New Project: John Williams Potter Scoring

[Potter Scoring Project 547]

Hi everyone! Today we have a short cue for Dumbledore's Escape (cue 28), as well as one of the last Umbridge cues in the movie, Cue No. 29: Umbridge Takes Over. Hope you enjoy!
 

@Pieter Boelen, that's a great suggestion! We'll add that to the Soundtrack CD Presentation page this week. Thanks for all your interest!

[Potter Scoring Project 547]

Hello everyone! We have some final slow-paced emotional moments before launching into the last third of the score. Hope you enjoy Cue No. 30: Grawp and Snape's Worst Memory!

[Potter Scoring Project 547]

Today is the day the twins finally get to best Umbridge! It's also the day Voldemort finally succeeds in luring Harry into his evil plan. Enjoy Cue 31: The Weasleys' Exit!

[Potter Scoring Project 547]

Hi all, here is a tense 4-minute cue before Dumbledore's Army leaves Hogwarts. Today we present Cue No. 32: Caught by Umbridge and the Centaurs!

[WampaRat 1,105]

I was finally able to listen through all the cues you’ve composed so far for Order of the Phoenix. I’m truly amazed at the attention to detail and thought put into each one of these cues to capture Williams approach and style. I had genuine goosebumps in a handful of cues. Brilliant work. Bravo! 

[Potter Scoring Project 547]

@WampaRat Thank you so much for your comment! It means a lot to us to hear that and we're so glad to know your impressions so far! We hope you'll like the ending, and let us know what you think.

Also, today's the day! We get to break into the Ministry of Magic and begin the finale of the movie! Enjoy Cue No. 33: The Department of Mysteries.

BP

[Potter Scoring Project 547]

Tragic moments call for over-the-top scoring. We're super excited to release a cue we've waited a long time to finally share - Cue 34: The Veil and Death of Sirius. Let us know what you think!

[bored 306]

I love the newest cue! My only issue is the repeat of "Window To The Past" when Sirius dies honestly just feels too happy, and kind of lacks the emotional impact. I get it's supposed to contrast from when Sirius escaped (arguably when he was happiest), but I think at the least a new / darker key signature for the theme would have really helped push the trauma and sadness Harry feels. 

[Demosthenes 1]

Wow, the death of Sirius hurt! I loved how the Window to the Past theme started slow, as Harry struggled to process, and then got louder and faster as Harry was more filled with grief and rage. So much better than the original!

 

[Potter Scoring Project 547]

Good to hear from you both again! We're glad to hear you've liked the cue.

@superultramegaa Thanks for the feedback on Window to the Past. In terms of the arrangement used here, recalling the letter to Sirius in cue 15 was more at the forefront of our minds, but we definitely wanted to capture the emotions from Prisoner of Azkaban as well. It also connects us to the fact that Harry's still only 15 and needing that connection he discovered when Sirius escaped. But we also see your point about key signature and appreciate the input. It would be an interesting alternate arrangement!

MS

Thank you @Demosthenes for your comment, it was definitely a balance pacing this as it goes so quickly. We're glad you like it - with this project being an "alternate universe" version of the score, we purposely didn't base it off anything Hooper wrote, and always made sure we steered towards what JW might have done. We hope he'd approve!

BP

[Potter Scoring Project 547]

Hi everyone, here we have the final setpiece in the climactic ministry battle!!

We hope you enjoy everything in Cue 35: Battle with Voldemort and the Possession.

[Potter Scoring Project 547]

We've reached the end of another year at Hogwarts! It's hard to believe it's here already. Enjoy the bittersweet ending to Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix with Cue No. 36: The Second War Begins and Cue No. 37: The Prophecy and Leaving Hogwarts Again. Stay tuned for the end credits next week!

[redishere 697]

Whoa, you did such an amazing job. I can't get enough of this, I can't wait to listen to the full album! I obviously already downloaded Goblet

[bollemanneke 3,337]

Same! I haven't listened to anything anymore since cue 3 because I wanted the whole experience.

[bored 306]

I really enjoyed it as well! So much more fun and interesting uses of themes than the original. Not sure how I feel about HP4, because of the aesthetics of the cheaper instruments, but composition-wise it was well done, and I loved the inclusion of the old themes.

 

HP5 however, is basically what I always wanted from that movie's score! With the numerous callbacks to POA's score, (and of course the first 2 movies' motifs) with new, distinct, and well thought-out themes that will carry through the dark half of the series. 

 

Your team did a great job at capturing the Williams sound and magic. 

[Potter Scoring Project 547]

Thank you to all three of you! We've certainly expressed this in other responses to comments, but it means the world to us to see that this project has become more than our private hobby! The full album is coming, we promise! In the coming weeks after the end credits are out, we're going to get right on it.

It was a lot of work switching DAWs and getting new sample libraries for OOTP, but we wanted to do JW's material justice and had a lot of fun expanding from Goblet of Fire. We are so glad to hear that you all have enjoyed it and extend our sincerest thanks for your compliments!

BP

[redishere 697]

On 1/21/2021 at 6:08 PM, Pieter Boelen said:

Really wished one day this music could be performed by a proper, full orchestra; and really do it justice.

 

Oh god yes. That would be amazing, and I have a feeling that not a lot of people would notice it's not written by good ol' JW, original themes flow so well into the ones Williams wrote, and vice versa. 

 

[Potter Scoring Project 547]

@redishere dude thank you so much. The biggest challenge was sidestepping my own writing style so I could have it sound as authentically Williams as it could. Means a lot that you’d say that! 

 

BP

[Potter Scoring Project 547]

Due to some technical difficulties and scheduling conflicts, we will be posting the end credits this Wednesday, March 24th. Thank you for your patience and support!

In the following Sundays, we will have: Order of the Phoenix concert works (for Luna and the Order theme); Order of the Phoenix full downloadable audio, a sync-able track to the movie, and digital booklet; an original soundtrack presentation arrangement; and deleted scenes. Stay tuned!

[WampaRat 1,105]

Oooh. Looking forward to the ost arraignment:) While I enjoyed listening to the complete score, I would definitely listen to your curated presentation of the material more frequently. 
 

This all must take a obscene amount of time on top of your full time job and other obligations. I hope this growing body of work bares a lot of fruit and success for you soon! Have you shared this with other Harry Potter fan outlets and such? Im sure fans would love to hear this as well.

[Potter Scoring Project 547]

Thanks @WampaRat! We're so excited to see enthusiasm around the post-score releases - we're having fun putting them together, so we're glad you enjoy them too. Your appreciative words mean a lot to us!

In terms of fan sites, we haven't shared it much besides here because of not wanting to get sued... but we did see that @Pieter Boelen mentioned it on youtube a couple months ago, and are thrilled to see it being discussed in a couple places! 

 

 

 

And finally, the end credits are here!! It almost broke my poor laptop, but it hopefully stands as a fitting wrap-up to the giant last half of the film. I also linked the audio file for the end credits in case anyone wants listen that way. We truly appreciate everyone's support and comments and are so happy to share this with you all today! 
Cue No. 38: End Credits

 

MS

[FrankFWJH 6]

Great work! I hadn't been keeping up since the early cues of OoTP from last year, but I took the time to catch up the other day and just finished your end credits. As an interpretive project (in terms of capturing Williams' style), it's a fantastic piece of work, and the creativity involved is quite breath-taking in terms of where you take existing motifs, and your own new ones. Listening to the end credits, the part that just 'felt' most like Williams to me was at the transition into Buckbeak's flight at 7:30, hit the nail right on the head. I suspect it's those magical textures that surround the melody. 

Anyway, again huge congratulations. Apologies (as I can guess you've been asked these questions many times, I tried to look through the recent comments but with the sheer volume of feedback you've gotten it would take ages!), but I have a couple of questions if you'd be obliged to answer.

Firstly, of course, are you thinking of moving on to the Half-Blood Prince for your next project?
And secondly, hearing these cues I'm thinking all the time what they would sound like with an orchestra, particularly in places that I mentioned where you've hit Williams' style perfectly, with the sound an orchestra brings they'd sound exquisite. I'm wondering if you've ever considered setting up a patreon or gofundme to raise funds for investigating that, or is it just something you're not interested in doing?
Again, endless praise for where this project went! 

[Potter Scoring Project 547]

@FrankFWJH Wow, thank you so much! We're so glad to hear you enjoyed OOTP, and it's really exciting to see that people are going through the whole score now that it's done. Our sincerest thanks for your compliments. Getting the interpretive stamp of approval from JWFanners is all we could have hoped for when this project was just a pipe dream.

In terms of Half-Blood Prince..... 


 


And regarding crowdfunding, it’s not been on our radar, but if there's interest, we would love to venture out into that realm. Getting cues recorded by a live orchestra is the dream! Due to costs (and likely a copyright war with WB), it’s probably not going to happen anytime soon.

Huge thanks for your amazing support and we're excited for more Ravendor Potter scoring coming up!

MS & BP

[bollemanneke 3,337]

I honestly can't see an orchestra recording any of this music. The copyright hurdles seem to be unimaginable to me.

[Potter Scoring Project 547]

We've updated the concert works page to include the Order theme and Luna's theme! Next week - full score!

 

Hope you enjoy the Concert Arrangements.

[redishere 697]

On 3/26/2021 at 6:56 PM, Ravendor Studios said:

In terms of Half-Blood Prince..... 

My heart skipped. Can't wait for the full album version of OOTP, and for whatever you have in store for us! Great, great work!

On 3/26/2021 at 8:56 PM, bollemanneke said:

I honestly can't see an orchestra recording any of this music. The copyright hurdles seem to be unimaginable to me.

 

Same here, unfortunately. They could probably only record their fully original themes (which would be really cool nonetheless!)

[FrankFWJH 6]

On 3/26/2021 at 5:56 PM, Ravendor Studios said:

@FrankFWJH Wow, thank you so much! We're so glad to hear you enjoyed OOTP, and it's really exciting to see that people are going through the whole score now that it's done. Our sincerest thanks for your compliments. Getting the interpretive stamp of approval from JWFanners is all we could have hoped for when this project was just a pipe dream.

In terms of Half-Blood Prince..... 


 


And regarding crowdfunding, it’s not been on our radar, but if there's interest, we would love to venture out into that realm. Getting cues recorded by a live orchestra is the dream! Due to costs (and likely a copyright war with WB), it’s probably not going to happen anytime soon.

Huge thanks for your amazing support and we're excited for more Ravendor Potter scoring coming up!

MS & BP

You're very welcome! 

And thanks for answering those, I'm really looking forward to see what you have in store going forward. Good luck!

[Potter Scoring Project 547]

Hi all,

Thanks for all of your support! It really means a lot to us.

Here's the complete audio for Order of the Phoenix. As with Goblet of Fire, we posted a movie-length track that can be synced to your copy, as well as FLAC and MP3 folders of individual cues.
https://sites.google.com/view/ravendor/extras/5-complete-score

We hope you enjoy!

MS & BP

[Faleel 5,330]

Listened up to No. 33 so far @Ravendor Studios, some thoughts:

 

1: The horn theme taken from AOTC in the COS cue Harry Meets Lucius needs to come back in one of these if possible.

 

2: More folk/renaissance instrumentation ala PoA please

[Potter Scoring Project 547]

On 4/5/2021 at 6:33 PM, Falco said:

Listened up to No. 33 so far @Ravendor Studios, some thoughts:

 

1: The horn theme taken from AOTC in the COS cue Harry Meets Lucius needs to come back in one of these if possible.

 

2: More folk/renaissance instrumentation ala PoA please

Thanks so much for listening @Falco!  Those are two specific things that we really love so stay tuned  


For today, we've had people express interest in an OST presentation, and we're so excited to be delivering an OST for Order of the Phoenix! Hope you enjoy this arrangement of the score. 
https://sites.google.com/view/ravendor/extras/5-soundtrack-cd-presentation

[WampaRat 1,105]

Oh yeah! I was one of those people. Can’t wait to give this a listen.

 

Just from looking at your selection, I like how you placed the concert arraignments where some of that thematic material comes into play in the complete score. Similar to the Force Awakens album arrangement. I love that.

[Potter Scoring Project 547]

@WampaRat Thank you!! The sequel OSTs were definitely on my mind when assembling this, and I'm glad you enjoyed it. It definitely helped with the pacing of the album, balancing between lighter/darker/emotional and including the most important content.

 

Today we've posted some temp score demos of alternate ideas that came up along the way! https://sites.google.com/view/ravendor/extras/temps-and-demos

MS

[Potter Scoring Project 547]

We've got some deleted scenes today - it was fun tracking music for these bonus scenes to match the rest of Order of the Phoenix, with some material from the original 3 scores as well. Hope you enjoy! https://sites.google.com/view/ravendor/extras/deleted-scenes

[RomanticStrings 10]

I am excited to see what you do with *SPOILER* Dobby's death. I've tried to work out his theme from COS but I can't make it funereal or eulogic. But there's something stirring in the second half of the theme...

 

Wonderful reference to the Dies irae for the thestral in "Introducing Luna and The Feast".

[Potter Scoring Project 547]

@RomanticStrings thanks for your comment! So funny you said that. The other day I was thinking about *SPOILER* Dobby's death too. Right now, it's in the daydream phase since Hallows is so far away but I'm so excited that other people are interested in it too. Using the second half of the theme from COS came to mind but I did notice that Desplat kind of referenced the idea as well, and I'd rather not rip him off... but we'll see. 

 

Thank you for noticing the dies irae in Luna and the feast - I always have so much fun throwing those in.

 

BP

[Potter Scoring Project 547]

Hi all - 

Today we have a page about the process behind this project. We've had people express interest in how it came together, and we wanted to share the background and the research that was involved. 

You may have also noticed that we changed our name today - this is because we've just published our professional website, and would like that to come up in Google results! You can check it out here to see our other projects.

 

We've loved hearing from you, and hope you like the details about how these scores came to be.

[Potter Scoring Project 547]

It's official! Half-Blood Prince will be posted starting June 6th!

 

We've loved hearing from all of you and we thank you so much for all of your enthusiasm. We'll be pausing weekly posts for two weeks, then updating the Process of the Project with more details about HBP before posting the first cue. Stay tuned and huge thanks to all of you for listening!

 

[Potter Scoring Project 547]

Hi everyone! With HBP beginning one week from today, we updated "Process of the Project" and thought we'd share a little statement about the score on the website. Click here to see it and hope you'll enjoy! 

[Cerebral Cortex 3,357]

18 minutes ago, Potter Scoring Project said:

Hi everyone! With HBP beginning one week from today, we updated "Process of the Project" and thought we'd share a little statement about the score on the website. Click here to see it and hope you'll enjoy! 

 

These are such a joy to go through. I admire all of the hard work and effort that you all have been putting behind these. Thanks so much for your contributions to the community. So glad you are tackling HBP. 

[WampaRat 1,105]

Loved reading about the process! Very much looking forward to a Williams-esque take on (IMO) one of the weaker HP scores. 

 

This entire project is just terrific. So niche and nerdy and a dream come true 😃

[mrbellamy 6,272]

On 4/27/2021 at 7:09 PM, RomanticStrings said:

I am excited to see what you do with *SPOILER* Dobby's death. I've tried to work out his theme from COS but I can't make it funereal or eulogic. But there's something stirring in the second half of the theme...

 

I can't remember if I ever shared it but I once literally just rewrote Desplat's cue with Williams's Dobby theme 

 

 

And a version using Williams's original harmony instead at 0:57 -

 

 

Hopefully not stepping on your toes there @Potter Scoring Project, I trust you will come up with something more original

 

I haven't gone through all these but the new Window to the Past variations in OOTP are really nice, thank you for writing those.

[bored 306]

On 5/31/2021 at 6:58 PM, mrbellamy said:

Hopefully not stepping on your toes there @Potter Scoring Project, I trust you will come up with something more original

 

It'll be hard to top Desplat's blending of his theme for Ron, Harry, and Hermione with Williams' Dobby theme, but I'm sure they'll figure something out.

[mrbellamy 6,272]

2 hours ago, superultramegaa said:

It'll be hard to top Desplat's blending of his theme for Ron, Harry, and Hermione with Williams' Dobby theme, but I'm sure they'll figure something out.

 

Would love to know whether that was intentional or not. I still remember freaking out at that listening to the soundtrack for the first time and then having second thoughts once I realized that Dobby-esque figure is just part of the Obliviate/trio theme. 

 

I also have to think it's much more likely coincidence since if he had the thought to do that on purpose, why would he also write a whole other theme for Dobby. But it's good happenstance. 

[bored 306]

5 hours ago, mrbellamy said:

I also have to think it's much more likely coincidence since if he had the thought to do that on purpose, why would he also write a whole other theme for Dobby. But it's good happenstance. 

 

I would agree, but the last minute has several statements that sound almost exactly like a sad version of the initial phrase of Williams' theme. 

[mrbellamy 6,272]

I don't agree with that one. Wish somebody could just ask him, though! Doubt anyone ever will. 

[bored 306]

The amount of things I'd ask composers about thematic material...

[mrbellamy 6,272]

And the number of restraining orders we'd receive

[RomanticStrings 10]

As a sometimes composer, taking a look at pieces I've written several years past, I can say that most of the time I have no idea what I was thinking. Though, other times, I can remember precisely where I was and how I felt when I wrote specific pieces or moments...

[bored 306]

Interesting, as I'm usually the opposite when composing. I usually remember how I was thinking about constructing the piece, and my thematic intentions first, and what state of mind I was in second. 

[Potter Scoring Project 547]

Thanks, everyone! This feedback means so much to us, we are super glad you're looking forward to HBP!

 

On 5/31/2021 at 6:58 PM, mrbellamy said:

 

I can't remember if I ever shared it but I once literally just rewrote Desplat's cue with Williams's Dobby theme 

@mrbellamy that is awesome, and we're excited to tackle this scene when we get there. I felt the same that the theme reference was amazing but possibly unintentional, but I'd join in on the restraining-order-receiving for that one. 

 

For today - we're so excited to be releasing the first cue from HBP! Thank you to all who have listened to the first two scores we've put out! We probably wouldn't have gotten to this point had there not been a response. (Actually that's a lie, we may have, but it makes it so much more fun to have other fans to share this with.)  Here's Cue No. 1: Opening and the London Attack!

 

MS