Harry
Potter’s new composer meets listener
expectations
By
Bradley Zint
Online Forty-Niner
Opinion Editor
The most difficult thing when beginning an endeavor started by another is thinking, “Am
I living up to expectations?”
The little cloud of high hopes and potential comparative failure hangs above.
Film composer Patrick Doyle, the composer for the newest Harry Potter film, “Harry
Potter and the Goblet of Fire,” was chosen to write the underscore for
the fourth film.
Hollywood legendary maestro John Williams, the man behind cinema’s most
memorable music, including all six “Star Wars” films, the “Indiana
Jones” series,”“Jaws,” “E.T.” and “Schindler’s
List,” wrote the music for the first three Potter films.
Williams is a master of the craft; he has the ability to write compelling,
memorable and complex scores for his assignments, no matter the genre. He is
considered by many the finest film composer alive.
Consequently, Doyle had difficult shoes to fill.
The good news for Harry Potter and film music fans is that Doyle did an impressive
job of the difficult task of following the footsteps of a legend.
In short, Doyle’s work is fantastic, especially considering he is a film
composer largely unrecognized when compared to colleagues like Williams, James
Horner, Danny Elfman, Hans Zimmer and the late Jerry Goldsmith. Dolye has managed
to provide a stunning score.
He is no simpleton when it comes to orchestration. The result is an instrumentally
varied and interesting listening experience.
His music for the “Quidditch World Cup” is reminiscent of Aaron
Copland’s “Rodeo,”—that’s the song used in the
beef commercials; it’s what’s for dinner. Other enjoyable tracks
include “Neville’s Waltz,” “Potter Waltz” and
the beautiful yet slightly dissonant string melody in the music for Harry Potter’s
winter.
The action music by Doyle is not as interesting to listen to when isolated
from the film as Williams’ music was for the first three Potter films.
Perhaps this is due to Doyle’s ineffectiveness in that regard, or the
fact Williams is one of the few composers ever to write consistently compelling
action music.
The last three tracks of the CD are original songs performed by Jarvis Cocker,
Jonny Greenwood, Phil Selway, Steve Mackey, Jason Buckle and Steve Claydon.
They are terribly annoying. Nasty four-letter words best express their quality
in comparison to the rest of the soundtrack. They are also a horribly stark
contrast to the orchestral refinement of the London Symphony Orchestra.
Speaking of which, the LSO (which also recorded all six “Star Wars” films
and members of which recorded the first three Potter films) performs marvelously
on this soundtrack. The British musicians make all the difference in togetherness
and fluidity of sound, especially when compared to the contracted orchestras
that commonly record most films.
A major beef that will be discussed among Williams fanatics and film score
buffs is why Doyle chose to disregard Williams’ previously established
themes for Harry Potter elements. The theme for Hedwig the owl is the only
theme to return, even though the other music should also have been used.
It’s like writing a brand new theme for Darth Vader after the audience
learned to associate the former music with that dark helmet.
This is a really great soundtrack, despite its flaws. There’s a lot of
music worth hearing without the distraction of the film.
Harry Potter fans, film score fans and lastly, Doyle fans: you won’t
want to miss out on this fourth musical installment.
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