

2. What theme are you talking about?  The one that opens the track called "Harry's Wondrous World" on the OST?  That's just the b section of Hedwig's Theme.

[Incanus 5,828]

1 hour ago, TheUlyssesian said:

A couple questions.

 

1. Am I mistaken or is what you call the Philosopher's Stone motif re-purposed to a general Voldemort/dark magic theme. I seem to recall it being used in Chamber too?

 

2. What you call Harry's Wondrous Theme and Harry's Family theme. I think the former is one of the most elusive ideas that Williams has written. It is an absolutely outstanding theme but harmed by being so vaguely associated. I don't know what I am listening to when I am listening to it. So the Family Theme is clear, it is played often and kinda represents Harry's orphan-hood and loneliness and his yearning and memory for his family. It plays when he is alone at night at Hogwarts and thinking about them and then in grand fashion when Hagrid gives him his family album. But what about the Wondrous theme. I seem to recall one famous application, when he wins the Quidditch match for Gryfinndor. What are the other instances and what can be associate this theme to?

Harry's Wondrous World theme is used only a few times in the film, always in conjunction with Harry's moments of triumph or happiness in his new world and to denote the friendship with Ron and Hermione. Williams seems to reserve this theme for only select pivotal moments like the Quidditch victory and winning of the House Cup. You could call it Heroic Harry theme but I chose to use Williams' title for poetic reasons and the composer does elaborate on the idea in the end title/concert suite.

[TheUlyssesian 2,590]

19 minutes ago, Incanus said:

Harry's Wondrous World theme is used only a few times in the film, always in conjunction with Harry's moments of triumph or happiness in his new world and to denote the friendship with Ron and Hermione. Williams seems to reserve this theme for only select pivotal moments like the Quidditch victory and winning of the House Cup. You could call it Heroic Harry theme but I chose to use Williams' title for poetic reasons and the composer elaborate on the idea in the end title/concert suite.

 

I like that idea. I really think the franchise needed a theme for the trio. I would have loved for it to play whenever they meet for the first time after holidays or something like that. What an amazing theme, sadly did not gets its time in the sun.

[Incanus 5,828]

The Family theme is clearly the dominating one of the two ideas in HPPS. While Williams might not always adhere to strict/slavish thematic application he seems to clearly separate the use of the two. Family theme is the one associated with Harry's lost family but also with his new friends, the Wondrous World is more about those heroic triumphant moments he experiences during his first year at Hogwarts and which he shares with his friends.

[oierem 188]

4 hours ago, Incanus said:

The Family theme is clearly the dominating one of the two ideas in HPPS. While Williams might not always adhere to strict/slavish thematic application he seems to clearly separate the use of the two. Family theme is the one associated with Harry's lost family but also with his new friends, the Wondrous World is more about those heroic triumphant moments he experiences during his first year at Hogwarts and which he shares with his friends.

And the WW theme is more extensively used in Chamber of Secrets (both film and album). But indeed, there are only a few appearances of the theme in the first film, which is somewhat odd, considering that it got a whole concert suite (again, this is a case of the concert suite being the logical CONCLUSSION to the musical journey of the film, and doesn't belong in the beginning of the CD album).

[Skelly 271]

3 hours ago, oierem said:

And the WW theme is more extensively used in Chamber of Secrets (both film and album).

 

It is? Off the top of my head I can only recall it being used

- As the boys are driving away from the Dursleys

- As they approach Hogwarts

- During the end-of-film Great Hall sequence

[Pieter Boelen 840]

5 hours ago, oierem said:

And the WW theme is more extensively used in Chamber of Secrets (both film and album). But indeed, there are only a few appearances of the theme in the first film, which is somewhat odd, considering that it got a whole concert suite (again, this is a case of the concert suite being the logical CONCLUSSION to the musical journey of the film, and doesn't belong in the beginning of the CD album).

I wonder to what extent Harry's Wondrous World was written as a suite of a specific theme and to what extent as the finale of the full Children's Suite.

If I understand correctly, Williams wrote the Children's Suite together with the film score, with different sections of the orchestra playing different themes.

Then for the finale, he joins the entire orchestra together with several of the previous themes in HWW.

So I could imagine it was part of the Children's Suite first until they figured it was such a good track, it should be included in the film too.

 

I base this idea mainly on the fact that HWW's contains several themes, including the Family and Quidditch themes.

So that makes it more similar to an end credits piece than a concert suite in my mind.

 

On the other hand, the full Hedwig's Theme also consists of two themes: Hedwig's one and the Nimbus 2000 one.

So that makes the OST concert suites for the first Harry Potter film quite curious compared to Williams' regular "single theme suites".

 

I reckon this is because Williams was really, truly inspired by Harry Potter.

[mrbellamy 6,878]

17 hours ago, Skelly said:

It is? Off the top of my head I can only recall it being used

- As the boys are driving away from the Dursleys

- As they approach Hogwarts

- During the end-of-film Great Hall sequence

 

Also when Harry's looking at the scrapbook at the beginning and when he meets up with Hermione in Diagon Alley. Might be a few other small references.

 

On 10/28/2016 at 0:29 AM, Incanus said:

Harry's Wondrous World theme is used only a few times in the film, always in conjunction with Harry's moments of triumph or happiness in his new world and to denote the friendship with Ron and Hermione. Williams seems to reserve this theme for only select pivotal moments like the Quidditch victory and winning of the House Cup. You could call it Heroic Harry theme but I chose to use Williams' title for poetic reasons and the composer does elaborate on the idea in the end title/concert suite.

 

Agree. I also suspect that the two themes were a strategy by Williams simply to avoid repetition in the ending. The first film really has two endings, both similarly cathartic moments for Harry and musically both very big and constantly building pieces. I wonder if Williams looked at those two sequences and decided he would need two related but distinct themes so as to give each their own musical identity and not feel like the same beat was repeated twice. So throughout the film and score, you have the friendship/triumph theme essentially building to the House Cup moment while the home/family theme builds to Leaving Hogwarts.

 

It's one of the many successes of Williams' score IMO that musically he was able to really give both the House Cup and Leaving Hogwarts the feeling of these equally huge emotional climaxes back-to-back, and yet one seems to lead into the other without the latter feeling redundant.

 

On 10/28/2016 at 0:49 AM, TheUlyssesian said:

I like that idea. I really think the franchise needed a theme for the trio. I would have loved for it to play whenever they meet for the first time after holidays or something like

that. What an amazing theme, sadly did not gets its time in the sun.

 

I've always thought it would have been nice at the end of 4, 5, and/or 6. Especially 4 and 6, they have those warmly comedic interactions where the "playful" motif could have worked leading into the friendship/"Wondrous" theme. Boo hoo!

[TheUlyssesian 2,590]

1 hour ago, Pieter_Boelen said:

I wonder to what extent Harry's Wondrous World was written as a suite of a specific theme and to what extent as the finale of the full Children's Suite.

If I understand correctly, Williams wrote the Children's Suite together with the film score, with different sections of the orchestra playing different themes.

Then for the finale, he joins the entire orchestra together with several of the previous themes in HWW.

So I could imagine it was part of the Children's Suite first until they figured it was such a good track, it should be included in the film too.

 

I base this idea mainly on the fact that HWW's contains several themes, including the Family and Quidditch themes.

So that makes it more similar to an end credits piece than a concert suite in my mind.

 

On the other hand, the full Hedwig's Theme also consists of two themes: Hedwig's one and the Nimbus 2000 one.

So that makes the OST concert suites for the first Harry Potter film quite curious compared to Williams' regular "single theme suites".

 

I reckon this is because Williams was really, truly inspired by Harry Potter.

 

The children's suite and harry's wondrous world are entirely different beasts. Children's suite is truly a minature - small performances, often solos of melodies.

 

Harry's Wondrous world suite is a gigantic symphony in comparison with extremely dense and brilliant orchestration and a very sophisticated flow between 4 (or up to 6) themes and motifs depending upon what you count. It is one of the standout tracks of his career. The sheer grandeur and envoloping warmth and majesty of it all is breathtaking.

 

And like you say,  if you count the main harry potter theme as 2 themes,  then hedwig's theme track actually has 3 themes. Even the flying theme as an A and B part.

 

This score is simply overflowing with imagination, Williams was spinning theme after theme after theme in a way that literally no one else can do.  And his orchestration remains the most sophisticated and elaborate in Hollywood.

[Pieter Boelen 840]

1 hour ago, TheUlyssesian said:

The children's suite and harry's wondrous world are entirely different beasts. Children's suite is truly a minature - small performances, often solos of melodies.

True for parts I-VIII of the Children's Suite. Part IX is Harry's Wondrous World though according to the opening post.

It is the Chamber of Secrets version with the extended finale though, which was not actually written for CoS at all but for the Suite.

[Incanus 5,828]

11 hours ago, Pieter_Boelen said:

True for parts I-VIII of the Children's Suite. Part IX is Harry's Wondrous World though according to the opening post.

It is the Chamber of Secrets version with the extended finale though, which was not actually written for CoS at all but for the Suite.

It is a bit like Benjamin Britten's A Young Person's Guide to An Orchestra type of affair where different instrumental groups are highlighted until they are drawn together in the finale but Williams illustrates them with different themes, not variations on a single one like Britten. Williams says in the notes for the Children's Suite about Harry's Wondrous World:

Quote

With all the miniatures presented, the suite concludes with the entire orchestra as it explores many of the themes heard throughout "Harry's Wondrous World".

 

My guess is that Williams conceived the piece with a dual purpose in mind, as an ending for the suite and as part of the end credits. The revision for the Children's Suite is nothing new for Williams who often revises his compositions for the concert setting. Another good example of his revised concert material ending up on a sequel album is The Lost World where the Theme from Jurassic Park for the end credits uses the revised concert suite version of both the "dinosaurs" theme and the "JP fanfare" theme where the opening is considerably faster and the fanfare section is beefed up a bit and it concludes with the T-Rex Rescue & Finale ending fanfare.

[Manakin Skywalker 5,510]

I don't think I've ever seen the trailers for the first film until this week, so I didn't really know too much behind the story of Hedwig's Theme for the trailer. I was wondering though what orchestra performed Hedwig's theme for the 2 minute trailer... sounds like it could be the Hollywood Studio Symphony. Anyone know if this recording has ever been made public or leaked?

[Incanus 5,828]

I seem to remember reading that the trailer music house that produced the original trailer managed to destroy the tapes for the original trailer recording of Hedwig's theme. HERE is a thread discussing this.

And I do believe it was a Hollywood studio orchestra that performed the music.

[Brundlefly 2,399]

It's not that new any more, but still an amazing analysis! When it comes to a complete release of the score, I'm especially looking forward to cues like The Chess Board. I love minimalistic atmosphere cues like that.

[Incanus 5,828]

Thank you! I hope it was of some entertainment and illumination to you. 

[Richard P 4,375]

On 8/2/2017 at 8:01 AM, Incanus said:

I seem to remember reading that the trailer music house that produced the original trailer managed to destroy the tapes for the original trailer recording of Hedwig's theme. HERE is a thread discussing this.

And I do believe it was a Hollywood studio orchestra that performed the music.

 

Giving Magic Box Music the only copy of a piece of music seems like the only mistake that was made, if indeed it was the only copy. You can't blame them for a machine eating the tape.

 

I've never been particularly clear on exactly what the primary themes represent; further muddied by the naming 'Hedwig's Theme' when it doesn't have anything to do with Hedwig.

[Incanus 5,828]

51 minutes ago, Richard Penna said:

I've never been particularly clear on exactly what the primary themes represent; further muddied by the naming 'Hedwig's Theme' when it doesn't have anything to do with Hedwig.

To my mind the main thematic material has been very clear in HPPS. Hedwig's theme is clearly the over-arching theme for the whole story and magic in general, which has become the whole franchise theme by now. Williams' initial impression or musical trigger from the story seems to have been the image of the white owl and the weightlessness of flight and the magical feel of it, hence the name of the theme of course. While writing a lot of specific character themes throughout his career, not all of his thematic ideas have a strict leitmotific quality and Hedwig's theme is one of them. 

[#SnowyVernalSpringsEternal 10,488]

I agree with the White Wizard.

[bollemanneke 3,708]

I read your analysis months ago, but as the thread is being bumped now, it might be a good time to say thank you for this. I especially liked how you described the sheet music at times, which was especially interesting for me because I can't read those handwritten sketches. Really made some wonderful discoveries thanks to this.

[Incanus 5,828]

Thank you.

 

Originally I began writing this analysis as a way of getting to know this particular score deeper. I wouldn't say that I didn't know it but I was intrigued to find out the minute details of Williams' compositions and how the architecture of the score related to the narrative of the film. Which was actually even more intricate than I had given it credit for.

[Brundlefly 2,399]

Is there an analysis of the second film's score on this forum? All I can find is those four photos of the sheets with the cues.