New Interview with Nicholas Hooper on Scoring Harry Potter Films

Warner Bros.’ monthly Harry Potter newsletter has a brand new interview with Nicholas Hooper in which he talks about his experiences scoring “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” and “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.” In the interview Mr. Hooper comments that the journey to the cave was his favourite scene to score in the sixth film and that “[upon hearing] it performed by the huge orchestra and choir it felt like I had flown out there across the sea myself.”

Mr. Hooper also discusses the similarities between some of the tracks on the scores of the fifth and sixth films, such as between the “Umbridge Theme” and “Living Death.” Quotage:

[T]hey are both about new teachers. How will Slughorn turn out? Can we trust him? Another important theme from “Order of the Phoenix” that I used in “Half-Blood Prince” was the “Possession” theme (where Voldemort possesses Harry at the Ministry of Magic.) This pervades the score in most places where Voldemort or Tom Riddle are mentioned or shown: the first place being in the scene where Dumbledore gives his speech to the school at the beginning of term.

Sources of inspiration, a typical day of scoring a Harry Potter film and how the final recording all falls into place are also covered in the interview, which can be found here.