Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Nicholas Hooper)

Hey Everyone

I recently aquired the "Order of the Phoenix" score as a gift, and absolutely love it. Does anyone else agree that this score is more "Potter" than Doyle's (also very good) offering?

Excuse me for asking whose Doyle? The composer of the first few movies?

Patrick Doyle composed the music for the fourth film (Goblet of Fire.) The composer of the first three films was John Williams, (I don't compare him with Doyle or Hooper because I believe his work to be exceptional.)

I only remember the music from watching the film, but I do remember finding it a tiny bit repetitive.

However, if I recall, there were some minimalist textures which I found intriguing.

I liked Doyle's score for HP4. Which of course doesn't compare, in my opinion, to the Williams scores to HP 1-3.

I happened to enjoy Hooper's contribution. It was fairly unremarkable with the exception of the Fireworks cue and Umbridge's Theme (which I thought was brilliant). The rest just sort of "worked" but didn't really have anything too memorable going on.

Now that I sit and think about it though, I seem to recall also enjoying the theme that was given a lengthy treatment in the Room of Requirements track. That one was also quite good.

On a related note, I don't know if any of you have heard the soundtrack for the 5th HP video game, but it absolutely demolishes the film soundtrack. It's so much better that it's almost ridiculous. James Hannigan did that one, not that I expect many others will recognize him :P

The Harry Potter VG scores have long been an object of my affections. I feel the games + the scores are a very solid and magical contribution to the HP universe.

Well Jeremy Soule's done every one up until now, and Hannigan's done a masterful job with this one.

Indeed he has!

i personally was disappointed with the 5th one, I am pretty sure the strong composers on this forum can write better than that

the umbridge theme was basically the minor scale and it's not hard to write something like that. and i think the fireworks blends with the film but it's really awkward

on the other hand i absolutely love the opening for the 4th one, where Doyle sustituted a tritone in the hedwigs theme. However, the hogwarts hymn sounded like canon in d

in the john williams score i like "a window to the past", "buckbeack's flight", and "Fawks the phoenix"

does anyone know why williams didn't do soundtrack for the 4th and 5th?

John Williams was too busy to score the latter two Potter films, (I believe the year the 4th one came out he was working on Memoirs of a Geisha, Munich, War of the Worlds and Revenge of the Sith. (Losing him was one of the greatest musical tragedies of all time.) : )

I do understand why many perfer Doyle's score to Hooper's. The only reason I perfer OOTP, is that Hooper wrote two or three new themes, and implemented them simply throughout... it felt like a genuine score. Doyle's music tends to get so operatic that it overshadows the scenes it's in. I remember thinking several times during "Goblet of Fire" that Doyle WAY overshot the volume and emotion in several scenes. Don't get me wrong, Doyle's a great and talented composer, but as far as actual movie "scores" go I perfer the fifth.

PS

I meant losing John Williams from the Potter series... not like he's dead or anything. lol

Well Jeremy Soule's done every one up until now, and Hannigan's done a masterful job with this one.

I remember seeing Hannigan presenting his music at VGL in London. Cause of the way it was announced ("The company... is EA....") the crowd started booing and Hannigan took that to mean it was directed at him, poor guy!

The music was excellent though. And the film score is pretty good too, although I thought it was largely unremarkable.

That must of been a downer. Yea, it's sad how many fantastic video game composers go unnoticed by the public (present company and attentive ears excepted.) Although the market is growing! (Hooray for great composers and great music.)

yes i know what you mean. i just felt like there wasn't anything too impressive in the fifth. im looking forward to the sixth

i havent seen john williams score since last year, did he die?

z916, no, John Williams most definitely didn't die. He just finished the score to the new Indiana Jones movie that is coming out in March :)

As for the score of HPOotP, I happen to not like Hooper's contribution at all. It just didn't do anything for me after having such amazing scores by Williams and Doyle. I like some of the things that Hooper did with Hedwig's Theme, don't get me wrong, and he made it a much more intrinsic part of the score than Doyle, but overall it didn't do anything for me. I felt most of it was uninspired, and at times lacked the maturity and mastery that Doyle's and William's scores had. Now, in defense of Hooper, this was his first and only project so far that has not been for T.V., commercial, etc. so I can't be too hard on him... but I can, however, criticize Warner Bros. for not shoving out a few more bucks to get Doyle back (or try to get Williams back) - hiring a virtually inexperienced television composer to score one of the most money-grossing series of all time? Sketchy, Warner Bros, sketchy. Hooper wasn't even the first choice to score the film, several other composers turned it down before him.

I also remember that there were places in the score that didn't represent the screenplay at all. There would be calm moment with no building tension, and none that ever came, but Hooper's score would suggest building tension, etc. and also for the opposite. It just seemed that the score and the story seemed to be out of sync.

Anyway, thats just my opinion. I love James Hannigan's score to the video game, and prefer that to the cinematic score about 10 fold.

Indiana Jones 4 will be amazing... WILLIAMS IS KING! Yea, I agree with what you are saying, Hooper was an odd choice (and some of the pieces displayed immaturity) I just couldn't help but think that his score worked better on actual film than Doyle's (far richer) score. For example, did anyone notice that everytime something triumphant or exciting happens in the film, Doyle's scores an almost march/waltz like fanfare that seems to sound more like it's coming from somewhere in the scene than from the actual score? After such gems as "Sense and Sensibility" and "Gosford Park" it just seems strange to me that so many directors are hiring Doyle for epics now. *(Sighs and remembers "Mischief Managed!")*

For me, I never really understood why Williams was chosen to score Harry Potter to begin with... I never really 'got' the overly cinematic and grand sound of his work on them. I do appreciate the themes, they are quite 'magical' (excuse the pun). But I would think the darkness of the themes and storylines presented would be more of a call for someone like Newton Howard, or better yet, Danny Elfman. Does anyone have thoughts on what it would be like if Elfman took a shot at the HP films instead?

I only remember the music from watching the film, but I do remember finding it a tiny bit repetitive.

However, if I recall, there were some minimalist textures which I found intriguing.

I liked Doyle's score for HP4. Which of course doesn't compare, in my opinion, to the Williams scores to HP 1-3.

agreeable..

i feel the phoenix soundtrack is the weakest yet in the 'potter collection'. i'm not saying the soundtrack is of no value, in fact, it's brilliantly written but i feel it is far inferior to it's predecessors.

But I would think the darkness of the themes and storylines presented would be more of a call for someone like Newton Howard, or better yet, Danny Elfman. Does anyone have thoughts on what it would be like if Elfman took a shot at the HP films instead?

Maybe Elfman or Newton-Howard on the third film and Newton-Howard on the fourth and fifth but the first two are definitely Williams all over and I think the third score is the best out of all so I don't think that Elfman or Newton-Howard would necessarily write a better score just one that would fit.

Goblet of Fire would have been more Newton-Howard territory as would Order of the Phoenix.

Seemed like a mixed bag to me... Some good, some bad...

Although, in my opinion, the films and the scores have got successively worse. I hope they get their act together for the last ones..

I don't believe Elfman or Newton Howard could have done near what Williams did with the series (and I'm a HUGE fan of both of the composers.) Williams brings a childlike joy and spirit to the series that will forever be the defining mark of "Harry Potter" music. As far as the scores getting worse as they continue... I'd have to disagree. The Sorcerer's Stone was fantastic, Chamber of Secrets just built upon it, and Azkaban was probably the best of them all. Goblet of Fire was stunningly rich (although almost too classically rich to portray the film accurately) and Order of the Phoenix was a bit underscored but nevertheless worked better in the actual frame of the film than Doyle's score. (In my humble opinion.)

As a fan of both HP and Elfman I would have been disappointed if he scored the series. He is too obvious a choice for anything magical, and he's kind of got repetitive over the last few years (although Meet the Robinsons was quite interesting). I'd like to see him branch out of his comfort zone.

I never got the whole Williams phenomenon. His work is grand and I do respect him for what he did when he started out, but I don't believe that he has created a score specially designed for one movie for over 10 years. He makes beautiful main themes, but then the rest is kind of all the same.

I do think Hedwig's theme is quite on cue for HP, and the whole first score is quite good, but the second I did not care for. Three was OK.

Doyle was adequate, but still there was something missing.

So far I like Hooper's approach best, mostly because he was able to take the unbelievably dull and pubescent OotP and create something that was true to the story, yet rich in emotion. I don't feel that usage of simple motives such as Umbridge's theme makes for a worse composition.

I'm glad someone else enjoys Hooper's score as much as I do! : ) I also agree with your comments about Elfman (who did do an excellent job on Meet the Robinsons) but whom I would not want to score an HP film. As far as Williams is concerned, I'd urge you to listen to Star Wars Episode III, Memoirs of a Geisha and War of the Worlds... three of the finest scores in recent yers, all penned by this master. Williams is amazing at themes, but can also write some of the truest and best film scores you'll ever hear.

Well Harry Potter isn't really the best soundtrack. I'm not a big fan, although John Williams is a brilliant story teller. Harry Potter soundtrack just was not good at telling the story and for a lot of movies he composed for including this one, the music stays the same. The movie was very bogus too, but I can't say I didn't like the fantasy aspect. I love the "Prelude" track and I like the instrumentation of "Harry's Wonderous World." Everything after that, and the scores by Doyle and Hooper, whoever they really are, weren't anything that special. JWilliams wrote a few good tunes for HP3 as well.

My favorite filmtracks are from Star Wars episode 2, 4, 5 and 6, E.T. The Extra terrestrial, and Jurassic Park. Actually most of John Williams writing is very very good.