CD Review: Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
by John Takis
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone ****
JOHN WILLIAMS
Warner Sunset/Nonesuch/Atlantic 83493-2
19 tracks - 73:34
This review must begin with an anecdote that will help put things in
perspective. I am sitting in a crowded theater, waiting for Lord of
the Rings to begin, and attempting to carry on a conversation over
the crowd noise and constant undercurrent of muzak piping through the cinema
speakers. Suddenly the muzak fades to be replaced by the haunting celesta
that begins John Williams' score to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's
Stone. I quickly realize that it is, in fact, the concert arrangement
"Hedwig's Theme," and to my utter surprise the audience...is spellbound.
They don't make a sound for about 30 seconds, and the volume never rises
above a few whispers for the remaining four minutes. This is not an audience
of children, either. This is a large crowd of every size, age and shape
-- all held captive under the maestro's baton.
I offer this story as a testimony to the lasting power of John Williams
to enchant an audience. I remember when the Potter soundtrack was
first released, prompting a drove of self-important critics to cry injustice:
"Derivative!" "Pedestrian!" "Has Williams lost his magic?" Rising to meet
them was an army of Williams-fanatics in defense of their master: "That's
not fair!" "You're listening to it wrong!" "It's his best score ever!"
The reality of the situation got lost somewhere in-between. While Williams
isn't really breaking any new ground here, neither is he running on autopilot,
as some have alleged.
Part of the misconception regarding Potter was the popular notion
that Williams had not scored a fantasy film for children since the early
'90s, when he wrote Hook and Home Alone -- the two scores
to which Potter is most frequently compared (and not totally without
cause). In fact, Williams did score a children's fantasy prior to Potter
-- that film was Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, and
it is to this score, more than any other, that Potter bears a compositional
resemblance. Here is the denser and more textured Williams of the late
'90s, the more "mature" Williams who wrote Nixon and The Lost
World. The slightly unstable innocence of Harry's theme parallels that
of Anakin in Phantom, and it's impossible to listen to the Prokofien
noodling of Platform Nine-and-Three Quarters and not be reminded of Jar-Jar.
If Hedwig's Theme is a by-product of music from Hook and Home
Alone, it is only after being filtered through Williams' own The
Witches of Eastwick. And then there are the Classical influences. Tchaikovsky
(The Nutcracker and Swan Lake ballets) is an obvious source
of inspiration, as are Wagner and many others. But Williams is the glue
that holds it all together. If anything, using Tchaikovsky as a stepping-off
point only works to the film's advantage, simply and effectively evoking
the qualities of a Christmas-shrouded fairy tale. For Potter, Williams
is generally not interested in contrapuntal commentary. Instead, he writes
vivid music for vivid imagery, with an emphasis on "magic and theatrical"
qualities, as he stated in a Times interview ("They Shoot, He Scores").
Foremost in Williams' mind was that he was writing music for children.
Even if interviews had not borne this out (he was introduced to Harry Potter
not by Chris Columbus, but by his own grandchildren) there is the nine-movement
orchestral suite, sure to be premiered soon, which will serve a similar
educational function as Britten's "Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra."
(At least one of these movements made it onto the album as Hogwarts Forever,
a very English processional for horns).
Scoring with an eye towards a younger, less sophisticated audience may
be a large part of the reason critics have derided Potter's music as "syrupy"
or negatively unsubtle. Williams' score is certainly hard to miss; it fills
the film wall-to-wall with an operatic sense of presence and leitmotif.
In this sense, the score isn't any more subtle or emotionally direct than
the original Star Wars. But what many fail to realize is that Potter
could not have been another Star Wars, which almost single-handedly
revitalized large-scale symphonic sound in film music. That sound helped
birth the genre Harry Potter now inhabits, and a departure would
have been alienating where it should have been captivating.
There's little to say about the actual music that hasn't been said by
others. The album presents us with a wide range of moods and styles, from
the haunted "Prologue," to the ethnic flutes of "Diagon Alley," spidery
woodwinds for Voldemort, and even a languid passage for harp. Williams
also treats us to an original, delightfully spooky Christmas carol. One
of the album highlights is the lengthy and bombastic "The Quidditch Match,"
which recalls Phantom Menace's "Flag Parade" as well as Hook's
"The Ultimate War" and features excellent brass writing.
Some have criticized the score for an over-reliance on material taken
from "Hedwig's Theme" (which is the last track on the CD). This is less
true in the film than it is on the album, which only includes about half
of the music Williams composed, and tends to focus on the more "theatrical"
elements, especially towards the beginning. This is a situation in which
some judicious editing may have improved the final product.
But what we are left with is still a wonderful listening experience,
especially for the very young who are perhaps experiencing film music for
the first time. This ear-opening ability, as displayed in films like Star
Wars and E.T., made Williams a household name. Perhaps 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." He is still capable of surprising
and intriguing us -- A.I. demonstrated that much earlier last year.
But Harry Potter was for the children of the world, and for the
universe of adult "muggles" whose lives are sorely in want of a little
magic. If you think you have any of that spirit left in you, buy this CD
and enjoy.
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