Patrick Doyle “Harry Potter & Goblet of Fire”

Album Reviews | Nov 30th, 2006

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Record Label: Warner Brothers
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Another Harry Potter film has passed, but some things are different. Like for instance, John Williams didn’t compose this score. Scottish film composer Patrick Doyle took over the duties. He has work on such films like: Henry V, Frankenstein, Needful Things, Gosford Park, and most recently, Nouvelle-France. I really like his work so I was curious to see how Doyle was going to approach it. He succeeded in making the score darker, but I’m not sure I like it as much as the previous three works by Williams.

As soon as you hear the first note in “The Story Continues,” you know it’s going to be a dark one. Even if you haven’t read the books or not, it sounds mysterious. The score fits the movie well, but it’s missing a good recognizable theme. The first movie has “Hedwig’s theme,” the second has “Fawkes The Phoenix”, and the third has “Buckbeak’s Flight”. The score sort of has a reoccurring motif throughout the score, but not sure it’s as good as something Williams would compose. Doyle could have have put some more familiar themes back into the score, and at the same branch out for something different but he only hinted at “Hedwig’s Theme” a little bit. The music is very horn driven, especially in the action scenes. I think I found the waltzes to be more enjoyable than the other tracks because they were light & playful. Plus I just like Waltzes, especially from Johann Strauss. These tracks are when Professor McGonagall teaches the students to dance, and scenes from the Yule Ball. Another thing different this time around, three music tracks from Weird Sisters, the rock group that performed at the Yule Ball. When I first heard these tracks, I was like “ugh” but it does go with what’s in the movie. I just don’t want to hear it on the soundtrack because the music stinks. But perhaps someone with a more open mind to today’s rock music will like these songs. I prefer the score to music tracks.

Overall, the film score could have been better but I still liked the music. I think Doyle should have used some of Williams’ existing themes for the score, but create his own at the same time. The one he did for some songs was all right, just doesn’t stand out enough. The film score works in the movie and I guess that’s what really matters the most.

Bottom Line: The score fits the movie well, but it’s not as enjoyable as the previous scores.
Notable Tracks: The Story Continues, Guidditch World Cup, Foreign Visitors Arrive, Harry In Winter, Neville’s Waltz
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