Music in Harry Potter

[lucy.1908 0]

Heyy

So in Harry Potter there is cool music and now I am writing an essay about that and how the music influences people who are watsching the film. I would love to know what JW thought while creating those masterpieces. How did he manage to get the emotions across??

I would die for an answer.

[QuartalHarmony 543]

Have you looked through any of the huge number of discussion threads on this forum about the Harry Potter music? There's lots there you should find helpful.

 

The Search function (at the top of your screen) will also be useful.

[Bespin 8,484]

I'm not an expert, but here's what I think about John Williams' inspiration. I believe it often originates primarily from an element not directly linked to the main characters. In the case of Harry Potter, wasn't the main theme composed in honor of a "bird"? Potter's owl, Hedwig, specifically. In Jaws, wasn't the main motif inspired by a shark? In Jurassic Park, didn't he effectively capture the enchantment provoked by the discovery of the existence of real dinosaurs? Milou has his own theme in Tintin, the Force has it's own theme in Star Wars, etc. There are numerous examples explaining how an animal, a real or fictional creature, or even a 'concept', seems to trigger a sense of wonder in John Williams, which then permeates the entire score. Perhaps John Williams' genius comes from his ability to marvel at such creatures and convey his own emotion through his music.

 

Granting a voice to things that don't have one...

[bollemanneke 3,352]

I do think this ian interesting question that hasn't ever been answered by the people who could have asked him yet. One thing I have always wanted to ask JW is: how do you create your music? I would then also make sure he wouldn't start talking about the spotting session, I would really want him to go into what happens between: 'right, I'm gonna have to score this scene', and, 'okay, this is what the orchestra will be doing.' I want to know, as was touched upon in the latest podcast, how he determines the tempo of a scene without music, why he wants the violins to do A while the clarinets come in at moment B etc.

 

But what do I know? The 'they're all dead' story is obviously more interesting.

[Faleel 5,365]

11 minutes ago, bollemanneke said:

I want to know, as was touched upon in the latest podcast, how he determines the tempo of a scene without music,

From the tempo of the scene duh.

[Jurassic Shark 12,094]

7 minutes ago, Presto said:

From the tempo of the scene temp track duh.

 

Fixed.

[Marian Schedenig 8,212]

42 minutes ago, Jurassic Shark said:

Fixed.

 

The tempo of the scene probably *is* the tempo of the temp track - either because the temp was chosen to fit the scene, or because the scene was already (pre)edited to the temp.

[Jurassic Shark 12,094]

7 minutes ago, Marian Schedenig said:

 

The tempo of the scene probably *is* the tempo of the temp track - either because the temp was chosen to fit the scene, or because the scene was already (pre)edited to the temp.

 

My point was that JW doesn't decide the tempi all by himself. His decisions are influenced by the temp track and of course by comments from the director.

[Marian Schedenig 8,212]

Yes, but that's overlooking Presto's point that the scenes themselves also have a tempo. And especially in earlier days, when not everything was temp tracked (not sure how Spielberg works these days when he has Williams on board?), Williams probably had his own instincts and suggestions about the score's tempo - based on that of the film.

[mrbellamy 6,298]

5 hours ago, bollemanneke said:

why he wants the violins to do A while the clarinets come in at moment B etc.

 

I think this is virtually unanswerable in a general sense, but it would be great to ask him a ton of questions on one scene in particular as a case study. 

 

I guess that would be another interesting topic, what scene or sequence would we pick if we could get John Williams to go step by step through his entire compositional process from spotting to recording. I guess "Adventures on Earth" is an obvious candidate. Or what if the scene we could ask him about had to have a maximum time limit of like 2 minutes. 

[Datameister 2,044]

I'd rather be a fly on the wall during the process than ask him about it. I suspect that if he could explain it any better, he would have by now. He's very eloquent but sometimes an artistic process defies description.

 

He has said that it takes a lot of work to get a theme just right. Adjusting the rhythm a bit here, shifting a note up there, etc. And like most film composers (I gather), he maps out the tempos and time signatures of a cue before he starts writing.

 

But how does he pick which note goes where? Mixture of raw talent, intense study, and decades of experience. If I had to guess.

[Jurassic Shark 12,094]

4 hours ago, mrbellamy said:

I guess that would be another interesting topic, what scene or sequence would we pick if we could get John Williams to go step by step through his entire compositional process from spotting to recording.

 

"Can't remember. Next question."