Harry Potter Themes

Can someone give me a list of all the themes and motifs from the first three Harry Potter films and some of tracks that they are played in?

Thanks!

 

http://www.google.com/search?client=safari&rls=en&q=harry+potter+music&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8

 

Here's a nice list: http://harrypotter.wikia.com/wiki/Harry_Potter_soundtracks

 

Perfect! Thanks so much, guys!

 

Yes, thanks a lot for the link. I do hear the soundtrack the whole time at home. There is a magical atmosphere coming up everytime i listen to the soundtrack. Very nice. Can't wait to see the second part of the 7. movie.

 

I love the soundtracks for the first three HP films; but I haven't really listened to the next four. I was wondering, how did "Harry in Winter" fit Harry in GOF?

 

Don't really think it did...

That is one thing I was dissappointed about with all the movies after Azkhaban: There was not nearly enough use of the main Harry Potter theme melody-it's only at the beginning, and that's it. Order of the Phoenix had a bit more of it, but still...Deathly Hallows had...NONE of the original theme, from what I remember.

 

That's what you get when you don't have one composer for the entire movie series. I agree, though, the original theme should be in there more.

 

Was Hedwig's Theme even used at the beginning of GOF? I haven't seen the movies, so I have no idea.

 

I think it was, if only slightly.

What really bugs me about non-Williams Potter scores is how they either ignore his themes or reinterpret them. To me, the cues often sound rushed, and there's an annoying tendency to alter the melodies or chord progressions, which always makes the cues LESS unique and more like anything else out there.

 

It's a no-win situation for those guys. If they don't use the themes, they get blasted for that. If they do use them, they get blasted for not using them right. Doyle writes in his own style, and people complain that he's not Williams. Desplat writes in a very Williams style, and people complain that he's not using themes from six movies ago enough. Their own themes are more or less ignored: why, for instance, does no one get on Hooper or Desplat's case for not reprising the themes Doyle created? There is absolutely nothing they could do that wouldn't have people complaining.

 

For me, yes there is. I'm saying use a fair amount of Williams cues, in addition to your own, if it's called for. That's cool. But why should you have to alter them slightly if you use them? You can win - just don't "normalize" them when you use them, leave them pretty much as they are. When called for.

I don't really care about this whole "damned if you do, damned if you don't", because it easily deflects from discussion about the quality of the work at hand. For me, personally, Williams' score for Azkaban is one of the most original, inventive and haunting that's ever been done for a fantasy film. Doyle follows it up with a score that hits all the beats, but it's a run-of-the-mill affair, to be heard in any number of average fantasy fare. Hooper's for Half-Blood Prince is pretty good, possibly because he tries very hard to colour the story and not be bound up in convention (or Williams-isms), but I care nothing for Desplat's effort in Deathly Hallows.

I don't need it to be Williams, I need it to be good.

 

Because movie music is tailored to the movies. In most circumstances, unless it's an overture or an opening crawl or some special circumstance like that, you can't just paste a piece of music from another film, as is, into a new one.

Hmm. I think that comes down to taste. Azkaban is an excellent score, but Goblet is neck and neck with it for my favorite in the franchise, and one of the best scores of the decade. It was, unfortunately, somewhat butchered in the film, though.

 

That felt a little condescending. I know how a score is produced. My point was that I don't like the rejigging of melodies and chord progressions that composers often do to "make it their own." There's a section of two or three notes in Hedwig's Theme that later composers have felt the need to alter from it's original form, somewhat raga-influenced, into a more straight and bland minor scale. It's little things like that, but I'm not proposing cut-and-paste.

It's absolutely down to taste. I don't pressume to speak for anyone else, and my opinion is no more or less valid than yours.

 

I haven't really heard the DH Pt.2 score yet. I heard that Desplat played "Leaving Hogwarts" in the final scene, so I looked it up on youtube. I think he did a great job with that. I also heard that a little bit of "Harry's Wondrous World" can be heard in the end credits, but I couldn't find it on youtube.

I LOVE the scores for the first three. They are definitely some of my favorite scores, but I was a little disappointed with the other four.

Just so you know, I haven't listened to all of the soundtracks for the last four; just parts of them. I also haven't seen but bits of the movies, so I'm saying all of this from what I've seen and heard:

Out of them all I think Doyle's score (from what I've heard) sounds the least like Harry Potter and I think he completely shifted from the previous films with his sound. Although I really like "Neville's Waltz" and "Potter Waltz", I very much dislike the "Magic Works" and the other two songs. I thought that to be completely out of place in a Harry Potter film. Most of the music is beautiful, but doesn't sound like it should be in Harry Potter at all. I think that score would sound better in a Narnia-type film.

Hooper sounds (from what I've heard) a little more like Harry Potter in tracks like "Fireworks" and "Professor Umbridge". I think he did a better job with his sound than Doyle did.

I think I dislike Desplat's scores (from what I've heard) the most. I know that the DH are supposed to be darker, I also understand that they have a different feel probably due to the directer change, but his scores seem to have lost all the magic of the original three. It just sounds like what I should expect from a Twilight score; and I wasn't even impressed with the music by itself.

I personally don't think the directer should have changed composers in the first place. Of course, a new composer might want to write new themes for the movie and might not even like the old ones in the first place; I can understand that. One composer is not going to have the same feel as another.