|
Nicholas Hooper
returns for a second turn on the Harry Potter series with his soundtrack for
The Half-Blood Prince. Just like all
Potter scores, this is a soundtrack release that creates a bit of a buzz in
the film music community. On The Half-Blood Prince,
there are 28 cues on the soundtrack and the music follows the film's
sequential order for the most part. The only slight variation is the
inclusion of nicely placed bonus tracks that didn't make it into the film
but are included on the soundtrack.
As long as
everyone can accept that
John Williams is
no longer the composer who is working on the Harry Potter series, than
you'll have a better chance of freely enjoying the music of The
Half-Blood Prince. It's a score that has the
signature of Nicholas Hooper and not of John Williams, and there's a
distinct difference. Mostly, this difference is in the manner of
storytelling that's afoot in these later Potter films. While I am no expert
on the book and just a general follower of the movies, it's not hard to see
that the characters growth requires more and more of a refined, subtle
scoring approach. That's what Hooper did in The Order of the Phoenix
and what he does similarly in The Half-Blood Prince
(though the latter offers a bit more in the
way of enthusiastic splendor).
Listening to
the Half-Blood Prince, I couldn't help
but notice that there is a subtle harmony about the way the music develops.
Nicholas Hooper was right when he stated that this is a score that develops
its themes over the duration of the album, and specifically, in its latter
half. Overall, there is an inner-beauty to this score that may require a
couple of listens for it to thrive with you, but rest assured, the magic is
there. Case in point is the full choral piece early in the album, which
plays beautifully here on the soundtrack.
One of the
top cues on here is less subtle and more triumphant, and that would be the
track "Ron's Victory", which is one case where Hooper does indeed represent
Williams' writing in full. It is a hard charging, determined piece of music
that makes full use of its 2 minute running time and makes for a faithful
interpretation. I also enjoyed the Jazz number on Track 6 quite a bit and
absolutely loved the uplifting charm of the final cue, "The Weasley Stomp".
It seems to me that Hooper is at his best when his music is more expressive
and colorful and the tracks I just mentioned back that up.
In all,
while I do miss some of the classic Potter themes and wish they could have
been utilized a bit more in these new movies, I do feel that Hooper has done
an excellent job in composing The Half-Blood Prince.
It's a score that has a very even keel to it with just enough bursts of
energy to keep the momentum progressing onward.
If you've
embraced the new, restrained musical style of the Harry Potter franchise,
you're sure to enjoy Nicholas Hooper's, The Half-Blood Prince.
There are moments of beauty and lightheartedness in it as well as a subtle
touch of magic in just the right spots. Harry is now in a grown up world so
it's fitting that the music matures as he does. |
