John Williams's Soundtrack for Harry Potter

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Adventure, mystery, and magic all go hand-in-hand when it comes to the Harry Potter series written by J.K. Rowling. The books were adapted into films starting in 2001. The first film, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, was directed by Chris Columbus. The story of Harry Potter is magical as is however; the movie needed a little extra magic. This extra magic needed to be added through music. Director Chris Columbus chose John Williams to compose the music for a promotional reel (John Williams). After Columbus heard the song for the promotional reel he knew they had to have Williams compose the entire movie (John Williams). Williams created an entire score for the movie and called it “The Harry Potter Suite.” “The Harry Potter Suite” has a song for each important event that happened throughout the film. John Williams adds magic and tells the story of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone through his composed music.
The film, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, opens up with a grand tune. It is called “Harry’s Wondrous World.” The song is played by a full orchestra. It is a song that sounds magical, majestic, and extremely impressive. The songs purpose is to not only excited the audience for what is too happened in the movie, but it also gives some foreshadowing into the tone and events of the movie. Composer John Williams created this song to tell the entire story of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. In an interview, John Williams stated that multiple songs from the entire score got put together in order to make “Harry’s Wondrous World” (The Harry Potter Suite). “Harry’s Wondrous World” succeeds at adding magic and majesty to the opening sequence of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone.
The story begins with Harry ...

... middle of paper ...

...ng the Quidditch match the music is celebratory and joyful. “Fluffy’s Harp” was a song played with a harp and a contrabassoon. The contrabassoon mimicked Fluffy the three-headed dog and the harp continuously played a lullaby. “Hedwig’s theme” was a song written for Hedwig, Harry’s owl. The song is light and airy. John Williams adds magic and tells the story of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone through his composed music.

Works Cited

Seiler, Andy. “Williams adds musical magic to 'Harry Potter.’” USA Today. Gannett Co. Inc., 31 Nov. 2001. Web. 09 Nov. 2013.

“John Williams- Harry Potter Interview” YouTube. YouTube. 19 Oct. 2010. Web. 09 Nov. 2013.

“The Harry Potter Suite by John Williams and the Boston Pops.” YouTube. YouTube. 05 Sept. 2010. Web. 09 Nov. 2013.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. Dir. Chris Columbus. 2001. Warner Brothers, 2001. DVD.

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