Why John Williams Didn’t Recompose the Music for the Harry Potter Sequels

When people remember the “Harry Potter” movies, they usually think, at least partially, of the score by the legendary John Williams. In terms of how memorable and evocative it is, “Hedwig’s Theme“he’s up there with”The imperial march” from “Star Wars” or “he is a pirate” from the “Pirates of the Caribbean Movies,” in the sense that everyone can remember it and hum it accurately at any time. Producing hits like this on a regular basis, it should come as no surprise that John Williams has earned over 50 Oscar nominations for throughout his career.

So it’s a bit surprising that Williams wasn’t present in most of the “Harry Potter” movies. The soundtrack for “Goblet of Fire” was composed by Patrick Doyle, “The Order of the Phoenix” and “The Half-Blood Prince” were composed by Nicholas Hooper, and both “Deathly Hallows” films were composed by Alexandre Desplat . A keen ear will notice these changes throughout the series, but considering how much the music from the first film would be reused and adapted in the later films, it’s easy to assume that Williams was there all along.

in a interview 2010Producer David Heyman explained why Williams didn’t return for “Deathly Hallows,” even though they definitely wanted him back. “We wanted to make it work with John, but John’s schedule didn’t allow it,” he said, later adding, “We asked him around the time of the sixth movie. In fact, we talked to him all the time (about returning for the finale). but his schedule wouldn’t allow it… He tried to work into his schedule to try to accommodate it, but it just wasn’t possible.”

Much like the reasoning behind Williams’ failure to return to “Deathly Hallows,” he left the series after “Prisoner of Azkaban” in part because he was too busy. He had to compose the great epic “Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith” almost at the same time, not to mention “The War of the Worlds” and “Munich”. And although Williams’ name is associated with “Chamber of Secrets,” he wasn’t as involved in it as he was in that first film. As composer William Ross, who worked extensively on “The Chamber of Secrets,” says, explained in a 2013 interview:

“(Williams) also explained that he may have a scheduling conflict that could somehow affect his involvement in the second film. Although he planned to write the new songs and new musical material for ‘Chamber of Secrets,’ there would be areas of new film in which I intended to use and adapt songs from the first ‘Potter’ soundtrack, John asked me if I would be interested in taking that original material and adapting it to work in the context of the new film. How much work would be involved. That’s because I hadn’t seen the movie yet. and I didn’t know at the time to what extent scheduling conflict would be a factor.”

If you were wondering why the “Chamber of Secrets” soundtrack strays a bit from the magic of the first film, including that section of the Quidditch match where the score It seems too similar to the music from the “Star Wars” prequels. – this is part of the why. Williams, who was busy scoring Spielberg’s charming film “Catch Me If You Can,” couldn’t devote as much time to the first “Potter” sequel.

The good news is that although Williams never returned to the series after “Prisoner of Azkaban,” that third film served as a quasi-comeback for him. “Chamber of Secrets” may have been a slight step down, but the soundtrack for “The Prisoner of Azkaban” is possibly the best in the entire series. (Which makes sense, given that it’s also the best movie in the series overall.) “Buckbeak’s Flight” and “A Window to the Past” were not only some of his best work, but they were also quite original, not just continuations of earlier “Potter” music. All of the music in “Azkaban” had a darker, more gothic feel, complementing the film’s more mature themes.

Although Williams only scored two and a half of the eight films in the franchise, he still easily outshines all the composers who would come after him. That’s largely a result of Williams being the one who set the tone for the series from day one, providing a “Harry Potter” template for all of his successors to work from, at least partially.

It also helps that a big theme of the film is nostalgia; Later series Harry longs for the days when his life at Hogwarts was relatively simple, and of course all the adults in the series are nostalgic for the times when Lily and James Potter were still alive and well. When a later “Harry Potter” film wanted to be nostalgic, the easiest way to help capture that feeling was to reuse the iconic themes of that first film.

When asked about this, “Deathly Hallows” director David Yates explained his thought process behind knowing when to bring back the “Hedwig theme”: “Anything that seemed like we were being nostalgic or that somehow reflected the past. That’s when we used it,” he said. Sure enough, some repetition or variation of “Hedwig’s Theme” would be used in every “Harry Potter” movie. In a lesser franchise, this might seem lazy, but in this case, it’s hard to find any Potterhead who ever complains.