So . . . James Hannigan's scores for the last two HP games are superior to Hooper's for the films, IMO. So why is it then that they're unavailable?
Half-Blood Prince was released on iTunes and Amazon.mp3 very briefly (so briefly I missed it. ) and then withdrawn. Order of the Phoenix has been on both services for a year or two now, but suddenly -- also gone. What's the story? Is there some rights thing going on? Were too many dunces being confused so they stopped distributing the Hannigan versions so they wouldn't have to deal with customer complaints? Was Hooper selling too few units so they decided to eliminate the competition in an effort to boost sales?
Is there any chances this is a positive develop, and the scores are being prepped for a CD release?
Anyone know if there's any chance these will be made available again?
I too tried to obtain these but they've vanished completely. My guess is that it's due to having the same name as the film soundtrack but it could also be the embarrassment of them being... erm... a bit better than the last two film scores.
I was able to hear them recently, and I was quickly blown away by their quality. Like Michael Giacchino (Medal of Honor) and Mark Griskey (Star Wars: Force Unleashed), Hannigan was able to effectively mimic John Williams' style while retaining his own voice. And yes, the scores are far more Harry Potter-esque than Nicholas Hooper's efforts (IMO).
They should definitely be more widely available though. Highly recommended if you miss the first 3 HP scores!
I know how you feel. I downloaded all the Harry Potter videogame scores while they were still available (5 from Jeremy Soule, 2 from James Hannigan) and was mystified to see that they have all been taken down recently with the exception of Goblet of Fire by Jeremy Soule, perhaps the weakest of the bunch, which you can still snag on Amazon.
If I had to guess, I'd say the brass was worried that the game scores were being mixed up with the movie ones, which wasn't really possible with Soule's music anyway (not to mention that the albums they assembled out of it were hideous).
There are a few samples of Hannigan's scores on his website, <http://www.jameshannigan.co.uk/>, as well as his contact information. Maybe somebody could ask him directly.
According to IMDB and Wikipedia, James Hannigan is attached to the "Deathly Hallows Pt. 1" videogame! Perhaps with this being the final film/game(?), EA will take the opportunity to put out a proper release this time...
Just to bump this old thread. It appears EA has reissued James Hannigan's video game scores for Harry Potter 5 & 6 as entries in their "EA Music Composer Series". Available on iTunes and Spotify. So if you missed out before. Grab them now.
However, comically, you'll note that they seemed to have had to scrub all trademarked terminology from the track titles and of course have no reference as to which score is which. Naturally, 6 has been released as Volume 1 and 5 has been released as Volume 2.
Some of the title changes are relatively harmless, but some of them are quite a stretch. My favorite non-trademark track title abbreviations:
"Quid" instead of "Quidditch" (from HP6) "Combat W" instead of "Wand Combat" (from HP5) "D and V" instead of "Dumbledore and Voldemort" (from HP5) "Get There" instead of "Get to Quidditch" (from HP6) "F and G Return" instead of "Fred and George Return" (from HP6) [This one is odd, because they left these names in HP5's program]
Seems EA is jumping through a LOT of legal hoops putting this out. Certainly to avoid paying licensing fees. I assume that's probably why they pulled all the OSTs originally to begin with.
All the tracks appear to be here and match in length to the originals though so I also assume if there were any Hedwig's Theme statements, then they're still here.
) and then withdrawn. Order of the Phoenix has been on both services for a year or two now, but suddenly -- also gone. What's the story? Is there some rights thing going on? Were too many dunces being confused so they stopped distributing the Hannigan versions so they wouldn't have to deal with customer complaints? Was Hooper selling too few units so they decided to eliminate the competition in an effort to boost sales?
