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Potterdom Film/Score Series Thread


JoeinAR

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So far, I heard Hedwig's theme on track 1 and 5. No new or old themes so far, that I can recognize. There's a motif in track 4 which I think is also heard in track 1. And there are some nice fanfares for the arrival of the foreign schools.

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I haven't listened to it all, but as far as I have, I'm not really enthusiatic about it. I remember my first PoA listening, I couldn't stop listening. But with this one... Well I'm going to bed since it's 1 AM here and I have college tomorrow morning. For those overseas, keep on with your comments so that I know what details pay attention to tomorrow. :)

Good night!

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"Voldemort" is amazing, and so are the waltz pieces and "Harry Potter's love".

Apart from that, I find it barely above average.

The statement "Harry Potter themes written by John Williams" is a joke, unless of course there's more to hear in the unreleased parts.

After listening to the soundtrack, that little mentioning of John Williams sounds like "Terribly sorry, we didn't get Williams, but this guy used some of his stuff, maybe you want to give it a try?"

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I've been lurking around here for a couple of years now...

Time to post. :P

What can be said? Except Doyle's effort, while decent, leaves me wishing Johnny had stayed with the Potter series.

Perhaps it was just how I was while listening to the music, but the score just sounded...unfocused. From the beginning to the end, there's no sense of satisfaction, you don't feel like you've gone anywhere. And to be honest, there's not much that's memorable. When I went to listen, I went in with replaying all the other HP themes like Hedwig's, Fawkes, Chamber of Secrets, etc. in my head. When I came out, I was still replaying all those themes...and nothing new....

The opening tracks are most disappointing, and the MV elements in tracks like The Quidditch World Cup...are not fun.

The dark music is dark and omnious. The bombastic music...sounds...well like...bombs exploding and going no where. The lack of continuity with the past scores is another big minus, even though I'm trying my best to let it go, considering the circumstances.

Foreign Visitors Arrive, Golden Egg, Neville's Waltz, Harry Potter's Love, and Potter Waltz, are the best tracks, but even they don't come near the best that Williams brought to HP.

Voldemort's track is most disappointing...it sounds good while you're listening to it...but there is no dark lord theme, and once it's done you'll have a hard time recalling what you just listened to, and it's not helped by the fact that there isn't any build up throughout the score to one of the biggest turning points of the movie and series...the return of the dark lord. :)

From what I've heard in the two hours I spent listening, some tracks a couple of times, the music really ends up as sounding like what the Quidditch World Cup track was...trailer music. It's an hour and 15 minute collection of trailer music.

6.5/10

Based on first and half impressions...on low quality AOL streams. ;)

To be completely honest...I want them to track some Williams pieces from the past movies in the film...something to just connect back to the other movies.

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yeah, me too. I remember when we played with our youth orchestra in the German pavillon of Walt Disney World's Epcot center (which is designed like a Bavarian inn). Afterwards one of the waitresses came to us and said how happy she was to finally here something other than Bavarian "Schunkelmusik" in there...

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I've just listened to the full score, some tracks more than once.

There is no doubt in my this will go down as the 4 th best Harry Potter score thus far.

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It would be okay if Hogwarts had any ties to Bavarian/ German history, then you could at least accept it as a cultural reference, but this is ... an insane choice.

Alright, I expected Doyle to shake things up a little bit, but a POLKA ... ? :) Excuse me, but I'm laughing so hard that I can barely write this message beerchug

Well, at least Harry doesn't do a Schuhplattler at the Yule Ball.

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i've listend to Quidditch World Cup. I think its rather poor. Not in the same league as JW's action cues of the first 3. i think overall, it lacks a sense of magic and wonder. i loved PoA's medieval sound. :) some other tracks (Foreign Visitors Arrive) are quite good though. i'll save my final comments till after i've seen the film. can only hope there will be more of JW themes there which are not included on the CD

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I've listened to 3 tracks so far.Hogwart's Hymn sounds stupid,Quiddich World Cup sounds like the Magic Box music for the trailers..wait,it was Doyle's music after all!and now I'm going through The goblet of Fire,I :sleepy:

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Listen to the first 30 seconds of "Do the Hippogriff."

Jarvis Cock-face screams to the crowd "HOGWAAAAAARTS! ARE YOU READY FOR SOME REAL MUSIC?!?!?!?!"

I honestly think Cerrabore was 100% right.

~Sturgis, who can't even think of an emoticon to describe this

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As far as the score itself goes . . . meh. I agree with Blumenkohl on a lot of this.

Upon first listen, I think it is serviceable, but I really wish Williams had done this. I mean, in every single track bar like two, there is exhaustingly loud brass screaming at you. And how many tracks can end with a triumphant fanfare? :sleepy: The second task wasn't bad, but I only wonder what JW would have done for the first and third, which were a big let down for me. Same with "Voldemort:" it didn't stand out to me at all. I can once again imaging Williams using his old You-Know-Who and Voldemort themes here, as well as Fawkes for the Priori Incantatem sequence. I didn't expect Doyle to use either, of course, and I like the usage of the Harry's Love theme there, but it would have been amazing if it were as described.

On a brighter note, I really like the apparent "Harry's Love" theme, which by its usage may represent how he feels about Cho and his parents, as it is in the graveyard scene as well. I also really like "The Dark Mark." It's probably my favorite track upon first listen. Once it gets very quiet, and all you can hear is the low bass drum roll, that's the only place in this score that got me really excitedl; I can see the Mark ominously forming above the smoldering campsite. It's a lot better than a blaring evil fanfare, I really like it. I still like the first track very much, and the "Voldemort motif" which appears there and also in the "Dark Mark" track is very good.

There are several other nice tracks, but overall I just don't feel . . . it. It's just not happening for me with this score. Like I said, it's servicable, and in all fairness, I wasn't very fond of "Buckbeak's Flight" at first, so we'll just have to see how it plays out, and how it is used in the film, which I'm still looking forward to very much (except perhaps for the "real music" shit I heard from Cocker; if that's in the film, there may be some Kit-Kat Bites accidentally but forcefully thrown at the screen ;)).

As of right now: 6.5/10

~Sturgis

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Thank goodness this doesn't sound like a Williams-wannabe score. Some good stuff on here, and I'm sure when we see the film with this music, it will be even better. This is a solid score, and something we don't get enough of anymore.

Neil

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Although the new thematic material isn't doing much for me, Doyle's music is, overall, outstanding. Gorgeous lyrical passages beggar even some of Williams's best efforts in the series. Furthermore, Doyle's action cues -- thankfully -- lack the exhaustingly frantic nature of some of his earlier works (Frankenstein is a prime example). We may, finally, have music for Harry Potter's adventures that meshes with "the tone of British understatement," as Village Voice critic J. Hoberman once put it.

Too bad the score'll undoubtedly be smothered in, and hence neutered by, the sound mix.

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Just listened to the whole thing. I cannot say I'm too unhappy about the reactions to the score, although I do feel some are judging it quite harshly.

Harry Potter's Love, Potter Waltz and Hogwarts Hymn are among the finest tracks of any Potter score. There are some really good tracks and themes besides these pieces as well.

But on a whole I find it a bit restrained and light even. I mean; Hedwig's Theme, Fawkes The Phoenix, Buckbeak's Flight, A Window To The Past and many other pieces from the scores Williams wrote seem so much more profound, complex and richer compared to Doyle's approach.

Not to take anything away from Doyle: again the three themes I mentioned are worth alone getting the soundtrack. But I can imagine that some might be turned down by the simplicity of the orchestrations.

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It sure is not a Williams score. I am little undecided whether to buy the album or not. If I bought it I could better notice those themes and find new ascpects to it but on the other hand there is something about it that just does not float my boat(well it was not written by Williams for starters). Doyle has written a good and a solid score with some great moments, Hogwarts Hymn being my absolute favorite. The London Symphony Orchestra once again shows why it is one of the best. The sound is certainly crisp and clear and has that Doyle air about it in the orchestrations (Or is it Lawrence Ashmore once again?).

7½/10 is my rating after just one listening. It might get higher grade if I should listen to it few more times.

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I haven't heard everything but I'd say Hogwarts Hmyn is my favorite also from what I've heard. That's the kind of music I most enjoy from Doyle where he churns out a nice melody with pretty counterpoint. It doesn't feel like Harry Potter music, even as a new interpretation of the story but hearing it with the film will be the true test I suppose. Either way, there's enough I like as music regardless of how good it is as underscore, that I'll probably buy this one.

- Adam

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It's probably just me, but Doyle's six-note Voldemort theme sounds like a stretch version of JW's three-noter...?

Who's grunting in "Quidditch World Cup"? Music lovers?

Good ones: interesting little melody at the beginning of 5, but not developed; 11, 12, 13 and the Hogwarts pieces.

The rest of it sounds like background music.

Jarvis scores 1 out of 3: "Magic Works" I could like. I'm still curious how JW would have scored the Weird Sisters.

I'll get the CD, if only to keep the collection complete. Sooo.... is John free to do OotP??

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Well, since Doyle didn't use any of JW's themes except Hedwig's, at least we can't accuse him of butchering Williams' themes.

My favourite has to be "Cedric" and the emotional parts of "Voldemort". The theme in "Voldemort" actually reminds me of Window To The Past.

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This is LSO playing???

Hmmmmm.....

I wonder, what they think of this music...

It's generic. No real theme, nothing. Baahh another wasted movie this year.

Film music is going down!

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This is LSO playing???  

Hmmmmm.....  

I wonder, what they think of this music...  

It's generic. No real theme, nothing. Baahh another wasted movie this year.

Film music is going down!

Doyle's score far from magical. Celesta took a vacation on this score.

And I remember reading that it was LSO performing the music. Can anyone confirm that?

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Well as I read your post 'Foreign Visitors Arrive' had begun.... :pukeface:

Sound mix makes the music sound computerized, sorry. LSO doesn't sound like MV with Williams....

This music would be fine for a Batman movie! It's more Batman than HP.

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Well as I read your post 'Foreign Visitors Arrive' had begun.... :pukeface:  

Sound mix makes the music sound computerized, sorry. LSO doesn't sound like MV with Williams....

I would blame the crappy AOL compression for the electronic sounding sections.

Neil

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What's happened? Are the clips down? I can't find them anymore :pukeface:

I listened (and recorded to disc) to everything up to "The Maze" (track 17), then it was so late I decieded to go get some sleep and continue today with the rest... and now it seems the clips are gone :fouetaa:

Did anybody record the rest?

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It's probably just me, but Doyle's six-note Voldemort theme sounds like a stretch version of JW's three-noter...?

Hey, nice find! Doyle takes the corner notes, and connects them by filling in the notes in between:

williamsdoyle.jpg

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Would anyone care to PM people the tracks in a do-able format? :)

~Sturgis, who thought last night that he may have just been disappointed, and therefore too harsh, and will have to listen again, and will probably give it a higher score, but can only do so if he has the tracks

Sturgis 2 - Did anyone else hear that "real music" thing in "Hippogriff?" Or am I just overreacting?

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Who's grunting in "Quidditch World Cup"? Music lovers?

:)

I've just listened to it once through, and don't have time to write much about it now. I will say that I absolutely love "Foreign Visitors Arrive," the waltzes, the love theme, and Hogwarts' Hymn. That said, several parts are much less appealing. I'll give it another go soon and come back with some more thorough comments!

PS - Yes, Sturgis, I heard Cocker scream that too. It seems like he's referring to the score with that comment; what an ass :angry:

Ray Barnsbury

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It's probably just me, but Doyle's six-note Voldemort theme sounds like a stretch version of JW's three-noter...?

Hey, nice find! Doyle takes the corner notes, and connects them by filling in the notes in between:

williamsdoyle.jpg

Yep, that is cool. Any more similar finds? If you have time, it would be great to have the altered harmonic progressions of Hedwig's theme, in "The Story Continues" for example. That would be really interesting.

Nice Finale screenshots, by the way! :)

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