Post by Mike Skerritt on Aug 14, 2013 8:20:30 GMT -8
Like most everyone else, when I heard Yates hired his buddy Hooper to score OOTP, my reaction was, at its most hyperbolic, indifferent. GOF was a resounding success and so it wasn't that I was afraid of another new musical voice in the POTTER universe, but I wondered if Hooper had the very specific kind of chops the franchise needed. Doyle certainly had them.
At first blush, I thought Hooper tried valiantly but missed. He clearly had a different sensibility, but gone were the near operatic fireworks of the Williams and Doyle scores. Hooper's score seemed to be whispered by comparison.
That said, in the years since I've found myself gravitating more and more towards both of Hooper's POTTER scores. I love and appreciate the quintessential Englishness he brought to the series, unique among the scores. There's such a deft hand in both the playfulness of the Hogwarts scenes (eg, the lengthy "The Room of Requirements" from OOTP) and the restraint of the dramatic moments (the twin friends/love themes of HBP) that on first listen it sounds like there isn't much going on, but later you realize the wonderful delicacy with which Hooper treated the material rather than bludgeoning. As a side note, AZKABAN is my favorite POTTER score because it strikes the best balance between delicacy and bludgeoning, not to mention it just being great music.
Because Hooper shies away from punctuating every moment with an exclamation point, it's easy to dismiss his scores as lacking personality, but his brilliant theme for Professor Slughorn should dispel that notion. Slughorn is a terribly difficult character to nail tonally (I don't know that Rowling quite succeeded), and both Broadbent and Hooper did him a wonderful service in the adaptation. Hooper's masterstroke was matching the pervasive melancholy of Broadbent's performance in his theme. It's not sad or pathetic, but weary and remorseful. Without it, Slughorn could veer too far into the territory of patsy or fool or even creep, but Hooper carefully constructs the melody to paint him as a fundamentally good man with shortcomings and regrets. It's an absolutely brilliant piece of film scoring.
So, these aren't exactly exhaustive thoughts but they struck me as I was listening to some of HBP (once again) while working last night. I'm curious to know what you guys think of Hooper's scores in hindsight.
At first blush, I thought Hooper tried valiantly but missed. He clearly had a different sensibility, but gone were the near operatic fireworks of the Williams and Doyle scores. Hooper's score seemed to be whispered by comparison.
That said, in the years since I've found myself gravitating more and more towards both of Hooper's POTTER scores. I love and appreciate the quintessential Englishness he brought to the series, unique among the scores. There's such a deft hand in both the playfulness of the Hogwarts scenes (eg, the lengthy "The Room of Requirements" from OOTP) and the restraint of the dramatic moments (the twin friends/love themes of HBP) that on first listen it sounds like there isn't much going on, but later you realize the wonderful delicacy with which Hooper treated the material rather than bludgeoning. As a side note, AZKABAN is my favorite POTTER score because it strikes the best balance between delicacy and bludgeoning, not to mention it just being great music.
Because Hooper shies away from punctuating every moment with an exclamation point, it's easy to dismiss his scores as lacking personality, but his brilliant theme for Professor Slughorn should dispel that notion. Slughorn is a terribly difficult character to nail tonally (I don't know that Rowling quite succeeded), and both Broadbent and Hooper did him a wonderful service in the adaptation. Hooper's masterstroke was matching the pervasive melancholy of Broadbent's performance in his theme. It's not sad or pathetic, but weary and remorseful. Without it, Slughorn could veer too far into the territory of patsy or fool or even creep, but Hooper carefully constructs the melody to paint him as a fundamentally good man with shortcomings and regrets. It's an absolutely brilliant piece of film scoring.
So, these aren't exactly exhaustive thoughts but they struck me as I was listening to some of HBP (once again) while working last night. I'm curious to know what you guys think of Hooper's scores in hindsight.