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Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
(2001)
Album Cover Art
2001 Warner
2002 Bootleg (Sample)
Album 2 Cover Art
2018 La-La Land
Album 3 Cover Art
Composed, Conducted, and Produced by:

Orchestrated by:
Eddie Karam
Conrad Pope

Notable Performances by:
Marcia Crayford
Randy Kerber
The London Voices
Labels Icon
LABELS & RELEASE DATES
Warner Sunset Records
(October 30th, 2001)

Bootlegs
(2002)

La-La Land Records
(November 23rd, 2018)
Availability Icon
ALBUM AVAILABILITY
The 2001 Warner album is a regular U.S. release. The international release, and the one in Europe more specifically, was produced under the foreign name of the film, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. That foreign version is a 2-CD product, though only one of the CDs has John Williams music, and that material is identical to what you hear on the American release. The second CD only contains multimedia.

The expanded bootlegs started circulating around the secondary market in 2002 and often contained different contents, but all existed on two CDs. The 2018 La-La Land set contains all three of Williams' scores for the franchise. It is limited to 5,000 copies and available initially for $100 through soundtrack specialty outlets.
Awards
AWARDS
Nominated for an Academy Award and a Grammy Award.
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ALSO SEE





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Availability | Awards | Viewer Ratings | Comments | Audio & Track Listings | Notes
Buy it... if you desire just one of the Harry Potter scores for your collection, because this original entry by John Williams is a strong foundation for the franchise and features its best performances of the famous 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.
Review Icon
EDITORIAL REVIEW
FILMTRACKS TRAFFIC RANK: #11
WRITTEN 8/14/01, REVISED 2/24/19
Williams
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 comparatively optimistic 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 deceased 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 is 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 of regards is owed in part to the continued presence of the maestro's themes for the concept in even the Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them franchise and not simply due to the inconsistent scores to follow the three by Williams for the "Harry Potter" franchise. There was also a daunting set of circumstances facing the original entry 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 overwhelming quality and consequent attention pulled 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 original album, 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 wondrous fantasy score to come.

For Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Williams departed from his usual practices and had actually taken the time to read Rowling's book prior to being involved with the project, and he confessed to enjoying it with his family. 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." Ultimately, for this project, Williams wrote 150 minutes of music that featured 4,200 bars and 1,25 million notes. 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. The composer eventually arranged multiple concert presentations of his main themes for the film, and he could not have predicted that this was among the first scores to be performed live to screenings of the film by symphonies around the world.


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VIEWER RATINGS
32,556 TOTAL VOTES
Average: 4.08 Stars
***** 15,554 5 Stars
**** 8,376 4 Stars
*** 5,830 3 Stars
** 1,484 2 Stars
* 1,312 1 Stars
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COMMENTS
461 TOTAL COMMENTS
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Alan Rickman called this John Williams score 'hideous'
Noah - September 25, 2022, at 9:11 p.m.
1 comment  (318 views)
My alternate review...
Hari Haran - January 24, 2017, at 3:47 a.m.
1 comment  (1559 views)
My thoughts on the review
Vincent - June 9, 2015, at 2:41 p.m.
1 comment  (1808 views)
Help fund an up and coming composer!
Thomas Gaff - September 9, 2014, at 4:34 a.m.
1 comment  (1946 views)
IT'S MAGICAL!!!
Owen - October 5, 2012, at 7:15 p.m.
1 comment  (2778 views)
Complete Score
Drew C. - July 3, 2012, at 10:11 a.m.
1 comment  (3182 views)
More...


Track Listings Icon
TRACK LISTINGS AND AUDIO
Audio Samples   ▼
2001 Warner Album Tracks   ▼Total Time: 73:34
Preliminary Listings (advertised prior to release):

• 1. Prologue (2:12)
• 2. The Arrival of Baby Harry (4:25)
• 3. Visit to the Zoo and Letters from Hogwarts (3:22)
• 4. Diagon Alley and The Gringotts Vault (4:06)
• 5. Platform Nine-and-Three-Quarters and the Journey to Hogwarts (3:14)
• 6. Entry into the Great Hall and The Banquet (3:42)
• 7. Mr. Longbottom Flies (3:35)
• 8. Hogwarts Forever! and The Moving Stairs (3:46)
• 9. The Norwegian Ridgeback and A Change of Season (2:47)
• 10. The Quidditch Match (8:28)
• 11. Christmas at Hogwarts (2:56)
• 12. The Invisibility Cloak and The Library Scene (3:15)
• 13. Fluffy's Harp (2:38)
• 14. In the Devil's Snare and The Flying Keys (2:20)
• 15. The Chess Game (3:48)
• 16. The Face of Voldemort (6:10)
• 17. Leaving Hogwarts (2:10)
• 18. Harry's Wondrous World (5:21)
• 19. Hedwig's Theme (5:09)


Final Listings (as seen on the final release):

• 1. Prologue (2:12)
• 2. Harry's Wondrous World (5:21)
• 3. The Arrival of Baby Harry (4:25)
• 4. Visit to the Zoo and Letters from Hogwarts (3:22)
• 5. Diagon Alley and The Gringotts Vault (4:06)
• 6. Platform Nine-and-Three-Quarters and the Journey to Hogwarts (3:14)
• 7. Entry into the Great Hall and The Banquet (3:42)
• 8. Mr. Longbottom Flies (3:35)
• 9. Hogwarts Forever! and The Moving Stairs (3:46)
• 10. The Norwegian Ridgeback and A Change of Season (2:47)
• 11. The Quidditch Match (8:28)
• 12. Christmas at Hogwarts (2:56)
• 13. The Invisibility Cloak and The Library Scene (3:15)
• 14. Fluffy's Harp (2:38)
• 15. In the Devil's Snare and The Flying Keys (2:20)
• 16. The Chess Game (3:48)
• 17. The Face of Voldemort (6:10)
• 18. Leaving Hogwarts (2:13)
• 19. Hedwig's Theme (5:09)
2002 Bootleg Sample Tracks   ▼Total Time: 103:49
2018 La-La Land Album Tracks   ▼Total Time: 171:35

Notes Icon
NOTES AND QUOTES
The 2001 Warner album's insert includes extensive credits and offers a short note from director Chris Columbus about the film and score. The packaging also unfolds into a rather unattractive poster. The bootlegs feature a wide range of fan-created art.

The "special first edition" pressing of the American version of the Warner album contained a little card inside the packaging that had a potentially winning number on it. (You had to log on to the official soundtrack site before February 1st, 2002 to see if you had won.) With a winning number, you could have won books, binders, Game Boy-related software, or even, of all things, Harry Potter Lego bricks. None of the copies in Filmtracks' possession had a winning number, but for all you other non-winners (i.e. lovable losers) out there, you had the option of filling out a form at that site for a second chance. No odds of winning were given, of course, so your effort was probably futile.

The 2018 La-La Land set contains extremely detailed information about the Williams scores for the franchise, with several booklets containing a wealth of information. The track listings are not featured in any convenient place on the packaging, however.
Copyright © 2001-2025, Filmtracks Publications. All rights reserved.
The reviews and other textual content contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten
or redistributed without the prior written authority of Christian Clemmensen at Filmtracks Publications. All artwork and sound clips from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone are Copyright © 2001, 2018, Warner Sunset Records, Bootlegs, La-La Land Records and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 8/14/01 and last updated 2/24/19.
Shame on J.K. Rowling for not allowing Harry Potter and Hermione Granger to copulate.
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