Buy it... if you're looking for just one of the Harry Potter scores to purchase, because this original entry by John Williams is a strong foundation for the franchise and features its best performances of recurring themes.

Avoid it... if you might be bothered by the fact that Williams doesn't stray too far from his comfort zone for this score, exposing several stylistic similarities to his previous works.

Williams

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone: (John Williams) If ever there was a film both defined and confined by the weight of its own immense advance hype, it would be this initial adaptation of J.K. Rowling's famous series of "Harry Potter" stories to the screen in 2001. Much thought was placed in the translation of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone into live action reality because a franchise of films was inevitable to follow, with the cast and crew carefully chosen and approved by Warner Brothers to avoid any chance of fumbling an obvious series of blockbuster earnings to result. The early films in franchise, directed by Chris Columbus, had the benefit of utilizing stories that could fit well into the length of one motion picture, and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (or Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, as it's known internationally) is popularly and critically considered by many to be the best entry in the franchise. By the fourth film's release by Warner several years later, much of the original crew (and actor Richard Harris, of course) was no longer attached to the concept, and the quality of the films' haphazard adaptations of the longer stories diminished their appeal. One of the elements strongly favoring the first three films was the music by veteran franchise composer John Williams, who not only was the perfect choice for the assignment (despite rumors that James Horner had been offered the job) but whose themes for the world of wizardry would become yet another identity engrained for audiences of each successive film. Unfortunately, as the franchise began to rotate crews for its later entries, the thematic and stylistic identity so thoroughly cemented by Williams for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was largely lost by Patrick Doyle and Nicholas Hooper. Thus, in retrospect, the first score for the series has been increased in status through the years as subsequent composers have failed to uphold, despite considerable quality in parts of their own endeavors, the integrity established by Williams.

The belated elevation of the Oscar-nominated music for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone to the highest regards is due not only to the inconsistent scores to follow the three by Williams for the franchise, but also the daunting set of circumstances facing it in 2001. The hype machine for the film and its music was tremendous, but even Warner's efforts to push the production's advertising to the limits of tolerance couldn't ultimately overshadow the immense quality and consequent attention towards Peter Jackson's concurrently released The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, which featured a stunning score by Howard Shore that took home an Academy Award that year. No amount of effort by Williams could compete with the once-in-a-lifetime kind of trilogy of scores that Shore composed for J.R.R. Tolkien's world, proving that timing was not on the maestro's side. Williams made the best of the situation, though. He had faced similarly lofty expectations in the year before Star Wars: The Phantom Menace and had delivered a fantastic result. One comforting factor regarding Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone for Williams was the chance to reunite once again with Columbus. His career in the early 2000's consisted mostly of projects for directors with whom he had already collaborated successfully, and the opportunity to be involved with the magic of this particular franchise led to the expected fantasy children's score of epic length and proportion. His work started early, too. The film represented the first time since 1991's Hook that Williams had composed a theme specifically meant for the theatrical trailers of the film (the impressive Hook prelude, as heard first on its album CD, made its debut in the film's trailer at the beginning of 1989's Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade). Through these trailers and a much discussed concert performance of the trailer's music, Williams offered eager audiences a glimpse of the epic fantasy score to come.

For Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Williams broke from his usual practices and actually took the time to read Rowling's book for inspiration (and he reportedly enjoyed it, too). Upon seeing rough edits of the film in the spring of 2001, Williams was impressed even further. Unfortunately, due to scheduling conflicts later in that summer, Williams was unable to secure the services of the London Symphony Orchestra for this score, though other suitable London performers (along with the London Voices choir) were collected for the occasion. Williams' enthusiasm for this project was evident in the words he stated early about the score in concerts and interviews. In a May 18th, 2001, article in the Boston Globe, Williams discussed the "darkly alluring orchestral waltz" that he wrote for the first trailer. "I developed a theme for Hedwig," Williams said. "Everyone seemed to like it, so I will probably use that music as one thread in the tapestry." Regarding the length of the score, Williams stated, "I imagine there will be a lot of music in the film, and Chris Columbus has told me that the film is long and that he needs to whittle it down. That's a very hard and heartbreaking process for a director, and it's very difficult for a composer, too. Sometimes I have written as much as 20 minutes of music for a film that was never used. I am a composer who likes to develop and combine themes, and it is awkward to develop themes that have never been properly introduced because the scenes they were written for have been cut from the film." On the topic of the book reading, Williams explained his break from tradition by saying, "It is more valuable to me to be a tabula rasa; most of the audience doesn't know what's coming, and it's important to place myself in that same position. I want the film to make the first impression, and it is also the film itself that has to give me the right sense of pace and timing." In the case of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, though, Williams admits that he "liked it very much, and it made me want to read on, especially now that people have told me that each book gets better than the one before."

In an interesting side note, Williams discussed how difficult it is to predict how films with many children actors will perform. With Home Alone remaining a strong memory, Williams pointed out, "It is very hard to predict on the basis of auditions just what you are going to get from a young performer, but sometimes you get lucky. I have to say that everyone from Warner Brothers who has seen the film is very excited about it, including the hard-bitten professionals." Press interest in the score continued throughout the summer of 2001, and in a follow up story in the Boston Globe on July 6th, Williams indicated that his work on Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was still continuing, and that he would finish it at Tanglewood within the subsequent two months. He concluded by mentioning, "I'm really cooking on it now. I've finished about an hour of the score, which means there is a lot left to go. Chris Columbus has done such a good job on this film, and all the old-time British character actors are terrific." At the Tanglewood concert on July 31st, during his conducting of the first theme of the score for an audience, Williams thrilled the crowd by announcing, "We thought we would play a little preview of something from Harry Potter. We're working on it currently and the film will be finished at the end of October. I'm about 2/3 of the way through a 2-hour score. We'd like to play a few minutes of it for you now as a preview with the exciting permission of our producers at Warner Brothers. You know the books and the film is about witches, and unicorns and owls and magic. And this particular little piece is about Hedwig the Owl who brings messages from the world of the witches to the world of the muggles... human beings... us. This is 'Hedwig's Theme' from Harry Potter." And with that performance, the famous opening "Prologue" heard (at least partially) in all of the films of the franchise was formally introduced in an arrangement that didn't differ much from that which has existed in numerous concerts and album performances since.

Reactions to the performances of "Hedwig's Theme" in both concert and the trailers were overwhelmingly positive, prompting Williams to increase its usage in the film itself. Richard Dyer, the interviewer for The Boston Globe, stated at the time that "The music is destined to be one of Williams' greatest hits, an affectionately allusive tribute to great fantasy music of the past - but in his own unmistakable voice; this parallels the way Rowling's book stands on the shoulders of its predecessors like a nimble circus acrobat about to grab a trapeze and fly away. The theme, an agreeably lopsided and slippery waltz, appears first on Tchaikovsky's Nutcracker celesta, while the strings flutter around it like owlish wings. The brass offer contrasting ideas, and the whole thing develops in the tradition of Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries and Humperdinck's homage to it in the witch's ride in 'Hansel and Gretel.' In Williams's masterly orchestration, the whole thing glistens, surprises, and exhilarates." Fans expressed equal praise for the suite, likening its styles to those heard in Hook and Home Alone. Bootlegged copies of this theme, only a few minutes long, were already floating around online months before the film's debut, and its usage in the first two trailers for the film was largely based on the same arrangement. Wild anticipation reigned until the terrorist attacks on the United States in September of that year, however, squashed some of the hype machine pushing the magnificent momentum of both the film and score. By the week before the street date for the commercial soundtrack album (and even longer before the release of the film), however, the concept's cultish international following of an almost mystical nature caused the album to crack the top ten in overall Billboard-reported sales. The hype was back on. But would Williams accomplish the same kind of success in meeting expectations as he did with Star Wars: The Phantom Menace? Initially, that answer was no, but the true shame of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone was that the fans of the composer and concept largely allowed their disappointment over the deflating of this score's myth to be an unqualified reason to diminish the score's overall quality.

Without question, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone is a superb score, but for many, it wasn't the magical victory that was expected. As far as precedent is concerned, Williams had some mightily impressive children's scores in his own past to compare it to. While the mass of the population is most familiar with memorable scores for blockbuster films such as E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial and Home Alone, the knowledgeable collectors of Williams' work know that the composer's most thematically rich and layered score of the genre is Hook, for which expanded bootleg albums had already been a hot trade item for many years. Even though the film Hook, despite being a massive Steven Spielberg production, was a monumental disaster at the box office, its superior score remains a treasure in countless film music fans' collections. It is no surprise, therefore, that Hook became the ultimate comparison point for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Unfortunately, this score is no Hook, and it only comes close to being of the same caliber in its grand thematic statements. The reason for this opinion varies widely. For some, the score ironically lacked a sense of magic, a near death blow to its effectiveness. For others, its themes were not well enough articulated or applied to single concepts. Also at issue was the suspect quality of the numerous source cues and non-thematic underscore material for conversational scenes. Some even faulted the performances, though this complaint still seems unmerited (and due more to the reputation of the ensemble that didn't perform this score). What indeed is lacking in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone is an intangible sense of cohesiveness in all of its parts, with about half of the score extremely tightly woven into the thematic tapestry Williams had previously discussed while the rest of it was surprisingly anonymous. Additionally, there was an intangible element to Hook, perhaps in its lengthy, heavy-hearted thematic performances, that gave the score sense of magic that rivaled the grandiose brand of soaring spirit heard in E.T. and Williams' other better known scores. Such spirit was only occasionally to be heard in this score.

Other than this awkwardly nebulous complaint, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone is a score that has built upon its reputation through the years for good reason. It has all the same basic ingredients that define a Williams classic: an intricately woven set of themes of impressive complexity, a large performing group recorded in crisp digital sound, a chorus with adult male and female voices, and that trademark Williams orchestration that can be recognized by even the laziest moviegoers. The themes are, as usual, the most important elements at work in nearly every one of his works, and the three ideas that were initially heard in the trailers and early concert performances would not only define this score, but those that followed as well. The two major themes in Williams' treatment of the franchise are closely related, and both tend to mistakenly be labeled as "Hedwig's Theme." In fact, there are two distinct waltz-inspired themes under that label that the composer applies to different, specific situations. The actual theme for Hedwig the Owl is one that the composer expanded to represent the concept of magic in general, often utilizing the same celesta and other light percussive accompaniment to denote a sense of wonder. It is this theme that opens both "Prologue" and the "Hedwig's Theme" suite, and it is also this idea that Doyle and Hooper most prominently incorporated (though too infrequently) into the title portions of their sequel works. In the first score, Williams uses the theme extensively. It makes a cameo in the "Harry's Wondrous World" concert suite and punctuates several of the scenes in which Harry's background is shown or he discovers the world of magic. This includes delicate performances in "The Arrival of Baby Harry" and "Letters from Hogwarts." Later, it contributes to "The Moving Stairs," "The Quidditch Match," and "Leaving Hogwarts." Among the most notable cues not included on the commercial album release, the theme also lends a supporting role to "Who'd Be Writing to You?," "Owls and Letters," and "Nimbus 2000" before joining the other themes in the "End Credits" arrangement of the suites. This theme dominates the pre-Hogwarts scenes in the film, not only serving as an identity for the magic invading the muggle world, but also of the owls' letters, which play a significant role in these early scenes.

The second half of the official "Hedwig Theme" conveys the robust and noble theme for Hogwarts itself, heard most frequently in Williams' three scores of the franchise during the title sequences or overhead shots of the castle. This bold idea is something of an extension of the actual Hedwig/magic theme, sharing many of the same progressions and often swapping phrases before coming to a common three notes that utilize a shared minor-third shifting conclusion to tie them together. This minor third progression at the end of the two themes is key to the score's more mysterious half. The Hogwarts theme is heard fleetingly in "Prologue" and at the opening of "Harry's Wondrous World" before accompanying the main title of the film (with the help of chorus) in "The Arrival of Baby Harry" and concluding "Letters from Hogwarts." The theme's performance (again with chorus) at 1:50 into "The Journey to Hogwarts," as the school is first seen, is a highlight of the score, and Williams would treat the first glimpse of the castle in all three of his scores for the franchise in similar fashion. A slight woodwind performance in "The Invisibility Cloak and The Library Scene" and counterpoint fragments in "The Face of Voldemort" are less obvious. The last minute of the "Hedwig's Theme" suite (and consequently the "End Credits") offers the most interesting and forceful series of key-shifting variations on the theme. In the unreleased cues, this theme accompanies Hedwig's magic theme in "Who'd Be Writing to You?," "Owls and Letters," and "Nimbus 2000," also wrapping up the score in "There Are Ways." While these two themes are the obvious, primary identity of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Williams' third idea, representing the concept of flying, is far more engaging. This flying theme is sometimes associated solely with the game of Quidditch, though its application in the film is more general. Heard slightly in "Prologue" and "A Visit to the Zoo," the theme doubles as a mischievous application of magic in some circumstances. It makes its biggest impact in "Mr. Longbottom Flies" and "The Quidditch Match" before dominating the middle sections of the "Hedwig's Theme" suite (and thus, once again, "End Credits"). It's a playful romp of an idea that the franchise sorely missed later due to the frightfully serious nature of subsequent stories.

One of the beauties of the flying theme is its soaring secondary phrase. After all the chime and tambourine-banging, pulsating brass, and broad notes on bass strings during the propulsive theme's primary phrase, Williams offers an interlude that allows high strings to stretch their wings (such as at 3:30 into "Hedwig's Theme") in much of the majestic style that would prevail in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. A fourth major theme in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone is one for Harry himself, his growing friendship with Ron and Hermione, and his distant relationship with his dead parents. This theme is the basis of the "Harry's Wondrous World" suite and receives extended treatment there. It's a flourishing, hopelessly optimistic idea that reaches into the most exuberant material that Williams has written for concert (and especially his material devoted to the history of America). It culminates in several fanfares that tie it to the spirited, heroic parts of Williams' Star Wars prequel material as well. In the actual film, this theme is heard very lightly in "The Arrival of Baby Harry" and "Entry into the Great Hall" before the more rambunctious parts blast away in "The Quidditch Match." Melancholy performances in "Christmas at Hogwarts" and "Leaving Hogwarts" are wholesome reminders that it's hard to leave the company of friends. Hints of the theme in "The Face of Voldemort" are cleverly and appropriately devised. In commercially unreleased cues, this theme exists in the contemplative "Mirror of Erised" and "The Power of Love," as well as the expected "End Credits." The final major theme in this score is the one for the evil Voldemort, though because Harry is yet unfamiliar with this foe, it's also used as a mystery motif in some places. While this theme doesn't really receive full treatment until Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (in which the theme better shapes the score's identity), its usage in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone is the most intriguing and rewarding of any of Williams' complexities. Its two phrases, one three notes and the subsequent one four, are easy to insert as counterpoint into even the least obvious places, and the melodramatic shifts in the secondary, 4-note phrase are especially enticing.

The Voldemort theme's incorporation into Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone is subtle, so some exact pointers might help. As Harry discovers he can communicate with snakes in "Visit to the Zoo," the cue provides two statements of the theme (at 0:05 and 1:15). The most telling and obvious performance of the theme's first figure is repeated several times in "The Gringotts Vault" (addressing the attempted robbery of the stone by the possessed Quirrel), eventually building to the kind of maddening, though harmonic choral performance that would exist extensively in the sequel. The theme is understandably heard in "The Face of Voldemort," including on the airy electronics that are employed during many of the scarier sequences in the film. That cue's first 45 seconds offer relatively unmasked performances of the idea. Before that confrontation, though, the theme is heard in two of the scenes (featuring commercially unreleased cues) in which the three young heroes piece together Voldemort's plan, "Who's Nicholas Flamel?" and "The Sorcerer's Stone." Williams, never the one to miss an opportunity, even inserts the theme into "Hedwig's Theme" (and therefore the "End Credits"). In the thirty seconds following the 2-minute mark, a solo woodwind performs the theme very slowly as counterpoint underneath the flying theme. Quite delicious placement, really. Several secondary motifs exist in the score, but their employment is usually tied to one of the primary themes or is contained to just a single scene. The remainder of the score's less thematic parts isn't as engaging. Much of this material, concentrated in the middle sequences of the score, fail to leave a strong enough impression to maintain a memorable listening experience on album. Some stylistic aspects of these portions (as well as some of the major themes) contain blatant similarities to Williams works like Hook, Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Home Alone, Star Wars: The Phantom Menace and half a dozen others. Some fans at the time expressed concern over these portions, citing the "Williams on auto-pilot" effect of marginal self-plagiarism that tended to be a minor issue with some of his better known scores of the era.

There are a few individual cues of particular note that should be discussed, if either for their obvious homage to the composer's previous scores, or their differing style from surrounding material. Some of the source material in the score is especially difficult to digest. The "Hogwarts Forever!" school song was not ultimately used (though Doyle created his own variation for his lone entry in the series); its nearly unlistenable French horn performances make that a positive omission. The "Diagon Alley" source material (for the pub and beyond) breaks the mood with its festive nature. More awkward is "Christmas at Hogwarts," a distantly-mixed vocal song with high, dissonant electronic accompaniment that eventually wanders right into the halls of stock holiday percussion from Home Alone. The opening of "The Chess Game" presents percussion and woodwind performances directly pulled from the battle preparation scenes late in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. This entire cue is full of references to the Star Wars battle sequences, even going back to the percussion of the "The Snow Battle" in The Empire Strikes Back. The resounding, snare-ripping rhythm late in the cue (mixed very prominently into the film) is somewhat redemptive, though the entire piece still suffers from a severe case of deja vu. Another typical move by Williams is to use bubbly solo instruments (like a tuba) to represent cuteness for moments of levity; a few of those are distractions in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. Realistically, though, even if you buy into the argument that parts of this score exhibit Williams on auto-pilot, the music that comes from the composer even at those times is superior to most of what comes from the rest of the industry, and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone functions very well as the foundation for the subsequent two sequel scores. The impact of this score is never so powerful as the emotional punch of A.I. Artificial Intelligence earlier in 2001, but even with its faults tallied, it translates into an interesting and enjoyable score on album. Its functionality in the film has never been substantively questioned.

	Learn about supporting Filmtracks

On album, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone features Williams' typical late 1990's/early 2000's format of combining similar cues into duos that stay pretty true to the chronology of the film's plot. The middle section of the score, outside of the hyperactive "The Quidditch Match," contains too much forgettable material to make the 73-minute product from Warner a winning experience from start to finish. A compilation of the concert suites, as well as the whimsical pair of "The Arrival of Baby Harry" and "Visit to the Zoo and Letters from Hogwarts" are a good start, and about twenty additional minutes could be collected to produce an excellent 40-minute presentation. Speculation about an expanded album was rampant in 2001, and it was thought that a 2-CD set with some of the multimedia content available on the European release of the score could contribute to a subsequent release. That expanded issue never came, however, and that fact is more likely due to the mostly comprehensive nature of the first release rather than any fault of the music or film's popularity. This circumstance didn't stop fans from bootlegging expanded versions of the score, usually including an excess of 100 minutes of material and spanning two CDs. While the addition of "End Credits" is nice to hear, the 9-minute piece is nothing more than a merging of the concert arrangements from the score. Most of the additional material is redundant; unlike The Chamber of Secrets, this score's commercial album isn't missing any flagrantly obvious cues of greatness. Some of the bootlegs pushed the running time out to complete levels, though artifacts in sound quality were sometimes an issue. Only the most hardcore Williams collectors should even consider one of these actively traded items. The commercial product provides more than enough music to satisfy most listeners and is proof that Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone remains a somewhat underrated modern classic in Williams' career. The London Symphony Orchestra and London Voices would combine the following year for The Chamber of Secrets, an impressive effort that intelligently fleshes out some of the less obvious parts of this first score. The status of Williams' work for the franchise has only increased with each disconnected entry from other composers in later years, and calls for Williams to return for the final, seventh entry were loud and clear. *****   Amazon.com Price Hunt: CD or Download

Bias Check:

For John Williams reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.73 (in 68 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.6 (in 334,382 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.