By Cyn McCrackan
July 16, 2009
The music soundtrack within a film is inextricably tied to the memory of that film. The best soundtrack music can bring a film to soaring heights, impossible to reach otherwise, lifting the viewer out of her seat and into another life enabling escape from everyday existence, if only for a couple of hours.
Now comes the Harry Potter series, moving into it's sixth film, with what would have been the penultimate film in the series if not for the planned rendering of "Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows" into two films to better preserve the very last chapters of the phenomenally successful children's fantasy series by J.K. Rowling.
Unsurprisingly, given his acclaimed efforts in his only previous scoring for Harry Potter, 2007’s “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix," composer Nicholas Hooper admirably succeeds in accomplishing this task in his score for “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, one which is as grand in scope as the books themselves.
Composer Hooper first stepped into "Potterworld" when director David Yates took over the series with the aforementioned "Order of the Phoenix.” Scoring “Half-Blood Prince,” Hooper expands upon the themes that he and previous composers in the series had already established while contributing a slew of fresh new ones suitable to this darker outing.
The soundtrack features reprisals of the menacing “Possession” theme from “Order of the Phoenix” which Hopper notes is used to connect Voldemort/Tom Riddle to both Harry Potter and Prof. Dumbledore. Listen for it's foreboding sound woven into the score, especially in the second half of "Half Blood Prince."
Astute listeners will recognize several touches of John Williams' previous contributions including "Hedwig's Theme" and a snippet of "The Quidditch Match." Williams' impossible-to-miss signature sound can also be heard in "Ron's Victory" and "Of Love and War."
In a film that carries so much emotional weight the magic and wonder of "Ron's Victory" as well as “Inferi in the Firestorm” are crucial to bring balance to the film.
Draco Malfoy, who assumes a critical role in "Half-Blood Prince," has earned his own theme, "Malfoy's Mission," which as composer Hooper notes, is intended to denote "mystery, evil, and sadness." If you've read Half-Blood Prince you'll agree that indeed Malfoy is in a constant emotional flux regarding this rite of passage mission.
Further plumbing emotions is a new composition, “In Noctem” which encompasses much of the emotional weight of the film, while “Ron’s Victory” and “Inferi in the Firestorm” evoke the sense of wonder and magic prominent in the earlier films.
With the “Half-Blood Prince” score, Hooper successfully manages to convey the enigmatic and the fancy juxtaposed against mischievousness and hopelessness. The result is no less than magic. Without being so informed I would have had no clue that Nicholas Hooper has now made the Harry Potter franchise's composer roster a triad and that he was not with the series from the start. Composer Hooper has made the series a part of his repertoire as if it were always so while bringing past Potter themes into the series with seeming effortlessness. It is important I think that viewers keep in mind that the Harry Potter films are now a large body of work which began with 2001’s “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” and as such needs to have an over-arching sense of being "as one" musically.
This gives the audience, be they listeners or viewers a real sense of how these characters have matured since the young trio arrived wide-eyed and innocent at Hogwart's Academy.
"Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack" contains no less than three love themes, "Ginny" within which is the previously-noted snippet of the signature "Hedwig's Theme," "Harry and Hermione," and "When Ginny Kissed Harry." While keeping the long-running series' music integral to it's characters growth, Hooper also keeps flowing the continuity which carries the viewer along while reminding us just how far we all have come on this journey with Harry and Company.
"Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack" is in stores now. It is composed by Nicholas Hooper. The film, starring Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, and and Michael Gambon, is now playing at your local theater.
EDIT to add: A great little video clip from the scoring of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince which takes you behind the scenes to watch conductor/orchestrator Alistair King and orchestrator Jeff Atmajian as they score composer Nicholas Hooper’s opening track to the film.
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