Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 - Alexandre Desplat

I must admit that I was quite disappointed when Nicholas Hooper took over from John Williams and Patrick Doyle on Harry Potter scoring duties.  However, having revisited the first six scores, his work actually holds up remarkably well. It doesn't have the density or memorable melodies of either Williams' nor Doyle's scoring, but both of his efforts are still fine and his lightness of touch is rather refreshing after the portentousness of Doyle's Goblet of Fire (as it were). It was with some joy that greeted the appointment of Alexandre Desplat to score the two part film adaptation of the final book. And what a mild disappointment it is.

Is it me or is Desplat getting just a teensy bit dull these days? Five years ago he was a delightful new voice in film scoring and it all seemed very refreshing, but these days it's "oh this sounds a bit like The Queen or whatever other pretty waltz was in his last score." While Deathly Hallows isn't obviously like his other stuff (not even an hummable waltz), it just seems a bit blah. The first few tracks are well wrought enough and some of the action writing, Sky Battle, in particular, is pretty exciting, but his new melodic material is surprisingly ho-hum. Williams' own melodies get brief, occasional, but disguised glimpses. Like it or not, his tunes define the franchise and with so little of them there, the magical, musical Potterishness (for that is a real word) is somewhat absent. Desplat just doesn't replace or add to them in any particularly memorable way.

Clearly as a side effect of the more character-centric and somewhat low key middle to the film, the music follows suit. It's not bad character based underscoring and is undoubtedly appropriate to the surprisingly serious and laid back pace of the film; indeed the mid section seemed to incite no small amount of boredom in the OCD kids who saw it at the same cinema I did. It's also endlessly gloomy, again reflected in the music. On album, it all sounds good at the time (save for the few truly tedious bits of noodling) but never really goes anywhere and at 73 minutes, rather long. One situation I can honestly say I wasn't tempted to splash out on the deluxe release with extra tracks (although sod's law they are some of the best, but this seems unlikely). OK, that all sounds a bit harsh, but it's Harry Potter, it's Alexandre Desplat, I just expected more. Maybe Part 2's score will ramp up the ante. Maybe.

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