I’m sorry to say, but this fellow’s scores are starting to bore me a bit. I’m hoping for Hooper to score the remaining films, as I really enjoyed his work on OotP.

I can confirm that Nicholas Hooper IS the composer for HBP.

He is also on track to compose ATLEAST some parts of DH 1 (this may change so that only derivatives of his “themes” in OotP & HBP will be used) You may read this to mean something…

As for the S on the box, “the black shagginess” still stands.

Sorry, Muddtallica, I have to agree with Paulo. Don’t get me wrong, I really like John Williams but having just watched a few movies recently that he scored (most recent was Indiana Jones #2) and there were a few pieces that sounded like they could have been used for an HP movie. It just bothered me. I think Nicholas Hooper’s score was perfect for OoTP and I can’t wait to hear what he scores for HBP.

I have to say, even though I have always loved Williams in any movie, I think Hooper made it way less cheesy, or ‘happy children’s fairy tale’... Don’t get me wrong, I have a HP soundtrack from him, but I was happier with Hooper for he made it all a bit more adult and darker…

As much as I worship John William who is the greatest composer alive, I feel it works best when the film director has his favourite collaborator to score. Hooper’s score was magnificent and felt that he was in tune with the director’s vision. So since Yates had been confirmed to do the rest of the series, I had hoped Hooper would also be on board. My favourite soundtracks so far are John Williams Prisoner of Azkhaban and Hoopers Order of the Pheonix. Fingers crossed that Yates\Williams will be a great collaboration.

myopinion.me: Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that many of Williams’ scores don’t sound similar; like any composer, he has a pretty distinctive style, and yes, the fact that he’s so prolific means that a lot of his tics and idiosyncrasies can start to feel over-familiar. But “all his scores sound the same”? That’s ridiculous, hyperbolic and totally false. Are you telling me that his Schindler’s List theme sounds the same as his Star Wars one, or that his soundtrack to JFK sounds the same as the one to ET? Williams’ range compares favourably to more or less anyone in the business – heck, the Prisoner of Azkaban score on its own is testament to that, encapsulating classical waltz, chaotic jazz, dissonant horror and folksy medieval music alongside the powerful, epic orchestral stuff we associate with him. He’s not a faultless composer, no – in all honesty, I found his first two Harry Potter scores be over-egged, repetitive and smothering, despite some great thematic work – but for me, on balance, he’s still the best in the business today.

Absolutely agree with Muddtallica. John Williams scoring is so diverse and has encompassed so many different genres of music and is by far the greatest composer along with Bernard Hermann in movie history. But I carp back to my previous point. Why was his Prisoner of Azkhaban so radically different? Its because he was working with a director with a different vision (ie Alfonso) and his scored reflected this. Chris Columbus vision was more lighter kid friendly and Williams score reflected this too. This clearly shows that Williams scoring strongly correlates to a directors vision. The great thing about Williams is that he is a director’s dream to work with. So lets not hear about how Williams music sound the same because that is absolutely untrue. I just had hoped Hooper scored because he is refreshing and seems to nail Yates vision.

I just had a look on www.imdb.com and guess what, it says Nicolas Hooper is the composer!!! IMDB has been know to get certain facts wrong on films currently in production though but not often.

Seeing as Jurassic Park IV doesn’t even have a script, this clearly isn’t true. I love Williams but I do really love Hooper’s score as well, it was only Doyle that was the real low point for me

Awww, I wish this were happening. They simply went to his IMDB.com site and looked at what was on tap. He’s not coming back—and it’s dumb.

There’s a really good reason why Hooper hadn’t composed for a major film before. Because he’s not that good. Sorry. I like to play basketball. But if my best friend was Kobe Bryant, I wouldn’t expect to be included on his team if he put one together.

Jurasic Park 4? Set when??

“I can confirm that Nicholas Hooper IS the composer for HBP.

He is also on track to compose ATLEAST some parts of DH 1 (this may change so that only derivatives of his “themes” in OotP & HBP will be used) You may read this to mean something…”

So Hooper hasn’t signed on to compose the score for DH part 2 either? Or is it too early to tell?

yeah, i agree with anyone who is bored with williams. i like the music, but, as a musician, it’s a little contrived, i think. dissonance for the sake on dissonance gets irritating. however, i really do like the orchestrations of williams’s film scores.

i do not know, however, if he, himself, does the orchestrating, or if his staff handles that bit…

Both Hopper and Yates are new to movies. They come from British TV. Hooper composes for TV shows and it showed with OOTP. I was so disappointed in OOTP due to the music and the made for TV feel. I loved all the HP books and movies 1-4, 5 just stuck out like a sore thumb IMO. I am keeping my fingers crossed for HBP and DH 1 & 2. I hope them don’t come across as movie of the week, with a weak score and direction. I am not a teenager, so I liked the child like quailty of 1 SS and COS. I was only familiar with HP through the movies. But was so diappointed in OOTP. It confused me and it felt hurried. hadn’t read the books until 7th was released last July. Then I read them one after another and fell in love. I hope Yates opens up his team to include people with more movie experience rather than TV.

bec majec: I have actually been to such a concert, though John Williams wasn’t there. It was my local symphony doing some of his music. Naturally, “Hedwig’s Theme” was featured. There were also pieces from “Jaws”, “Superman”, “Star Wars”, “Catch Me If You Can”, etc. It was a really good concert for someone like me who has grown up watching many films for which this man has composed the music. Last year, we even had a “Harry Potter Symphony” concert, though it was disappointing. Some guy was a sort of host/narrator and I didn’t care for him; he spoke to the audience as if we were all about five years old. I am hoping that someday there will be a Harry Potter concert that focuses strictly on the music.