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| • | Newest Major Reviews: | . | • | This Week's Most Popular Reviews: | • | Best-Selling Albums: | ||
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1. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix 2. Ratatouille 3. Live Free or Die Hard 4. Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer 5. Shrek the Third | . | . |
1. Moulin Rouge 2. Gladiator 3. Star Wars: A New Hope 4. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End 5. Schindler's List |
6. POTC: Curse of the Black Pearl 7. Braveheart 8. Titanic 9. Edward Scissorhands 10. Casino Royale | . | . |
1. Varèse Sarabande 25th 2. Life is Beautiful 3. Braveheart 4. The Last of the Mohicans 5. Glory |
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Filmtracks Editorial Review:
But would Williams accomplish the same kind of success in meeting the expectations as he did with Star Wars: The Phantom Menace? To be succinct: no, he did not. But the true shame is that the fans of John Williams and Harry Potter may allow their disappointment over the deflating of this score's myth as an undue reason to diminish its overall quality. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone is a very good score, but as countless fans have already expressed, it isn't the magical victory that they were expecting. As far as precedent is concerned, Williams had some mightily impressive childrens' scores in his own past to compare Harry Potter to. While the mass populus is most familiar with memorable scores for blockbuster films such as E.T. and Home Alone, the knowledgable fans of Williams' work know that the master's most thematically rich and layered score to date is Hook, for which expanded, 2-CD bootleg albums have been a hot trade item for many years. Even though the film Hook, despite being a massive Spielberg collaboration, was a monumental disaster in the box office, its superior score remains a treasure in countless film music fans' collections. It is no surprise, therefore, that Hook becomes the ultimate comparison point for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Unfortunately, this first Harry Potter score is no Hook, and nor does it really coming close to being of the same caliber. The reason for this is the disturbing opinion held by many, including myself, that the Harry Potter score lacks, ironically, magic. There was an intangible element to Hook, perhaps in its lengthy, heavy-dwelling thematic performances, which together gave the score sense of magic that rivalled the grandiose brand of magic heard in E.T. and Williams' other better known scores. His Harry Potter music has all the same elements: a intricately woven score of immense complexity, a large performing group recorded in crisp digital sound, a chorus with adult male and female voices, a collection of varied themes repeated throughout, and that "trademark" Williams orchestration that can recognized by even lay fans on the street. But when you've heard it all and thought about it for a while... and even listened to it again... it just doesn't leave the same lasting impression as some of Williams' earlier works. Earlier this autumn, Jerry Goldsmith produced a score for The Last Castle which, although it made for an enjoyable album, was an example of a composer on auto-pilot, repeating motifs heard in his previous career entires. The same could be said of Williams for Harry Potter. The finely tuned ear of a veteran film music collector will recognize all of the themes and motifs in Harry Potter as being simple variants on those heard in Hook, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Home Alone, and half a dozen other Williams scores. It is both sad and intriguing that this score could start the largest debate yet about Williams' apparent self-plagiarism in his years of semi-retirement. There are a few cues on the album of particular note, if either for their obvious homage to the composer's previous scores, or their simply baffling performances. An example of the latter would be the nearly unlistenable french horn overlays in the ninth track. Were these performances intentional, or were they littered with errors? Two glaring and disappointing self-ripoffs include the twelfth track, which begins with a rather neat insertion of vocal sound effects. The track then, however, wanders directly into the halls of the Home Alone recordings, taking Christmas music as sort of a stock material to be inserted similarly in multiple situations. The sixteenth track, representing the chess game, imitates a chess match of a different scale, with the exact same percussion and woodwind performances as heard in the battle preparation scenes late in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. This track, above all, is so blatantly lifted from the Star Wars scores that they are nearly indistinguishable from each other. Several other shorter motifs will raise red flags for Williams fans. The "cutesy" cues of flighty rhythms (remember that bumpy droid music from the original Star Wars?) are of little interest. The mood in this score is never so powerful as it was in A.I. Artificial Intelligence earlier this year. Even with all that said, however, John Williams on auto-pilot can still compose and produce better music than any other in the world. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone is, even with its faults tallied, an interesting and enjoyable score on album. Its functionality in the film will not be questioned, as it is for certain an extraordinary accompaniment for the visuals. The full lengthed album contains the concert suite conducted by Williams as early as this past summer, though it has not been confirmed if the version of Hedwig's Theme as heard in the film's trailers is contained in the same form on album. Of the themes Williams composed for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, there is really only one which stands out as an elegant addition to Williams' already-established collection of award winning themes. The theme which opens and dominates the second track (with prominent performances in the third and sixth tracks as well) rivals those exhibited in the prologue track of Hook in its majesty. The second track of the Harry Potter album, which was moved from the end to the beginning of the album late in the production process, is by far the highlight. It contains the only real magic and wonderment that the score offers on album. The moments during which Williams allows the full brass section to sweep away one of his themes are always highlights, but this time around, the string and choral performances lag behing in majesty and scope. Even with a substantial portion of music not appearing on this album, quite a bit of meandering, unsubstantiated underscore managed to make its way onto it. Unlike Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, it's difficult to predict if more music from this Harry Potter film will ever make it onto a second album. If it does, then it would likely be over a year from now, and in tandem with some of the multimedia content available on the secondary CD already selling with the score in the European set. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone is a highly listenable album, and still a very good score, but don't get your hopes up too high. Even the master doesn't hit all the marks every time. ****
Insert includes extensive credits and offers a note from director Chris Columbus. The packaging also unfolds into a rather unattractive poster. The original Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone score preview, as published at Filmtracks in August of 2001: 
For the first film adaptation of J.K. Rowling's, veteran fantasy composer John
Williams teams up with director Christopher Columbus to produce a score of epic
length and proportion. The film represented the first time since Hook
that Williams has composed a theme specifically meant for the theatrical
trailers of the film (the impressive Hook prelude, as appears first on
its album CD, made its debut in the film's trailer at the beginning of 1989's
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade). Williams has, through these trailers
and a concert performance of the trailer's music, offered eager audiences a
glimpse of the epic fantasy score to come. For the film, Williams broke from his
usual practices and actually took the time to read the Harry Potter and the
Sorcerer's Stone book for inspiration (he reportedly enjoyed it, too). Upon
seeing rough edits of the film in spring of 2001, Williams was impressed even
further. Unfortunately, due to scheduling conflicts in the summer of 2001,
Williams was unable to conduct the London Symphony Orchestra for this score,
though another suitable London ensemble has been massed for the occasion. An
extensive album release of Williams music, including the trailer theme, is
expected in early November, 2001.Williams' enthusiasm for this project is evident in the words he has stated about the score at concerts and interviews. In a May 18th, 2001, article with the Boston Globe, Williams discussed the "darkly alluring orchestral waltz" for the first trailer. ''I developed a theme for Hedwig,'' Williams says. ''Everyone seemed to like it, so I will probably use that music as one thread in the tapestry.'' Regarding the length of the score, Williams stated, "I imagine there will be a lot of music in the film, and Chris Columbus has told me that the film is long and that he needs to whittle it down. That's a very hard and heartbreaking process for a director, and it's very difficult for a composer, too. Sometimes I have written as much as 20 minutes of music for a film that was never used. I am a composer who likes to develop and combine themes, and it is awkward to develop themes that have never been properly introduced because the scenes they were written for have been cut from the film." On the topic of the book reading, Williams explained his break from tradition by saying, "It is more valuable to me to be a tabula rasa - most of the audience doesn't know what's coming, and it's important to place myself in that same position. I want the film to make the first impression, and it is also the film itself that has to give me the right sense of pace and timing." In the case of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, though, Williams admits that he "liked it very much, and it made me want to read on, especially now that people have told me that each book gets better than the one before." In an interesting note, Williams discussed how difficult it is to predict who films with prominent children actors will perform. With Home Alone remaining a strong memory, Williams points out, "It is very hard to predict on the basis of auditions just what you are going to get from a young performer, but sometimes you get lucky. I have to say that everyone from Warner Brothers who has seen the film is very excited about it, including the hard-bitten professionals. In a short follow-up blurb with the Boston Globe on July 6th, Williams indicated that his work on Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was continuing, and that he would finish it at Tanglewood within the next two months. He finished by mentioning, "I'm really cooking on it now. I've finished about an hour of the score, which means there is a lot left to go. The director Chris Columbus has done such a good job on this film, and all the old-time British character actors are terrific." At the Tanglewood concert on July 31st, around his conducting of the first theme of the score for an audience, Williams announced "Belated welcomes and thanks for coming to be here. It's a great joy being on the podium here. We thought we would play a little preview of something from Harry Potter. [audience applauds] We're working on it currently and the film will be finished at the end of October. I'm about 2/3 of the way through a 2 hour score. We'd like to play a few minutes of it for you now as a preview with the exciting permission of our producers at Warner Brothers. You know the books and the film is about witches, and unicorns, and owls, and magic. And this particular little piece is about Hedwig the Owl who brings messages from the world of the witches to the world of the muggles... human beings... us. This is 'Hedwig's Theme' from Harry Potter." Reactions to the performances of "Hedwig's Theme" in both concert and the trailers has been overwhelmingly positive, prompting Williams to increase its usage in the film itself. Richard Dyer, the interviewer for The Boston Globe, states that "The music [for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone] is destined to be one of Williams' greatest hits, an affectionately allusive tribute to great fantasy music of the past - but in his own unmistakable voice; this parallels the way Rowling's book stands on the shoulders of its predecessors like a nimble circus acrobat about to grab a trapeze and fly away. The theme, an agreeably lopsided and slippery waltz, appears first on Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker celesta, while the strings flutter around it like owlish wings. The brass offer contrasting ideas, and the whole thing develops in the tradition of Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries and Humperdinck's homage to it in the witch's ride in 'Hansel and Gretel.' In Williams's masterly orchestration, the whole thing glistens, surprises, and exhilarates." Fans have expressed equal praise for the theme. Jesse Helton, who attended the concert performance writes, "It is the best of Hook and Home Alone put together, giving you the magical chills that only a handful of Williams' scores make you feel. Instead of the bombast, you get the feeling that you are part of the story itself. If Williams really did read the book himself, it can be heard in the music." While bootlegged copies of this theme, only a few minues long, are already floating around the Internet, you can hear the theme prominently in either of the first two trailers for the film, both of which can be heard at the movie's official web site. A full review of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone will be presented by Filmtracks in October, 2001. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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