> A motif, then.

That's the thing, though: a great score to a film series doesn't necessarily need a number of big, instantly identifiable themes...all it really needs is a handful or two of recognizable motifs that can be applied to appropriate situations. Take The Lord of the Rings. Sure you have your Hobbit theme and your Fellowship theme and those are the two hallmarks of that series. But there are also a slew of motifs that occur throughout. They are far from THE themes of that franchise, but they are still completely ingrained into the fabric of the story. In "Fellowship of the Ring", as Sam hesitates to take the step that would take him "farther away from home than ever before", a beautiful little oboe motif can be heard. In "Return of the King", this is heard again, played by the strings, in the beginning as Frodo, Sam and Gollum continue on their journey. Additionally, in the "The Two Towers", there is an incredibly haunting motif, sung by Ben Del Maestro, as the Ents marched toward Isengard. This is heard later in "Return of the King", just before the Rohan Army marches toward Minas Tirith to do battle, but instead of a serene choir, it's a full orchestra. Howard Shore's score for LOTR is a great model for how scoring a series should work. Plenty of new music should most definitely be added with each film, but hints of the earlier films must be working their way into the framework constantly.

With Potter, Hedwig's Theme is the only thing holding these films together, and while it's a strong link, it could have been much stronger and much more nuanced. "Azkaban" got off the path a little bit. There was an overuse of Double Trouble that could have been balanced by including a few more familiar themes from the first two films. But the orchestral texture was similar, and the reprise of the Nimbus 2000 theme at the end of the film made all the difference in the world. Watching the film, the texture (musically, visually or otherwise) of the first two was only barely discernible, but when that flying theme kicked in before the closing credits, followed by those French Horns blasting Hedwig's Theme, it really helped to marry Columbus's vision of Potter with Cuaron's.

Doyle and Hooper both should have understood the importance of this repetition. One theme is not enough for an 8-film series. A Window to the Past should have made an appearance during the Sirius scenes in "Phoenix", with Harry In Winter alluded to during the Cho Chang kiss. Ron Weasley's motif (heard during his Sorting and when he arrives at the Dursley home in the flying car) could have popped up in a few moments, and with so many flying broomstick moments, I wonder why Doyle and Hooper didn't include at least a statement of Williams' themes for those scenes. Neither Williams' nor Doyle's Voldemort themes pop up in Hooper's score. People say Hooper was humble in referencing Williams' Quidditch theme. What he really did was include the first four notes, a combination of pitches that are unbelievably common in orchestral music. It was the extension that made that theme a little more unique, and Hooper ditched it. It's as much a reference as taking the first four notes of "Happy Birthday" and proceeding onto something entirely different is a reference to that tune. I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt, but if the "Prince" score is any indication, Hooper comes across as a tad egocentric. He sure takes the time out to reference Fireworks and Dumbledore's Army in THEIR full, and I get the feeling that "Phoenix" and "Prince" are trying to create their own world with the music, separate from the others. Now, I'm not saying that Williams will most certainly incorporate Doyle's and Hooper's themes if he returns for "Hallows". I sure as hell hope he would, but I can't be certain as he's never stepped into a franchise (or BACK into one for that matter) after a composer had already established themes for it. All I can really say is that he usually does a great job incorporating his OWN themes into a series, and I just hope he would show the same courtesy to other composers. I really wish Doyle and Hooper had been a little more willing to put their egos aside in such a way, to serve the continuity of the series a little more.