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J.K. Rowling didn't like JW because the music didn't sound English enough? Fact or fiction?


Tallguy

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On 26/07/2022 at 2:04 AM, Docteur Qui said:

Not to my knowledge, which is a shame because she's certainly reaping the benefits of having such an incredible sonic brand for her empire!

 

Still sour at the fact she vetoed Williams' original plans for the Children's Suite from Philosopher's Stone, it could've been a wonderful project in the vein of Benjamin Britten's Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra. While I respect that she didn't want Potter to be used for educational purposes, the fact is that it would've been an exceptional way to introduce a new generation to the orchestra and further establish Williams' music as valid within the classical canon and as standard repertoire for the symphony orchestra. Thankfully the Live to Projection concerts have all but done that anyway, and you'd be hard-pressed to find an orchestra around the world that hasn't performed sold-out concerts featuring his music.

 

she doesn't have taste and doesn't understand things

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This is a forum to discuss music and movies and not the place for having a back-and-forth about cancel culture and gender identity.

 

You can continue to talk about John Williams' music and Rowling's possible thoughts on it, but not her stance on political issues.


Thank you.

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Okay, so back on topic: I remember Cuarón once said that he wanted the music to be more English, but don't understand how that translates into the score. Medieval/baroque instrumentation doesn't make something English, right? Or did he mean the sweeping WTTP statements? (Another typical English score I just thought of: War Horse. I can clearly hear Vaughn Williams' influences there. If anything, that makes HP1 and 2 sound like Tchaikovsky.

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1 hour ago, Taikomochi said:

Plenty of rich people who are also big dumb bitches. No amount of money gonna help JK escape her status as a big dumb bitch*.

 

*for her alleged opinions on the music of John Williams
 

 

 

 

this is funny because what rich people and specially very rich people obviously want all the time is prestige, societal approval. and also "experiences". many show a somewhat consistent motivation, in the absence of having lives to fix or survival issues.

 

and so that's why The Rings of Power exists.

 

it would be very interesting to have Jowling Rowling's opinion on the JW music, if she ever paid attention to it, so long as it isn't empty platitudes.

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I don't remember her ever mentioning or praising JW's music in an interview.  So I'm guessing he wasn't her first choice

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Would Rowling have even thought about the music much? It kind of sounds like from everything I've heard that she was mainly preoccupied with the actors being English before much of the crew. Hell, Kloves and Columbus being American would make it appear that it wasn't a particularly big priority on who some of the key people were as long as it was partly a British production.


Also, would this be a good place to mention Newell's "real" reasoning for not going for Williams on GoF?

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2 hours ago, Edmilson said:

Can we just rename this thread to "The Official 'I Hate J.K. Rowling' Thread?"

 

No. She made Harry Potter. Whatever the missteps of the books or her personal opinions she's very singular in that regard.

 

Maybe it seems like just an appetite for dirt, but I'm honestly interested in her opinions on the adaptations of her material. I mean if you say that you don't like John Williams even AFTER he wrote music for your books that seems like it's always been there (IMHO of course) I'd like to know if you have reasons other than just being contrarian.

 

Say what you will about the films but as adaptations go they're much more faithful than, say "The Hunt for Red October".

 

I remember in the last book when Neville was described as "tall" I knew that the movies had seeped back into the books. Like when Ian Fleming made James Bond Scottish.

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3 hours ago, HunterTech said:

Also, would this be a good place to mention Newell's "real" reasoning for not going for Williams on GoF?

 

Probably because he found it less important to accommodate Williams' (or his agents) demands (be that schedule, rough cut availability, temp track refusal, etc.) than to have easy access to a colleague and fellow (ahem) brit. I think there would be a fair number of board members here who - put in the stressful position of having to direct a billion $ franchise - would also have second thoughts on having another potential nightmarish production problem on their hands, and from what i read about the subject, we cannot imagine how many factors and variables you have to juggle.

 

Bottom line: it's way down the importance ladder, compared to i. e. actors or location shoots.

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Newell made it quite clear that he did not like JW's music. Also, he had worked with Doyle before.

There was never any possibility of JW scoring GOF, as long as Newell was attached. @publicist is right: the choice of composer is not that high on film studios' list of priorities.

As much as I would have liked to have heard eight HP scores by JW, instead of three, what we have got are three of his most popular scores, and three truly great extended pieces of work.

 

 

 

On 29/07/2022 at 1:18 PM, GerateWohl said:

Probably because the movie itself isn’t working very well.

 

I'm not a huge fan of GOF, but I will happily concede that it is the best directed Harry Potter film.

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On 31/7/2022 at 6:43 AM, Naïve Old Fart said:

Newell made it quite clear that he did not like JW's music. Also, he had worked with Doyle before.

There was never any possibility of JW scoring GOF, as long as Newell was attached. @publicist is right: the choice of composer is not that high on film studios' list of priorities.

As much as I would have liked to have heard eight HP scores by JW, instead of three, what we have got are three of his most popular scores, and three truly great extended pieces of work.

 

 

 

 

I'm not a huge fan of GOF, but I will happily concede that it is the best directed Harry Potter film.

 On a big production, studio/producers can overrule director.

 

 With Star Wars sequel trilogy, Williams was not negotiable. Any directors coming in would have to use Williams.

 

WB could have done that too - told Newell Williams is non negotiable.

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His schedule would have been tight, but not "non-negotiable".

He could have finished GOF, in July, and worked on MUNICH and MOAG (which he only did as a favour to Spielberg), August thru November.

Still, we've got what we've got.

From now until December, he could write two scores, if he wants to...

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5 hours ago, Holko said:

Having JW's incredible Geisha and Doyle's fantastic GOF is absolutely the best case scenario IMO.

YES. I personally never ever wished he had done GOF. 5 and 6, maybe, but Doyle would have been my first choice after 4. 7 and 8 are fine, 7 being very intellectual, but suffer from awful directing choices.

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10 hours ago, Nick1Ø66 said:

Did Rowling say something negative about JW's music? If so, I haven't heard about it.

 

There was a claim that she somehow didn't want Williams' children suite released in connection to the first movie, though the reasons for that never came out. More didn't happen. 

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9 minutes ago, bollemanneke said:

It wasn't a claim, it was fact: MM said she didn't want anything HP perceived as educational.

What a ‘mainstream’ close minded view. 

 

children books are suppose to encourage children to read!

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