The Music Behind the Magic: A Decade of Pottering - Part 1

Since the Harry Potter books and films all have such long titles, I figured I was allowed one for a rough, entirely incomplete and biased retrospective of a decade (more or less) of Harry Potter films and their music. The eight films have had four composers along the way, but I (rightly or wrongly) find myself grouping them in pairs and so I'll deal with them two at a time. I'm in the process of re-watching all of the films and so it'll probably take a bit of time to complete the entire retrospective but I'm sure it'll be mildly interesting to one person. At least.

I suspect few people will need persuasion to consider the first two films and their scores together. Both films were directed by Christ Columbus and scored by John Williams. As a result of their prior working relationship (Home Alone, erm, Home Alone 2 and Stepmom), one must imagine that Williams was Columbus' first choice. I think at that point in his career, no fan of the composer expected him to launch another musical franchise. Notwithstanding the Star Wars prequels which were a continuation (of sorts) of a franchise, not many of Williams' late 90's scores had themes that hit home in the way his late 70's to early 90's output did. Harry Potter changed that run and Hedwig's theme - the first few notes are enough for even the casual cinema goer's recognition - became the defining musical accompaniment to JK Rowling's world.

One comment I have made on a couple of occasions, most notably in my review of Harry Gregson-Williams' score to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, is how easy it is to take someone of John Williams' talent for granted. Oddly named it might be, but Hedwig's Theme catches the ear instantly. Gregson-Williams can be a fine enough composer, but even a handful of plays of his Narnia score (and its first sequel) and I can barely remember any of the main themes. Williams' Potter music is, like so many of his classics, instantly memorable and not just to film score geeks.

Both scores are filled to the brim with other memorable melodies, but the tone is generally grandiose and there is little room for subtlety, but the insistence of the music gives both films much of their atmosphere. Almost every bit of Hogwarts seems to get its own theme - grand for the great hall, more gothic and scary for the outside - in a way that Williams has rarely done since the mid/late 90's. When it comes to taking composers for granted, it's too easy to forget that many of the B themes in Williams scores are better than a lot of composer's best material. True, after a while you can have heard a couple of the major themes one to many times and the dialled down use in later instalments was probably a wise move, but the series couldn't have started on a stronger musical footing.

Please Release Me (let me go) - Part 6

Apologies for the lack of updates over the last week; lack of internet, but here's part 6 (possibly the final part as I'm running out of things I feel are desperately lacking...) of my summary of scores that could do with being re-released or released for the first time.


I feel kinda bad that I'm not desperately trying to get some obscure Alex North or Bernard Herrmann score released, but rather music written for films about submarines, bugs in space and psychotic toys. Having said that:

North by Northwest - Bernard Herrmann

Here's a puzzle for your little mind to dwell on, dear reader (the patronisometer is set to max, baby), how come the otherwise superb release of North by Northwest by Rhino is only let down by having variably crappy sound. Ok, it's a score from the 50's and there plenty enough scores from the 70's and 80's which haven't aged well (there's even debate, I recently learned, over the quality of the tapes on Elfman's Batman score, which is 1989. Worrying. It sounds fine to me, but maybe my ears are tin) but then there are plenty from the 60's which sound just great. However, in the specific case of North by Northwest, there is a DVD with the score isolated which sounds absolutely remarkable. Maybe there is some kind of mixing skulduggery at work here and they have somehow reduced the hiss by muddying the sound. I must confess my copy of the DVD is stuck across the seas in Guernsey but from recollection, it was neither muddy or hiss and certainly vastly improved on the Rhino release; in particular there are sections of the Rhino release where there was tape damage, but no such damage is obvious on the DVD. Presumably both were taken from different sources, but it would be rather jolly for a label to revisit those sources and perhaps give the tapes from the isolated score a spruce up for CD release. If anyone has any info on why there is such an obvious disparity in quality, I'd love to know. There is, of course, the fine re-recording conducted by Joel McNeely, but it's always good to have Herrmann conduct Herrmann.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - John Williams

OK, back to the magical, non-serious stuff again. While Williams' first two Potter scores provided the series with a core of famous thematic material, it was only with a change of director and tone on Azkaban that Williams could actually write something that didn't drench the film like treacle. There's an incisiveness to the music that simply isn't present in the first two scores which have a denseness that makes them quite tiring to listen to. I'm sure plenty of collectors would like expanded releases of all three of Williams' Potter efforts, but I'm not sure I could face 2 plus hours of the first two, but Azkaban has the scope to be of interest in a longer format. It's a rather unlikely prospect unless Warner Brothers decide they want to do an epic Potter music boxed set, not to mention the existing album is quite generously proportioned.


Sky High - Michael Giacchino
A rare, unreleased, but pretty mainstream effort from Giacchino for a good and somewhat underrated movie about a superhero school. It should be awful, but is surprisingly entertaining. Giacchino's score is a distant cousin to his wonderful effort for The Incredibles. Not quite as retro - indeed some of it is very modern - but his ability to tap into a bit of a John Barry vibe is still in evidence. Perhaps a bit of a lightweight effort compared to some of the other scores that have yet to see the light of day, but fun none the less.


Beauty and the Beast 2: The Enchanted Christmas (Rachel Portman)
Following up on Alan Menken's Oscar winning music for the now classic Beauty and the Beast was never going to be easy, but Rachel Portman's music for the straight to video (as was) midquel (i.e. the events are meant to take place during the original film) is a delight. The handful of songs don't quite hit Be Our Guest or Belle in their brilliance, but Stories and the title track, As Long As There's Christmas are both most charming. The latter is particularly interesting since the film version is a bouncing ensemble number (the film's Be Our Guest, I suppose) whereas it becomes a ballad for the end credits. I do (of course) prefer the film version. Only a better lyricist might have improved things. Unfortunately, the underscore gets possibly the shortest shrift in the history of soundtracks with a paltry 2 minutes and 19 seconds. Over 2 tracks, at that. Again, as another effort for Disney, the chances of more of Portman's charming score seeing the light of day are small, but we can but hope.

Film Music Free Friday: I Wouldn't Have Scored it Like That...

A discussion on the FSM forum regarding the music of Star Trek (which, inevitably, descended into a Goldsmith versus Horner debate - for the record, I view the first two scores as equally superb, but totally different so barely comparable) and I made a confession. I would have scored the opening - or rather more precisely, the opening titles - to Star Trek: The Motion Picture differently. Rather than the vibrant version of the now classic theme, I'd have gone for mysterious and ominous, using hints of the V'Ger material. Keep Ilea's Theme as the overture (the last ever, as I'm sure every fan knows), but against the black screen and stark, white writing, rumblings from the blaster beam, low brass chords.

When I floated this idea on a message board (often a terrible mistake), the response was actually surprisingly moderate/positive. It's not that I think Goldsmith did anything wrong, I have no doubt that Paramount, Rodenberry and Robert Wise wanted a big, epic theme to start the film; remember, the original viewers had never heard the now classic theme and might well have expected Courage's original theme. Indeed, this was the only area of contention regarding my suggestion on the message board; fans seeing the film on the big screen for the first time in 1979 would be having enough trouble accepting vastly different music as it was, without the opening to the film with a non-heroic couple of minutes. Therefore Goldsmith did what was asked of him. However, it strikes me that it would be vastly more dramatically satisfying to set a menacing and mysterious tone from the outset and slowly reveal what the menace is. Then, by the time you actually get to Starfleet after the opening segments with the Klingons and on Vulcan, the arrival of the main theme starts to give that traditional, upbeat Trek reassurance that Kirk is on the case and things might turn out OK in the end.

I also rather like the idea of an opening that confounds expectations. If you're not going to use the original TV theme, then you might as well do something totally different. Goldsmith's theme is, of course, very different to Courage's, but it still springs from the same, radiant, positive, adventurous outlook. While I've no doubt a few Trekkies were disgruntled that Courage's theme wasn't pride of place (possibly, fortunately we're saved due to the non-existence of online message boarding in 1979) but if you're going to go different, go totally different. As an experiment, I'm sure it wouldn't be too difficult to track in some of the V'Ger Fly Over or Cloud music (a couple of minutes would suffice) that could happily segue into the existing Klingon Battle (it is literally just the opening credits music I would change) and provide just a little more tension.

The way that Dennis McCarthy scored the opening to Star Trek: Generations is perhaps the best comparative in the Star Trek pantheon. I do remember being disappointed that Goldsmith wasn't signed on and it was perhaps surprising that they didn't stick with Goldsmith's theme for the first Next Generation movie, but McCarthy did his own thing and was often more successful than fans give him credit. However, his almost free form, impressionistic opening titles music, leading to a heroic version of the Courage fanfare is a masterful stroke. It doesn't play its hand too early, keeps the viewer guessing (especially with the shots of the bottle spinning through space which is a nicely surreal touch in an otherwise pretty unimaginative and crappy film). It also means that the reveal of McCarthy's main theme a bit later on is that bit more distinctive and dramatic; "this is the main theme, it's for the Next Generation crew... we're off on an adventure with them." Of course it never returned in later films, but that didn't matter at the time.

I was thinking that maybe there were a handful of films or bits of films I'd come up with to score differently, but realised there wasn't one I felt so strongly about as the opening to Star Trek: The Motion Picture. The only other I had idle thoughts about was Williams' score to Saving Private Ryan. Yes, it's lovely music and the end credits hymn is terrific, but it's a film that probably needs almost no music. There isn't a huge amount by Williams/Spielberg standards (less than an hour), but it's just a little too warm and fuzzy, overselling the gooey feeling inside you're meant to have from time to time. Fine in something like E.T. which is meant to tug at the heart strings like a steam train, but for Saving Private Ryan, one can't help but feel we should react from the stark realities of the situation and characters, not be spoon fed emotionally by the music. Shorter cues, rather than elongated, pastoral scoring might also have been more appropriate, at least outside of the opening and closing scenes and end credits.

If you have any thoughts on the issues raised in this article, please don't hesitate to contact our action helpline. Or, e-mail me with your thoughts. I don't really want "I wish X had scored Y film instead of Z" (i.e. I wish John Williams had scored every film ever made) but rather certain parts of a film, or even the whole film, that somehow doesn't work for you plus any comparatives as to how you might have done it differently. If there's enough interesting ideas, I'll put them together in a future article.

Please release me (let me go) - Part 1

2010 seems to have turned into a vintage year for re-releases, expanded versions, first time releases and the like but of course the serious collector always wants more, so here are my picks of the cream yet to be skimmed from the metaphorical milk of film music history. Hmmm. Here goes:

Hook - John Williams

It's John Williams, it's Steven Spielberg, of course it's going to be amazing (well, unless it's Always, I suppose). Hook may not quite have been the brilliant Peter Pan for the 90's Spielberg intended but it's still a solid family entertainment and is only deemed less successful by being less successful than his other films. It is, however, more financially successful than Schindler's List. Well, quite. Whatever one can say about the film, John Williams' music is a triumph; even by his standards, it's oozing with themes - about as many major melodies as the entire original Star Wars trilogy put together and that's pretty tuneful by all accounts. The original album is generously proportioned, but there is plenty which is more than worthy of appearing on disc, not least of all the marvellous end credits suite - remember them? They were good weren't they? End credits suites. Of all of Williams' otherwise released scores, this is the one that would surely benefit most from a complete release with some of the myriad alternate cues that are knocking around.

Sugarland Express - John Williams

It's John Williams, it's Steven Spielberg, of course it's going to be amaz... oh, wait, we've done that. Then again, when this one came out, nobody knew just quite how amazing. The theme from Sugarland Express has appeared on the odd compilation, but as the score that started the whole collaboration, it really out ought to be heard. Plus it has that nice Reivers vibe about it, which brings us onto...

The Reivers - John Williams

The original album is lovely and all, but it is missing the MOST EXCITING CUE. The horse race cue features on a charming 16 minute suite from one of Williams' more obscure self-conducted compilations (Music for Stage and Screen), but said suite also contains narration. I'm not totally against narration in itself and it's beautifully read by Burgess Meredith (who narrated the film) but it would be nice to hear it au nature. In fairness, I've not seen the film, but wouldn't be surprised if the horse race cue was expanded to more epic proportions for the suite, but it would still be nice to have the original cues out there.


Jaws 2 - John Williams
Is there much more score in Jaws 2 than the existing CD? Probably not a vast amount, but the follow up score to the classic original is pretty much every bit as good. I'm quite a fan of the film, it only really suffers in comparison and is plenty entertaining in its own right. You can bitch about the teenage cast all you like, but some of them do get eaten. So that's ok. The shark doesn't half look bad this time round either and the attacks are often every bit as scary and well crafted as in the original. Williams' music is a substantially different take on the material, with only the original shark theme remaining. The horror and action are deftly handled and somewhat more intense, but likewise the adventurous portions are brilliantly catchy with some especially fine music as the cast head out to see in sailing dinghies.

The Original Star Wars Trilogy - John Williams

Only joking. Although it would be nice if Empire and Jedi sounded a bit better. Compared to other scores from the same period, they are pretty hissy, muddy or simply a bit blah sounding at times. The best sounding, ironically, turns out to be the original. Blistering.


More idle proposals to come...

Home Alone (Expanded) - John Williams

Snow is falling, trains are cancelled, pavements are treacherous (those deceiving bastards) and Britain is more or less closed. What better time to frolic in the white stuff while listening to some delightfully festive John Williams? After the double disc release of Home Alone 2: Lost in New York a couple of years ago, La-La Land have furnished us with an expanded release of the original Home Alone score. In fairness, this release adds less new of note than Home Alone 2, but is still plenty welcome and reorders the score into film order and replaces some repeated material and non-Williams songs with previously unreleased music.

It's probably pointless summarising the music given that most Williams fans are already likely to own the original album; from the charming Somewhere In My Memory (even if the lyrics are a trifle treacly), the Nutcracker pastiche of We Slept In (although it appears in surprisingly small chunks), mock scary music for the villains and all the bells and celeste you could want. It's delightful hearing the composer having such fun.


Perhaps the only downside is reading the liner notes and feeling bad for Bruce Broughton who was originally set to provide the music but pulled out due to a scheduling conflict. I wouldn't trade in a Williams score for the world, but Broughton is a great composer in need of more recognition and a hit like Home Alone might have been just the boost he needed. Ah well. Detailed liner notes and splendid sound round out a great package.