 |
|
| View Mode |
| Regular | Headlines |
|
| All times are
PT (Pacific Time), U.S.A.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
CD Review: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
|
| Posted By: John Takis on August 15, 2004 - 10:00 PM |
CD Review: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of
Azkaban ****
JOHN WILLIAMS
Warner Sunset/Nonesuch/Atlantic 83711-2
21 tracks - 68:36
Is Harry Potter and the Prisoner of
Azkaban (POA) the
definitive John Williams score? Certainly it's an amazing pastiche of
just about everything he's ever done: Jane
Eyre, Catch Me If You Can,
Temple of Doom, Close Encounters, Jurassic Park...the list goes on.
Yet somehow, it never seems less than fresh. In my review for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone,
I wrote: "we, for all our sophistication and experience, long for that
sense of discovery in a familiar world -- something we might not find
in Williams' umpteenth exposition on 'the magic of flight.'" But
something in POA -- perhaps
Alfonso Cuarón's fantastic direction or Michael Seresin's
gorgeous cinematography -- certainly inspired Williams, because flying
cue no. umpteen-and-one, "Buckbeak's Flight," feels as new as ever. POA is, in this reviewer's
opinion, the best of the Potter
films to date: tighter, more assured, better acted (Michael Gambon,
stepping in for the late Richard Harris, is a revelation as Dumbledore;
Gary Oldman is predictably great) and Williams rises to the occasion,
creating a score of striking beauty and power. The melodies are
breathtaking, the action cues are consistently thrilling, and even the
atmospheric cues shine. The score is packed with endlessly distinct
ideas that are individually great and add up to a superb whole. This is
Williams on top of his game.
The album can be roughly divided into three chunks. The first five
tracks are set-up. As with each film in the Potter series, the CD begins with a
reprise of "Hedwig's Theme." It continues with the delightfully
Rossini-esque "Aunt Marge's Waltz," which strikes just the right
balance of pomp and comical discord. This is followed by the pure
orchestral/Dixieland bedlam of "The Knight Bus," the terrifying
"Apparition on the Train," and finally, the new song "Double Trouble,"
cleverly based on the lyrics to Shakespeare's famous Macbeth scene. The
melody of this last piece serves as the film's predominant theme.
The next portion of the album serves to further develop the Double
Trouble theme and introduce the score's two other main themes.
"Buckbeak's Flight" opens with the fiercest percussion since "Sand
People Attack" and blossoms into the aforementioned flying theme. This
six-note-theme and variations only appears twice in the film (the
second time, for Sirius Black's escape, has been criminally left off
the album). "A Window to the Past" features a new theme for memories of
Harry's long-dead parents. Carried mainly by the flute, the gentle
melancholy sound fits the Potter
world like a glove. This is something that was sorely missing from the Chamber of Secrets. Next comes "The
Whomping Willow," which occurs much later in the film -- someone must
have decided the album was ripe for an action cue at this point. The
cue is brief but terribly exciting, and does well paired with "The
Snowball Fight," which is pure fun.
The next three tracks further develop the versatile Double Trouble
theme. "Secrets of the Castle" comes first, and is my favorite.
Performed on mysterioso bells, it never fails to send chills down my
spine. The second half of this track, written for an earlier
transitional scene in the film, is positively brilliant. It's great to
see the inclusion some of these shorter, but important, bits of score
on the album. "The Portrait Gallery" is a more quirky and unstable
variation of the Double Trouble theme, whereas "Hagrid the Professor"
takes the material and gives it classic British folk instrumentation.
It's here where the album really gets cooking. "Monster Books and
Boggarts" is light enough action, a combination of shorter cues from
earlier in the film. Then we're right into "Quidditch, Third Year," a
furious, stormy cue with fugue-like layering of motives and rhythms
(and the album's only appearance of the "Grim" motif). "Layered" and
"complex" describe most Williams action cues, but his POA set-pieces are particularly
well-rendered, especially in comparison to the previous two Potter scores. Dissonant beds of
orchestra and choir, jagged brass and shifting counterlines, make for
some amazing action and suspense cues. Things come to a head in the
tremendous "The Dementor's Converge" and climactic "Finale," which
actually end up giving the impression of musical blasts of light
piercing through a storm. I haven't even mentioned the otherworldly
"Patronus Light" chorus, the pizzicato bustle of "Chasing Scabbers"(not
in the film), the slow-building pulse of "Saving Buckbeak," or the
mind-bending "Forward to Time Past," which features a ticking clock and
a backwards orchestra. Now I have mentioned them. This is a score of
staggering diversity.
Finally we reach the end in "Mischief Managed," which begins with the
best musical ending to any Potter
film so far -- an infectiously fun quote of the Nimbus 2000 and Hedwig
themes, launching into a devilishly orchestrated passage based on the
new Double Trouble theme. And it's this last track which opens the door
to my negative criticism of the score, both in the film and on the
album.
I'll start with the score itself. It's a brilliant Williams score,
possibly the best of his Potter
efforts so far -- I love his new themes. But I also loved the old
themes. And apart from a few appearances of and exciting variations on
Hedwig's theme and the lone Nimbus 2000 quote, they're M.I.A. The
Hogwarts theme? Gone. Harry's Wondrous World? Gone. Voldemort? Not in
the film. And the new memory theme appears to have simply replaced the
old one. It's hard to complain, since POA
works so well on its own terms and feels a lot fresher, but fans ought
to be aware.
The score as heard in the film is hit and miss. On the plus side, for
scenes like the Boggart practice, or the Shrieking Shack, Williams'
writing is an organic part of the sound design, expertly intertwined
with sound effects and source music. However, while the score is
arguably mixed a bit better than in Chamber
of Secrets, it's still painfully quiet during most dialogue
scenes. And more important, the music is dialed down during some of the
film's final moments (where there isn't even any dialogue or sfx to
compete with). There are other glaring flaws -- such as the editing
down of "Buckbeak's Flight," tainting what might be one of the most
gorgeously filmed scenes I have ever seen in a movie; or the first time
Harry uses the Patronus charm on the Dementors, where the melodic line
is completely cut out. The film version of "Quidditch, Third Year" is
also missing music, including a quote of the Double Trouble theme.
Finally, the album has some strikes against it. First, the chronology.
As Frankensteins go, it's quite listenable, but as with Howard Shore's LOTR scores, when one becomes used
to the narrative shape of the story, it becomes difficult to listen to
cues all out of order on the soundtrack. Readers are recommended to
visit www.jwfan.net for a
comprehensive look (written by this reviewer) at what goes where. The
album scores points for including some music not in the film, but loses
points for not including nearly enough music, period. It would have
been nice, for example, to have heard the other song Williams wrote for
the film, "A Winter's Spell." It's virtually inaudible in the film
(listen during Harry's excursion to Hogsmeade) and nowhere on the
album. Likewise, Peter Pettigrew's eight-note harpsichord motif,
important and fully developed in the film, never appears on the CD at
all. The "Finale" is severely abridged, the most notable exclusion
being "Sirius Black's Escape." To add insult to injury, what first
appears to be an originally composed end-credits suite of 12-minutes in
length is revealed as containing 10 minutes of cues which have already
been heard on the soundtrack album! That it more or less works as a
re-cap of the score's main ideas is undermined by the fact that I could
have made it myself in 5 minutes on my computer. In fact, there is less
than an hour of unrepeated score on this CD, possibly due to the
"bonus" addition of an absolutely worthless screen saver and desktop. I
curse the soundtrack executive who initiated these "added value"
supplements. For the above reasons, I cannot give the CD the extra
half-star which the score merits. Nevertheless, unless you happen to
hate John Williams or Harry Potter, this soundtrack belongs in your
collection. Buy it and enjoy. -- John Takis
MailBag@filmscoremonthly.com
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
Today in Film Score History:
January 17 |
|
| Charles Bernstein begins recording his score for Love at First Bite (1979) |
|
| Harry Robinson died (1996) |
|
| John Williams begins recording his score to Return of the Jedi (1983) |
|
| Rolf Wilhelm died (2013) |
|
| Ryuichi Sakamoto born (1952) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
