Haupz Blog

... still a totally disordered mix

Potter Music

2024-05-24 — Michael Haupt

Some time back, the family and I went to a concert in Nikolaisaal Potsdam, where an orchestra and choir performed a selection of music from the Harry Potter movies. (This is the kind of concert all four of us can agree on finding interesting.)

Hearing the music in chronological order of the movies in a short time frame for the first time revealed a major shift in quality after part III. Notably, the scores for parts I-III were written by John Williams. Three other composers took care of parts IV-VII, reusing Williams' motives. Frankly, the music for the latter parts is mostly bland, and obviously exists to decorate the images, and to place some acoustic effects. The music for the former parts tells a story on its own, is much more tightly woven, and makes better use of the orchestra. I wouldn’t go so far as to say the scores for parts IV-VII are bad, but they really are mere sound tracks. (Interestingly, I remember a ton of the motives Williams introduced, but have a hard time remembering any of those introduced in the later movies.) It seems John Williams is a representative of a generation that cared about film scores in a different way.

Having gone to the concert also compelled us to watch the entirety of the film series together, which made for some entertaining movie nights. We also watched them for the first time in English (with subtitles). Achievement unlocked.

Tags: music