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Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix:
(Nicholas Hooper) Franchises offer a maddening set of circumstances for
both movie-goers and film music collectors, not to mention the crews
that strive to meet their expectations. For film music fans
specifically, the
Harry Potter films took a beloved series of
books and established their sound with the talents of none other than
John Williams, the greatest composer of the past thirty years of cinema.
For any follow-up composer, the task of meeting expectations in a
situation like this has to be daunting. Exciting, but still daunting.
After John Williams' Oscar nominated scores for the first and third
films, bracketing an adaptation effort by William Ross for
The Chamber of Secrets, Scottish composer Patrick Doyle provided
a worthy effort for
The Goblet of Fire in 2005. As predicted by
most, Doyle was criticized for taking the sound of the series away from
Williams' familiar tones (and the majority of his themes) and infusing
the film with mostly a darker variant of his own compositional style.
Fans of Williams' multitude of themes, as well as his overarching style
for the franchise, often withheld their enthusiasm for Doyle's score,
despite its own admirable traits. The same predicament faced Nicholas
Hooper, whose name stirred up far more controversy when he was allowed
by Warner Brothers to write the score for
Harry Potter and the Order
of the Phoenix in 2007. The franchise has been a revolving door for
directors, and since Williams announced his departure from the series in
2004, the director of each particular film has been inclined, naturally,
to hire his usual, personal collaborator to write the music for the
films. For director David Yates, his partnership with Hooper would take
some selling to Warner; Hooper's career (albeit BAFTA-winning) has never
before included a Hollywood blockbuster size of project. Hooper and
Yates collected pieces of his works, conjured some original ideas for
The Order of the Phoenix specifically, and successfully convinced
the studio that Hooper was up to the task. Some of those ideas would
make the final cut in the recording of the score.
Hooper would be given the 90-member Chamber Orchestra of
London to record at Abbey Road Studios, with an impressive collection of
engineers, mixers, orchestrators, and conductor to assist him. The
technical merits of this recording should be praised immediately; Hooper
employs a far wider variety of softer instruments in his ensemble, often
in conjunction with more powerful ones, and each participant in the
score is crystal clear at every moment. As for the substance of the
music itself, Hooper had little chance of satisfying all his inevitable
listeners with this effort. Like Doyle's score before his,
The Order
of the Phoenix embodies the composer's own style of writing,
offering only a few references to Williams' tones. But that distinct
style of Williams' writing is for the most part lost in
The Order of
the Phoenix, not to mention that Hooper makes no discernable
connections to Doyle's contribution at all. A disclaimer should be made
at this point that the commercial album is only 53 minutes in length,
and given that almost two hours of music was recorded for
The Order
of the Phoenix, there may be references to Williams and Doyle
material hidden in less substantial cues not available on that album.
For fans rightly concerned about the incorporation of previous themes in
the franchise, the album will disappointingly contain only a hint of
what has come before. Hooper and Yates made a concerted effort to adapt
Williams' pivotal "Hedwig's Theme" into several key moments of the
score, but no other ideas are directly retained. Williams' spectacular
"B" variant on that theme (for Hogwarts... the bold fanfare on brass) is
barely referenced in fragments. The outstanding themes by Williams for
Quidditch and Voldemort are gone, and neither of Doyle's memorable
themes from
The Goblet of Fire is heard, including his gorgeous
family theme. The wide variety of short motifs by Williams, often
compiled into his concert suites from the first film's score, is not
utilized. Perhaps most frustrating for fans of the three superior
Williams scores is the fact that Hooper never actually provides
a full statement of the Hedwig "A" or "B" themes. While plentiful in
references, sometimes quite keenly adaptated in quiet or tense moments,
these themes are typically mutilated considerably by Hooper.
Three new themes are offered by Hooper. The first of these
ideas is for Professor Umbridge. His stated intent with this theme was
to address the "insistent and irritating" side of her character, masked
by the fluffy nature of her appearance. He accomplishes that well, with
her theme prancing along with jaunty superiority over a prissy,
waltz-like rhythm. The mid-sections of her suite track offer music most
resembling the style of Williams (and his score for
Hook
specifically), but without the same meaty substance. It's an adept
theme, and a listenable one despite its intended ability to slightly irk
you. But in the suite and in "Umbridge Spoils a Beautiful Morning," the
theme's two appearances on album, it fails to muster any of hatred or
dread that the character elicits. It is performed by glockenspiel,
chimes, woodwinds, and high strings... the ultimate in flighty, carefree
instrumentation. These tones seem to awkwardly convey only one aspect of
the wretched woman's perceived impact on the story, and is therefore
curiously lacking. The second theme written by Hooper for
The Order
of the Phoenix is more nebulous. Heard in full in "Possession" and
appropriately at the outset of "The Sirius Deception," this theme for
Voldemort's slow possession of Potter is difficult to really grasp,
partly because of its inherently gradual progressions but also because
it is punctuated by a fair amount of dissonance. There is little punch
to this theme, and while its adagio qualities provide for quick moments
of enticement (especially when a chorus is mixed in), its reliance on
the layers of string dissonance cause it to lack the same ominous
memorability of Williams' Voldemort theme (which enunciated itself best
in the second score). A third theme is developed for
Dumbledore's Army, and parts of this theme would carry over to the
context of the Order of the Phoenix. This theme, heard more often than
the others in its spirited and optimistic rhythms, represents the
rebellious behavior of the students. The highlight of its influence
comes at the expense of Umbridge's theme in "The Room of Requirements,"
perhaps the best cue of the album. The full ensemble rhythms of this cue
are hopelessly flighty and, with the help of the high range
instrumentation, provide the true sense of magic that film
demands.
Aside from these three primary themes, Hooper's score
seems to play like a "stream of consciousness" style of effort. There
are a considerable number of atmospheric cues, ranging from harmonically
pleasant to quietly foreboding. Many of these cues are almost
indistinguishable from silence. In "The Kiss," "The Sacking of
Trelawney," and "Loved Ones & Leaving," Hooper provides extremely
conservative, minimalistic music. It's charming to the last moment, with
glockenspiel and chimes always present for the treble-heavy appeal to
the heart, but the simplistic harmony and lack of interesting crescendos
leaves many of these cues as unnecessary inclusions on the album. The
action cues are similarly non-descript outside of their technical
constructs. The Japanese taiko drum for the low rumblings of the
suspense cues is underwhelming as a solo instrument, and in many of
those darker cues, you have to rely on the occasional swell of
orchestral force to maintain your interest. During the early Dementor
attack sequence, this manifests itself in a three-note burst of
magnificent harmony from the chorus. Wild rhythms put forth by the low
strings and timpani break the silence several minutes into "The Hall of
Prophecies," stirring up significant noise without really stating any
particular theme. The technique would be repeated in "The Death of
Sirius," with the rhythms finally breaking a lengthy sequence of
dissonance that barely registers at audible levels. Slightly more
consistent is the urgency of the string swells and harsh brass blasts in
"Darkness Takes Over." It is without a doubt that the action and
suspense sequences in
The Order of the Phoenix are lacking in
continuity and genuine power, forcing the score to rely too heavily on
its fluffier majority. That majority does have some impressive singular
moments, however. In "The Ministry of Magic," Hooper's dancing rhythms
and light instrumentation do justice to the wondrous atmosphere of the
setting. A militaristic variant on the rebellious theme for the Army and
Order soars with immense determination in "Flight of the Order of the
Phoenix." A restrained, string-led send-off to finish the score is
pretty, especially with its Irish-flavored counterpoint on flute.
The most outrageous and memorable cue is "Fireworks," a
wild Irish-flavored jig accompanying the story's funniest moment. As the
Weasley twins unleash their havoc on the castle and ride into the
glorious sunset, the jig leads to an unrestrained electric guitar,
wailing without regard for any of the castle's rules. It's perhaps
Hooper's best moment in the entire score, perfectly poking a finger at
the establishment with the right tone of teen rebellion. He certainly
wasn't afraid to spice up the score with unique instrumentation. His use
of synthetics extends to backwards orchestra hit samples, and the jig's
instrumentation would include an accordion at the end of "A Journey to
Hogwarts." His reliance on the incessantly tingling glockenspiel and
chimes for the majority of cues will definitely irritate some listeners,
though, especially given that Williams managed to incorporate those
treble tones with greater balance. Other listeners will be bothered by
the simplistic nature of many of Hooper's chord progressions;
The
Order of the Phoenix is a rather straight-forward score. Even others
will be bothered by his light tones for questionably inappropriate
occasions. Aside from lingering doubts over the flightiness of
Umbridge's theme, a cue like "The Sirius Deception" features Potter in
"panic-savior mode," and while the noble, strictly-positive harmony of
the Army/Order thematic variant in the latter half of that cue might
seem appropriate, it lacks any of the foreshadowing dissonance that
should logically accompany that doomed situation. Too many times,
Hooper's score turns left when you expect it to turn right. To an
extent, that approach is refreshing. But with the franchise already
firmly established musically and the stories well known, some of his
choices beg for challenges. His dismantling of Williams' two Hedwig
themes might seem like a good idea for a world of wizardry gone awry,
but it makes for unsatisfying listening. The complex style of Williams'
score is a faint memory and Doyle's brazenly morbid and weighty
direction is completely abandoned. For some individual scenes, Hooper's
music will suffice. At times it will excel. But it fails to provide
continuity within either its own confines or those of the franchise as a
whole. An out-of-sequence album presentation and rather short running
time (compared to the previous
Harry Potter albums) only
contribute to the dismay.
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