(2001)

This is first film in the series of eight film adaptations (the adaption of the final book will be released in two parts) of J.K. Rowling’s worldwide successful ‘Harry Potter’ books. Directed by Chris Colombus and starring Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint, and Emma Watson, the film tells the story of Harry’s (Radcliffe) first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Working with director Colombus for the fourth time (their previous collaborations were two Home Alone films and Stepmom), John Williams’ score is, in my opinion, the aspect of the film that brings most of the ‘magical’ feeling to it.

The first track, ‘Prologue’, begins with the now famous ‘Hedwig’s Theme’ (Hedwig is Harry’s owl), which has been a part of not only the two subsequent films that Williams scored, but also in the fourth, fifth, and sixth films by Patrick Doyle and Nicholas Hooper, and reportedly will be part of Alexandre Desplat’s upcoming score to the first part of the seventh film. Starting as a simple Celeste solo, the piece slowly builds up to include strings, which give the ‘flying’ feeling to it, and eventually the whole orchestra. ‘The Arrival of Baby Harry’ is much the same, starting with the Celeste solo and then expanding to include the strings and a small choir. The rest of the orchestra then come in as the film’s title is shown.

‘Diagon Alley and The Gringotts Vault’’ is a thoroughly enjoyable piece, starting with woodwinds and light percussion, and then violins. The horns then come in as Harry and Hagrid (Robbie Coltrane) arrive at Gringotts (the wizards bank). Woodwinds and light percussion, then with strings, do a wonderful job of setting the suspense for what’s going to be inside this secret vault.

By far the best theme from the score is music for the game of ‘Quidditch’ (a sport played on broomsticks). A glorious sounding piece performed mainly on horns and trumpets, containing a range of emotions. Heroism as the players mount their brooms and fly out into the stadium and as the game starts. Suspense as Harry nearly falls of his broom. And then finally the horns come in to represent the victory.

‘Christmas at Hogwarts’ is another good one, starting with flutes and light percussion. I wasn’t so keen on the vocals of ‘Merry Christmas’, but the music afterwards makes up for that. I liked ‘Fluffy’s Harp’ as well. Played during the scene by a magical harp to keep Fluffy (a giant three headed dog) asleep. Played entirely by a harp, with the occasional one note blast by a contrabassoon to represent Fluffy. ‘The Chess Game’ is another one I really enjoyed, starting with low key horns and percussion, and then a march-like theme on strings and percussion as the players move on the board. Playing over the end credits is ‘Harry’s Wondrous World’, a wonderful symphonic arrangement of several themes from the score.

Overall, this is a superb score and one of the best of 2001. Nothing beat Howard Shore’s score for Lord of the Rings, but otherwise, this, with the possible exception of A.I. Artificial Intelligence (also by Williams) was probably the year’s best, and thoroughly deserving of its Oscar nomination.

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Track Listing

1 – Prologue

2 – Harry’s Wondrous World

3 – The Arrival of Baby Harry

4 – Visit to the Zoo and Letters from Hogwarts

5 – Diagon Alley and The Gringotts Hall

6 – Platform Nine-and-Three-Quarters and The Journey to Hogwarts

7 – Entry to the Great Hall and The Banquet

8 – Mr. Longbottom Flies

9 – Hogwarts Forever! and The Moving Stairs

10 – The Norwegian Ridgeback and A Change of Season

11 – The Quidditch Match

12 – Christmas at Hogwarts

13 – The Invisibility Cloak and The Library Scene

14 – Fluffy’s Harp

15 – In the Devil’s Snare and The Flying Keys

16 – The Chess Game

17 – The Face of Voldemort

18 – Leaving Hogwarts

19 – Hedwig’s Theme

Credits

Music Composed, Conducted & Produced by John Williams

Orchestrations by Conrad Pope

Performed by The London Symphony Orchestra & London Voices

Recorded & Mixed by Simon Rhodes

Edited by Ken Wannberg & Peter Myles

Recorded at Abbey Road Studios & Air Lyndhurst Studios, London

Awards

Academy Award® for Best Original Score – nominee

Insert Notes

Includes credits, and a note from director Chris Colombus.

All artwork and images are Copyright © Warner Bros.

(1949)

Yet another masterpiece from Alfred Newman, and the second of his two best scores in the genre of swashbucklers. The film cost $4 million to make, a huge sum in those days, and so it is little surprise that Newman, the head of the music department, was given the scoring assignment.

If you enjoyed Captain from Castile, then there is little doubt you’ll enjoy this one, possibly even more so due to the wonderful release it has been given by Film Score Monthly; The quality of the music is excellent.

Unlike the majority of Fox films, Prince of Foxes opens directly with the score, and not Newman’s famous fanfare. The primary theme for the score is used both as a ‘march’ theme and as the theme for the character of Orsini. This theme is first introduced in majestic fashion in the first cue, and is probably the most recognisable theme from the score. Immediately following this is the score’s love theme, a beautiful woodwind and string piece, although sadly only forty seconds long. Following an even shorter cue – ‘Ferrara’ is ‘Royal Court’. This is probably the best cue on the album, with heroic fanfares played by a trumpet, accompanied by brass and light percussion.

Following some truly wonderful string performances in the cue ‘Madonna’, the march theme is once again played in the cue ‘Onward March’. After this is ‘The Chapel’, reminiscent of Newman’s earlier masterpiece The Song of Bernadette, possibly the best score he ever wrote for Fox.

‘Festival of Spring’ is another of the best cues – a wonderful, thought rather daft, choral piece. The next cue, ‘Attempted Assassination’ pays a visit to Newman’s earlier works, in this case his score to RKO’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

‘Into Battle’ begins with excellent renditions of the main march theme, which then leads into french horn and percussion performances, which are later joined by the famous Newman strings. Newman’s abilities with the string section of the orchestra were something that no other conductor in Hollywood had – the cue ‘ Death of his Excellence’ demonstrates this so well – the effect is wonderful.

Concluding the album is ‘Song of Venice’. In the film it is heard with a string accompaniment, which unfortunately was lost, and so the vocals are backed by a mandolin instead.

Considering that nearly all of the music heard on this album was recorded in 1949, the sound quality is astonishingly good. It certainly ranks among Newman’s best work at Fox, and is probably the finest of his scores for the swashbucker genre. At just forty minutes, it’s not too long either, and worth every second. If you’re a film score fan, you owe it to yourself to buy it. It’s limited to 3000 copies so grab one when you can – you won’t be disappointed.

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Track Listing

1 – Prelude

2 – Romance on the Gondola

3 – Ferrara

4 – Royal Court

5 – Madonna

6 – Onward March

7 – The Chapel

8 – The Fortress

9 – Death Plot

10 – The Painting

11 – Madonna’s Portrait

12 – Festival of Spring

13 – Attempted Assassination

14 – Into Battle

15 – Death of his Excellence

16 – The Truce

17 – The Duke’s Offer

18 – The Duke’s Entrance

19 – The Banquet

20 – Of Pleasant Birth

21 – Madonna Imprisoned

22 – The Rescue

23 – Finale

24 – Song of Venice

Credits

Music Composed & Conducted by Alfred Newman

Orchestrations by Edward Powell

Album Produced by Nick Redman & Rick Victor

Awards

None

Insert Notes

The insert contains lengthy notes about the film, the score, and the composer.

All images and artwork are Copyright © Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation.

(1970)

Despite being a very popular film at the time of its release in 1970, Airport is a film that is remembered by comparatively few film fans today. To film score fans however, it is remembered as the final film that the legendary Alfred Newman, whose forty year career in Hollywood had produced over two hundred film scores, several of which were inarguably among the greatest ever written, ever scored.

The most admirable thing about the score to Airport is not how wonderful and how effective the music is. That description applies to all of Newman’s scores. It is, that in the last weeks of his life, suffering from emphysema, Newman was still able to compose and conduct such a thrilling and dynamic score for Airport. Writing this review now, I can’t think of any composer who ended his career on such a high level as Newman did with this film.

The score is heavily jazz-inspired, unlike Newman’s previous symphonic style. The style of several cues could be compared in several ways to Street Scene, one of Newman’s very first assignments, which he composed in 1931. Much of the incidental music in the film is omitted in this recording, which unfortunately only runs for about thirty minutes. It is nevertheless, a superb score and a must-buy for any film music fan.

The score opens with the Main Title, which features a series of repeating six-note motifs played by trumpets, horns, and various other brass instruments. It’s simple, but it does an excellent job of reflecting the hectic activity of a busy airport. Lorries clearing snow of the runway, crowds of passengers waiting to get their flights – a wonderful musical accompaniment to typical airport madness.

The next cue is the score’s love theme, played on strings with light percussion in the background, and a brief saxophone performance, and this is the main theme that will remind listeners of Street Scene and the other familiar scores by Newman. The next theme is another direct departure from his typical style – Inez’ Theme – played by an electric guitar.

Guerrero’s Goodbye is a wonderful suspenseful piece at first, but then starts to alternate between being scary and being remorseful or sad, and is yet another piece that shows the wonderful abilities that Newman had with the string section of the orchestra. Side one (yes; this is an LP) ends with Mel and Tania, and tender string and piano movement. Side two is much the same, again featuring the main love theme and airport theme, and a wonderful action cue for Emergency Landing!

The score to Airport is in many ways the end of an era – the end of the Golden Age of film music, and the end of the career of the greatest musician ever to work in Hollywood. No film composer built up a more impressive body of work than Alfred Newman. Very few composers scored an equal or larger amount of films. No composer won more Academy Awards. And yet, he is little known amongst many film music fans today. Pretty much everybody would recognise the 20th Century Fox logo music when they heard it, but I doubt they’d have a clue who actually composed it. The final works of other legendary Hollywood composers such as Max Steiner and Miklos Rozsa were nowhere near as impressive as this score. Right at the end of his life, Alfred Newman was still able to show that he still had it in him and write such an effective and enjoyable score. If you consider yourself a fan of film music, this score is an essential addition to your collection. It’s rare that the final project of a composer ranks amongst their best or most enjoyable, but that is certainly the case here.

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Track Listing

1 – Airport

2 – Airport Love Theme

3 – Inez’ Theme

4 – Guerrero’s Goodbye

5 – Ada Quonsett, Stowaway!

6 – Mel and Tania

7 – Airport Love Theme

8 – Joe Patroni: Plane or Plows?

9 – Triangle!

10 – Inez – Lost Forever

11 – Emergency Landing!

12 – Airport

Credits

Composed, Arranged & Conducted by Alfred Newman

Performed by The Universal Studio Orchestra

Album Produced by Ken Darby and Stanley Wilson

Awards

Academy Award for Best Original Score (nominated)

Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score (nominated)

Grammy Award for Best Score (nominated)

Insert Notes

None

All artwork and images are Copyright © Universal.