Welcome to a ongoing series on the channel where I analysis the musical score from some
of the greatest movies, tv shows and video games.
It’s here where I discuss how a soundtrack compliments it’s corresponding title, along
with how it came to be.
In this episode, I’ll be going over the marvelous scores of the first 3 installments
of Harry Potter film series, composed by John Williams.
Yes that’s right, I’ll be going over: “The Sorcerer’s Stone”, or “Philospher’s
Stone” if you’re from the UK, “The Chamber of Secrets”, and Williams’ final composition
for the series, “The Prisoner of Azkaban”.
The other films in the series were created by 3 other composers, thus we will make a
separate episode for those compositions.
Within the episode we’ll talk about how Williams composes a developing series and
delivers an atmospheric tone for a magical world, as well as how the soundtrack transforms
from joyful to ominous.
Before we start, if you’re new to the channel, consider subscribing to find more soundtrack
analysis on other titles in the future.
Each week you can find a new analysis video.
If you’ve been here before, welcome back.
With all that said, let’s begin.
When it comes to figuring out why we are so captivated to the leitmotifs, or themes, of
Harry Potter, most people will tell you, “John Williams = Magical Composer”.
The bottom line is, mostly everyone will explain Williams in this way.
Usually phrased: “Hey, you know that guy who made the music for Jurassic Park?
Yeah, he smells fantastic.”
Or “sounds fantastic.”
Whichever one suits you best.
And we get it.
He sounds/smells fantastic.
But why is John’s score on Harry Potter grand?
How does he achieve that magic in his soundtrack?
Let’s start off with “The Sorcerer’s Stone” or “Philosopher’s Stone”.
Much like any introduction to a story, there is an establishment of character presentation
in their accompanied setting.
In any case, we would associate a leitmotif to any given character, but for the case of
the Harry Potter series, most of the motifs are built to attach to unique situations.
Of course there is the exception to some tracks that need to keep the central theme in place,
much like the track “Harry’s Wondrous World”, which supplements the positive and
robust friendship between Harry, Ron and Hermione.
“The Sorcerer’s Stone’s” themes depict an early display for characters and settings
that hold a light tone to show a fresh story that has yet to be matured.
It’s the themes in these films that represent Voldemort and the evil circling Hogwarts that
reconfigures the score throughout the series.
Most of the tracks that are recycled are only used once more in the other films.
These tracks will commonly carry over to a separate movie composed by the same composer
that originally created that motif.
For example, most of the songs used in “The Sorcerer’s Stone” are only used again
in “The Chamber of Secrets” and most of the tracks used in “The Order of the Phoenix”
are carried into “The Half-Blood Prince”.
These pairs are soundtracks created by their own composer and since the series matures
over time, you wouldn’t expect a lighter theme from an earlier film.
Once Williams left the film series, each composer after produces their own sound that reflects
off Williams initial composition.
If you were to compare the 4 composers of these films, you will hear the distinct melodies
that signifies each musician.
There is one theme composed by Williams that holds the series altogether and is used in
all the Harry Potter films, “Hedwig’s Theme”.
The track emphasizes the leitmotif of the series as a whole.
Although the track is labeled under Hedwig’s name, it’s not always representing the white
owl, but instead an expanded impression of the supernatural power within the Wizarding
World.
This main theme is the definition of Harry Potter with its technical melody and dramatic
orchestral instruments to characterize Harry’s magical odyssey.
Moving into a sequel that progresses the score along in a slightly similar fashion as “The
Sorcerer’s Stone”, “The Chamber of Secrets” reaches a wider perception of the benefits
of unique leitmotifs.
The biggest different between this film and its predecessor is the change in the music
conductor.
Originally the score was to be conducted by Williams, but at the time John was scoring
Steven Spielberg’s film “Catch Me If You Can”, which caused Williams to hand over
the score to be conducted by William Ross.
The score was already written by John before he handed it over.
It’s in “The Chamber of Secrets” where the tone slightly transitions to a gloomy
accent to underline the dangers of the Basilisk and the Chamber of Secrets.
One of the most impressive themes in this sequel is a track called “The Spiders”.
This eerie theme symbolizes the presence of the unnatural Aragog and his spiders.
Not only is this one of the first unnerving songs in the Harry Potter series, but the
theme has a looping melody that runs over 8 notes; a note for each spider leg.
What makes this even more technical is that each note hits a dissonant sound, or in other
words, a tone that is played unusually to cause distress; each group of notes descends
it’s octave, until it repeats the melody.
Before I talked about how each composer in the film series has a different sound, but
I want to talk about how “The Prisoner of Azkaban’s” musical design has altered
since “The Sorcerer’s Stone”.
The series takes a dark ambient turn into the universe with a new director and reconfiguration
of the soundtrack’s mood.
The film series has its first dramatic development.
“The Prisoner of Azkaban” is also the first movie to have it’s own main theme,
“Double Trouble”.
The motif shows the audience a pleasant return to the series, and to Hogwarts, before it
turns itself upside down.
“Double Trouble’s” lyrics were taken from a popular scene in William Shakespeare’s
play Macbeth, where 3 witches manipulate political events.
One of the lines in the song reads out, “By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked
this way comes”, which could symbolize the darker change in the film.
Another major theme of this movie is the flute fueled theme, “A Window to the Past”,
which represents the characters or “The Marauders” who had relationships to Harry’s
parents and their emotion connection.
“The Prisoner of Azkaban” heavily relies on characters associated to Lily and James
Potter, in combination to Harry, Ron and Hermione, to further strengthen the theme of friendship
and trust.
Since the third movie has one of the most versatile soundtracks in the series, I’ll
lastly talk about 2 powerful tracks from this soundtrack that highlights it’s diversity,
the mechanical “Forward to Time Past” and the concluding “Mischief Managed!”.
There are many soundtracks that replicate a ticking clock to associate urgency; it also
sets the tempo of the song, which gives the sensation of time passing.
Tracks like “Forward to Time Past” are always distinguishing a dynamic point within
a scene.
If we look at the score for Dunkirk, Hans Zimmer uses ticking as the movie’s build
up.
The intensity of the film’s music adapts to the screen because of the continuous clicking.
“Forward to Time Past” identifies a dramatic change, but in a more literal sense.
The track serves as the theme for the Time-Turner, a mechanical timepiece that travels the user
through time and therefore presenting the dynamic change.
Besides the ticking, the woodwind instruments that storm the song in a repeating pattern
implements the reversal of time, almost imitating the sound of rewinding a tape.
The ending credits track “Mischief Managed!” pushes the boundaries with it’s generous
selection of orchestral instruments that transitions all the major themes successfully in 12 minutes.
The satisfying theme can easily define John’s magnificent contribution towards the Harry
Potter Universe.
And it’s the theme that sends off Williams from the series.
Before I give my final thoughts on the John Williams’ score for Harry Potter, I want
to discuss the future of the Score UnCovered series.
Now that i’ve worked on half a dozen of these videos now, I want to keep this thing
going.
I love making these videos and want to continue them for you guys.
So here’s the deal, I plan to make Score UnCovered a permanent series on the channel
and to do that I’m going to need to do a special “Call To Action”.
If any of you know me, you know I hate asking for any help.
Thankfully you’re not pulling off your arms, since I get my human meat somewhere else.
I only want you guys to consider sharing these videos with your friends and family.
This will allow the series to grow and to stay on a steady path.
Unfortunately, in the time we live in now, YouTube’s search engine optimization and
it’s algorithm has been so difficult to work with.
It’s almost impossible to position videos to the right audience with the tools we’re
given.
The site is flooding with videos every second.
YouTube is now a game of luck.
Considering soundtrack analysis videos doesn’t have a portion on YouTube quite yet, I want
to make that a reality so we can give some recognition to these excellent composers.
And if you are new to the channel, subscribe.
I’ll do my best to shove soundtrack info into your face, not as much as this unexpected
announcement, but just saying, keep your eyes open.
Or closed.
I don’t control your body.
At least not yet.
Based on your interest for John Williams’ score on Harry Potter, I’ll continue to
analyze more scores from Williams in the future.
If you want to request a movie, tv show or video game for Score UnCovered, let me know
here on YouTube or on my Twitter page.
Alright, now that I’m done ranting, let’s move on.
Harry Potter is a classic with its endearing characters and whimsical quality.
When you think of how director Chris Columbus was envisioning Harry Potter on the screen,
we ask the question why he picked John Williams and how did Williams envision the musical
atmosphere of Harry Potter?
This film series has a very distinct sound that encompasses emotion through a urban fantasy
story.
Williams has been successful in the field of the unimaginable.
Star Wars, E.T. and Jurassic Park.
John is adaptable to a story’s disposition that he can shape the emotions that pour out
of it’s reservoir.
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone’s score shaped how viewers perceived Harry’s
story until the end.
John sets up the mood for the rest of the film’s composers.
I want to thank you for watching this episode of “Score UnCovered”.
Let me know which Harry Potter movie was your favorite out of the lot.
Which film has the best score and who was your favorite composer for the series?
Ending the episode here, once more, thank you greatly.