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| Hooper |
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince: (Nicholas
Hooper) There are both advantages and disadvantages to franchises that
contain as many films as that which swept onto the big screen in 2001
from J.K. Rowling's best-selling books. The
Harry Potter
franchise has had its fair share of production troubles, including the
death of a lead actor, constantly rotating crews, and the perpetual
shifting of release dates by Warner Brothers. At the same time, it
endures into 2009 and beyond despite being the explosive fad of the
moment in the early 2000's that caused its initial supersonic hype. The
2007 film directed by David Yates,
Harry Potter and the Order of the
Phoenix, earned $938 million worldwide in a summer debut, and due to
the timing of a writer's strike in Hollywood, the release of
Harry
Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was held more than half a year to
both take advantage of the same summer rewards in 2009 and fill a gap in
Warner's line-up of offerings. Meanwhile, production of the final duo of
films in the franchise, both inspired by Rowling's seventh book, was
already well under way. At least, thankfully, the ridiculous religious
protests spawned by these films have diminished significantly. The plot
of
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is one that turned off
a fair number of readers, if only because it was the final confirmation
that the innocent escapism of the early books in the series had been
lost. The forces of Lord Voldemort are in full attack in this story,
prompting Professor Dumbledore to spend his final days assisting the now
fully hormonal Harry Potter in preparing for his final battle with his
nemesis. While the inevitable confrontation and the permutations of
magic associated with it are indeed fascinating,
The Half-Blood
Prince not only suffers from the tragedy of its ending but also the
probably necessary but still somewhat obnoxious teenage love stories
that slow the pace of the story considerably at times. That said, the
tone of
The Half-Blood Prince is one of darkness prevailing,
announcing its wicked arrival with a harrowing fury. Returning to
address the most distressing of entries in the franchise is composer
Nicholas Hooper, who accompanied Yates into the realm of
Harry
Potter after a successful prior collaboration in British television
and cinema.
To summarize Hooper's music for
The Order of the
Phoenix as disappointing is a disservice to the fact that his
achievement for the franchise was adequately functional. But that score
remains a disappointment because of the legacy created by John Williams
and decently emulated by Patrick Doyle previously for the concept.
Simply put, Hooper's score wasn't comparable to the emotional depth or
orchestral mastery of the first four scores. His work was sufficient but
not memorable. Large but not resounding. Careful but not precise. In
short, Hooper earned his paycheck. When you're dealing with a franchise
that is grounded in the sonic spirit of Williams, however, simply
earning a paycheck is not enough. Doyle realized this dilemma when he
expanded the scope of the soundscape in
Harry Potter and the Goblet
of Fire, and if only he had better integrated Williams' original
material, he could have matched the maestro in terms of overall quality
for the realm of Hogwarts. Hooper doesn't earn style points in either
regard. He, for the most part, continues to disregard Williams' material
and, unlike Doyle, doesn't replace it with a powerful enough new
identity to compete with it or compliment it. Thus, in the end, Hooper's
music has to be classified as a disappointment. This not only applies to
The Order of the Phoenix, but to
The Half-Blood Prince as
well. Most of the same problems that inhabited the fifth score are
pivotal factors in the sixth. These include the lack of truly dominant
thematic presence, leaving this score as bereft of an identity as the
previous one. It still underplays the dramatic depth of the story,
rooting a significant number of cues in a treble region that never comes
close to the impressive balance of power that Doyle achieved. It still
addresses conversational scenes and others of lesser volume with sparse
constructs that are as dull as they are lacking a magical element. It
still lacks passion, betraying some wise choices in instrumentation and
tone by relying upon a limp environment of too few layers and unengaging
performances. All of the enveloping curiosity, the swirling whimsy, and
the tangible sense of a growing threat is so marginalized by Hooper in
comparison to his peers in the franchise that his two pedestrian scores
are completely uneventful. They fill space but not memories. And let's
not get started on the absence of "magic" in the ambient tone.
The ensemble for Hooper in
The Half-Blood Prince
carries over from the previous score, but a more significant role for
light choir is an important addition. Thematically, the composer
references his own ideas from the previous score and two elements from
Williams' work (an improvement, but barely). Once again, Doyle's efforts
to musically define Harry and Voldemort are dismissed by Hooper, still a
major irritation given the potential for the mingling of the two themes
in these later scores. Returning from Hooper's material is, most
prominently, the possession theme, representing the encroaching
influence of Voldemort but losing what little cohesive touch the theme's
adagio format in the other score contained. In fact, casual listeners
may not even notice the integration of the idea because it was so
nebulous to begin with. While the Professor Umbridge theme
understandably isn't reprised in full, its dancing spirit heavily
informs "Living Death." The Dumbledore's Army theme from
The Order of
the Phoenix is not explicitly developed here either. Instead, Hooper
devises one new significant theme for
The Half-Blood Prince, a
choral hymn for Dumbledore. This almost religious, light choral chant in
Latin is a limp version of something you'd hear in Hans Zimmer's
The
Da Vinci Code, very pretty in its rendering but too cerebral for
even the most thoughtful wizard's violent decline. Presented in concert
format in the end credit cue "In Noctem" (and moved to near the start of
the album), this distant choral representation is reprised in the film
several times even though it never receives a second full treatment on
album. It does appear in fragments throughout the score, especially in
"Journey to the Cave," but its construct is so airy that it too passes
without much notice. Such caressing beauty is lovely to the ears, but
not befitting a scene outside of the beloved character's funeral. The
possession theme is the only other recurring identity, and its
performances in the trio of climactic pieces are surprisingly
underplayed, barely registering at times because of a lack of symphonic
power. A new theme for Malfoy in "Malfoy's Mission" is an intriguing
piano and synthetic-defined piece that almost conveys the
characteristics of a Mark Snow creation; this too is an underdeveloped
idea that badly needed some variation or merging with the other sinister
material in the work.
And then, of course, we reach the point where we search
for Williams' influence on Hooper's score. It's limited to four cues in
The Half-Blood Prince, but only one that doesn't rely upon veiled
fragments. The 'A' portion of Hedwig's theme makes it obligatory entry
over the title opening and portions of the 'B' sequence of the theme are
masked in ominous minor key figures later in "Opening." The only full
statement of the complete theme exists in "Ginny," and when this
statement arrives, it delicately blows open the windows like an
incredible breath of fresh air in an otherwise stale room. So distinct
is Williams' sense of spirit, adventure, and childhood fantasy in this
theme that even fifteen seconds of material unaltered significantly
amongst Hooper's otherwise unremarkable music seems far more important
than it actually is. The other Williams' theme referenced is part of his
Quidditch fanfare, though Hooper so thoroughly engrains it within his
own material that the two uses here are not worth mentioning. Williams'
identity for Quidditch was so well constructed that he used it to open
his closing credits, so what's the purpose of re-writing it here? The
same question applied to Doyle, but at least he was able to replace it
with a monumental piece of his own. Ultimately, Hooper has once again
created a score that doesn't sound like any part of the
Harry
Potter franchise. He confesses that he handled most of the cues in
The Half-Blood Prince based on the individual needs of each
sequence. Even within the realm of Hooper's music for the franchise,
there is little continuity of enough volume and clarity to serve the
purpose of connecting all the dots. The scenes of teen romance are
provided dainty rhythmic prancing familiar to the awkwardly
over-positive tone of the previous score, even resorting to soft,
contemporary acoustic guitar material for almost the entirety of "When
Ginny Kissed Harry." The Death Eaters are provided a percussive identity
that is extended to elongated metallic percussion rattling and strikes
when Voldemort's reach is addressed. The Weasley jokesters are scored
with a reprise of the rowdy jig that burst in the "Fireworks" sequence
of the previous score. The least effective single moments of the score
are those of slight dissonance on strings for fright and extreme
tension, culminating in a "The Killing of Dumbledore" cue that is
extremely unsatisfying in its weak, shallow stature.
If you find all of this pounding of Hooper's barely
effective and underdeveloped music for
The Half-Blood Prince to
be unfair, keep in mind that not only are these assignments the kind of
once-in-a-lifetime types of opportunities for a man like Hooper (and
maybe even Doyle, who made the most of it), but in franchises as tightly
woven as this one, there is no escaping the legacy of the music that has
come before. You simply cannot forget Williams' identities for
Harry
Potter. The maestro's music for the franchise is still recognized as
outstanding, and if Hooper has done anything with absolute clarity, he
has revealed Doyle's
The Goblet of Fire as a more impressive
score than it may have first seemed (due to the fact that his references
to Williams' material were considered too few and far between). Williams
reportedly stated at a lecture in the summer of 2007 that he desires to
return for the final installment of the
Harry Potter franchise.
This is, of course, the hope of the mass majority of film music
enthusiasts. In fact, a dream scenario would see Williams score both of
the two final films adapted from the seventh book and, though extremely
unlikely, make use of Doyle's touching theme for Harry's family. The
studio could make this happen; Warner executives were reportedly the
ones who forced Williams' primary theme into at least one of the later
sequels. But Yates will be returning to direct these final two films,
and he could be at odds with the studio on the issue of assigning the
composer. It remains difficult to imagine that Warner wouldn't jump at
the opportunity to bring Williams aboard once again, if only as a cash
cow for the music department. In the meantime, listeners will need to
consult with Williams' first three scores, Doyle's lone impressive
entry, or even James Hannigan's popular music for the current
Harry
Potter video games. A note of interest involving the score release
for
The Half-Blood Prince is the availability of a 5.1 surround
sound version of the score that be downloaded through the enhanced
features on the CD. It's truly unfortunate that this wasn't an option
for especially Doyle's massive recording. Hooper's bland music for this
franchise simply doesn't connect with the concept. It lacks the depth
and gravity to form an emotional connection in the fantasy genre, and
without dominant themes to remember, his involvement in the series is
irrelevant. Even standing outside the immense shadow of the Williams and
Doyle scores, Hooper's second
Harry Potter recording is less
engaging than his first. For film music collectors, it could
define
the word "disappointment."
@Amazon.com: CD or
Download
- Music as Written for the Film: **
- Music as Heard on Album: ***
- Overall: **
The insert includes notes from the director and composer about the score. Yates'
note dates back eight months prior to Hooper's. The CD itself contains none of the
enhanced material it advertises, so availability of the online surround sound version,
recording session material, and other features may not last forever.
