Far less memorable is the actual theme for Sirius Black, a
repeating three-note string motif of mystery. Introduced in "Monster
Book and Discussing Black," this theme returns forcefully in "The
Grim/The Newspaper" and "Confrontation in the Shrieking Shack" before
disappearing due to the reveal of the character's true intents.
Alongside the Black theme in "Monster Book and Discussing Black" is a
tentative harpsichord phrase (with the first five notes repeating) to
represent Peter Pettigrew, and this motif extends separately to "A Walk
in the Woods and Bird's Flight," "The Three Broomsticks," and
"Buckbeak's Fate and the Marauder's Map," in which it is often applied
as a supplemental effect rather than a self-contained melody. Meanwhile,
Remus Lupin doesn't receive any significant motif from Williams, though
the darker, distorted, and frantic tones in "The Werewolf Scene"
confirm, as with Williams' rather mundane atmospheric cues for the
score, that the franchise is indeed headed into the murky depths of
horror and mystery. One would imagine a grand convergence of the
character themes in "Confrontation in the Shrieking Shack," but this cue
is among the score's weakest and most forgettable ambient passages. The
only other recurring musical tools in the score are choral-based, one
representing the dementors and the other for Potter's patronus. The
former occupies "Apparition on the Train," interjects brief interludes
in "Rainy Nights, Dementors and Birds" and "The Big Doors," and
appropriately bursts during "Page 394 and Quidditch, Third Year" with a
brass motif for the dementors as well. This idea, along with "Monster
Books" and "The Boggarts," play as closely to Williams' standard horror
underscore mode as possible, producing plenty of interesting dissonant
tones for the dementors while not progressing the thematic direction of
the franchise. The patronus concept, on the other hand, counters with
tonally lovely protection in "Summoning the Patronus," is forced into
battle in "The Dementors Converge," and appropriately joins the new
"Window to the Past" family theme in "Watching the Past." Williams
merges the two choral ideas with skill in "The Dementors Converge," as
the "Window to the Past" theme is enveloped and attacked by malicious
horns and choir, and a victorious choral performance reprising
"Summoning the Patronus" predictably swells with orchestral power as
Potter saves his friends from the dementors. The remaining elements of
the story are handled with unique approaches to each scene, a technique
not unfamiliar to Williams but one that can cause this particular score
to sound disjointed.
The individualism of certain cues in
Harry Potter and
the Prisoner of Azkaban may be of benefit to the film, but the album
experience suffers all the same. The waltz for Aunt Marge is the first
of several cues that prove that Williams was still at his peak
compositionally; in this cue, he provides a very classically structured
piece for the pompous nature of Potter's aunt, with so much
old-fashioned movement and instrumentation as to make for pure comedy.
Depending on your opinion about wild, crazy vintage jazz, the "Knight
Bus" cue could either be a guilty pleasure or a major irritation. Its
zany, carnivalesque attitude is admirable but irritating nevertheless.
Williams scores "Quidditch, Third Year" with a greater sense of urgency
than in the preceding films' gaming scenes, sadly abandoning his
established flying theme in the process. (Recall that the flying theme
had already replaced Williams' proper Quidditch theme from
Harry
Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone in the second film.) The bright
fanfares have yielded to serious battle tones of the level of intensity
most closely associated at the time with
Star Wars: Attack of the
Clones. In fact, there are many similarities between "Quidditch,
Third Year" and the
Star Wars prequels, highly complex action
movements on brass accented by a meandering female choir. This high
standard of rolling excitement continues in "Chasing Scabbers," "The
Whomping Willow," and "Lupin's Transformation," all of them exhibiting
layers of complex writing that confirmed Williams' continuing prowess.
In "The Whomping Willow," the composer especially impresses with his
outstanding percussion and horn applications. Abandoning snowy play cues
from the previous scores is "The Snowball Fight," an airy diversion from
an otherwise drab midsection of the score. The Buckbeak theme is
surprisingly absent in "Saving Buckbeak," even neglecting to hint at the
animal's flying or approach motifs. Williams instead handles the
suspense of the scene by appropriately previewing (and creating a loop
with) the rhythmic doomsday approach heard in "Time Past." The pivotal
time travel sequence in the last third of
Harry Potter and the
Prisoner of Azkaban is tackled by Williams with that very
predictably mechanical method that you'll either love or hate. The
ticking clock percussive effect and associated tolling chimes in "Time
Past" and recurring through "Turning Time Back" is not really a novel
idea, and its restraining persistence can get on the nerves, but it does
further the quirky personality of the score at even its most troubled
moments.
As for the lonely representatives of the franchise's
past in the opening and closing cues of
Harry Potter and the Prisoner
of Azkaban, expect a very significant step backwards from the
immensity of the performances of existing themes that magnificently
grace equivalent scenes in
Harry Potter and the Chamber of
Secrets. In the opening "Lumos! (Hedwig's Theme)," Williams presents
the primary phrasing of Hedwig's theme on celesta and whirling strings
before transitioning to the pale shades of the Hogwarts version of the
theme on woodwinds. It lacks the fuller Hogwarts variation as had been
heard over the titles in the previous two scores and Patrick Doyle's
follow-up for
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, and the tone
here is abysmally muted by comparison. At the end of the film, Williams
originally scored "The Firebolt" without the flying theme but later
revised the cue for the necessary inclusion. As a transition to the end
credits, he presents the score's only brass performance of Hedwig's
theme, albeit in a fragment of one phrase. The lengthy "Mischief
Managed!" assembly at the end of the initial album is not the actual
"End Credits" cue heard in the film. In both versions is the
aforementioned adaptation of the "Double Trouble" material into a fuller
symphonic form superior to all of its prior incarnations. The commercial
arrangement of the suite concludes with a forced resolution of the
celesta performance of the Hedwig primary phrase at the very end;
Williams' end credits arrangements began exhibiting signs of laziness in
the early 2000's, and the rather dull and disjointed 12 minutes of
material forced together inartfully for the "Mischief Managed!" track
diminishes the listening experience on album. In the actual "End
Credits," Williams follows the "Window to the Past" theme with a slight
rearrangement of the latter half of his "Hedwig's Theme" concert suite
from the first film, though this performance is far inferior in depth
and pacing. Overall,
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is
a highly acclaimed score that is often considered by fans to be the best
developed and most maturely suspenseful of Williams' three entries in
this series. As with his other "Harry Potter" scores, the composer
tempts with continued musical creativity for individual scenes, the
usual level of marvelous tonal colors and counterpoint, and ingenuity in
orchestration and specialty colors that never cease to amaze. As a
package,
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban showcases the
brilliance of Williams' talents, and yet the constraints placed on the
score's thematic attributions by the director failed to allow a wrapping
of all these ideas into a coherent whole.
There is a lack of definitive passion in
Harry
Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban embodied by significant passages
of dullness in its midsection and climax. The score's place in the
overarching narrative is nebulous, and the shift to darker tones with
which listeners often associate its effectiveness was actually a
striking asset already present in the highly underrated and
retrospectively superior score for
Harry Potter and the Chamber of
Secrets. Unlike the impressive tapestries woven by Williams for the
previous entries in the franchise, he failed to further develop that
base sound as the students age and war approaches. Opportunities for
connectivity were lost during the mentioning of Voldemort's return, the
Quidditch match, and references to the history of the castle. The
narrative of Williams' trilogy was stifled, and no amount of occasional
celesta and glockenspiel magic could suffice to preserve that flow.
Doyle's score for
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, not
surprisingly, suffers from exactly the same issues, conveying superior
ideas but unnecessarily reinventing themes for concepts Williams already
addressed and largely ignoring the major thematic arcs of the existing
music. On album,
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is
impressive in parts but leaves you wanting more. The 2004 Atlantic album
contains most of the score's highlights, but not all. A 2018 expanded
2-CD set (part of a 7-CD collection of Williams' music for his three
films) reveals more narrative intrigue but also exposes the score's
significant weaknesses. The longer presentation can be a laborious
exercise, especially given that little of the additional material ties
this score to the franchise. The ticking effects late in the score,
including seemingly synthetic bass presence, were dialed back for the
2004 album and restored on the longer set; unfortunately, they make
"Time Past/Saving Buckbeak" a tedious slog. The score's second act
barely keeps your attention, cues like "The Courtyard and Sir Cadogan,"
"The Three Broomsticks," and "About Pettigrew/The Crystal Ball"
narratively pointless. Extensive alternate and source bonus cues are
also of lesser interest outside of the rejected version of "The
Firebolt." The sound quality and performances in this score are far less
vibrant than they were in
Harry Potter and the Chamber of
Secrets, perhaps owing to the London Symphony Orchestra not
returning. In the end, parts of the score are exhilarating, but its
whole is frustrating because, aside from Williams' natural style and the
token Hedwig theme references, this work is not truly a "Harry Potter"
score. The musical roots of the franchise were dug up by the change in
director, and his demands ensured that it did not matter whether the
maestro's baton was a magic wand or not.
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