Thank you for bringing that up, eiVega! It’s so true.

Rotfang7, you think Desplat ALMOST matches Hooper? Good grief… Desplat has miles more talent than Hooper! His music in nuanced, subtle, and complex, whereas Hooper is only subtle. He can’t do anything beyond basic chord progressions, and sometimes that’s all his music is: chord progressions. Simple, simple, simple stuff that a college student could do.

Confirmed. I’m really excited to hear what he comes up with, but nervous at the same time because I just really hope that he will listen to the previous HP scores so that there will be some level of continuity and feel like an HP film score. I am by no means saying don’t do anything new or different just that I hope he will be conscious of the previous sounds of the series and those most loved by fans in order to maintain the feeling of the series as a whole. I only say this because before New Moon he didn’t listen to the Twilight score at all and that caused a disconnect in the music for many fans and I don’t want to see that happen with DH. Either way I know he will come up with something breathtaking and beautiful that will get constant play on my iPod! The only question is whether or how well it will reflect HP. Still very exciting news!

I hope he does a good job.. I’ve just read that the rumor’s confirmed, This is going to be quite interesting.

Agree being LOUD is not only the composer’s choice it’s the director’s too, but in films 1 and 2 you had Columbus directing (need I say more?), and with Cuaron we had a double problem, he was either into loud or he deferred too respectfully to Williams’s penchant for loud, which is how all Spielberg films are scored. Williams is the master of the obvious, as one would expect of someone who scores essentially children’s or one-dimensional films, and anyway anyone who uses banks of hundreds of horns, strings, and timpani wants their subtle bone checking. Complexity is not the same as sophistication, subtlety or nuance, of which there is no evidence in Williams. Williams is capable of having layer after layer of knock you over the head loud music but it is utterly devoid of any heart or soul.

The best piece of film making of Spielberg’s was the first 25 minutes of Saving Private Ryan, which did not have a single note of Williams’s ridiculously OTT music in it. The rest of the Speilberg-Williams output is sentimental pulp or popcorn cinema that requires the requisite music to match. I can live with Williams doing the last film as a gesture but I know I will be watching a Hollywood Hamburger popcorn Spielberg film and not anything worthy of GoF, OotP, HBP, or DH1 [in the making].

Someone mentioned Schindler’s List as an example of non-Hollywoodesque non-pap, with Williams score as proof he can do deep. I’ve researched the Holocaust for the last 40 years and I saw not a shred of truth or depth in Schindlers, all that was on the screen was a Hollywood parody of reality and history, with an equally facile score to match. Please please please Mr Spielberg keep Mr Williams busy for the next 2 years so we can keep Hollywood’s sensibility for gratuitous snap crackle and pap out of the HP series …? Pretty please? …

Very interesting discussion, everyone. I have enjoyed what every composer has done so far in the films, and I’m sure Desplat will be fantastic for DH1.

@DesQueJteVois : Danny Elfman – love that guy!

I honestly can’t remember the music from Golden Compass…

Who is this guy? I hope that he does well with the movies…

I’m looking forward to hearing what his contribution to Harry Potter will be like.

Well now that the rumor has been confirmed I’m more curious than ever about how the music will work with the movie. I hope it will be beautiful like “Hedwig’s Theme.”

heard his work before, id say he’s a very acomplished composer and i really hope it works for HP

Although I was sorry not to see Williams continue, I have to admit I’ve been pleased with all of the previous films’ scores, so I’m hoping for the best from Desplat this time around.

Rotfang7, you are obviously biased against Williams and have made no effort to listen to his quieter scores (Angela’s Ashes, The Terminal, War of the Worlds, Catch Me If You Can, Memoirs of a Geisha, Munich, Jane Eyre, Seven Years in Tibet). Listen to those and then tell me he has no heart and soul. If you don’t like his style, fine, but don’t make accusations that he doesn’t put his heart into his music just because you prefer subtle European music. That’s just wrong. And why on earth must one look to a film’s historical accuracy to judge whether or not the score is good? That’s ridiculous! Hooper’s score must be bad because he didn’t use medieval instruments!

I don’t know why you keep arguing that Williams’s music is too “Hollywood”. That would imply that so many other composers are turning out the same music as Williams, and that could not be further from the truth. No one else has William’s style. Not every single moment of a film score needs to be restrained, and if you think that Williams cannot do low-key you need to watch PoA again (the “why whould I go looking for someone who wants to kill me?” scene, most of the shrieking shack scene, “Secrets of the Castle”, “Saving Buckbeak”). Talk about prejudice.

The Meadow was great in New Moon, hope to be as good as that! Thx for the info! :)

I find it amusing that some people complain about scores being too loud. That’s what the sound mixers do, not the composers. They just write music while another team mixes the levels to find the correct balance of dialogue, sound efx and music. True, a composer can arrange a piece to sound very busy or have a lot of character that draws attention to itself but the actual volume level can be lowered. It’s still the director’s call. While they are doing the mix and finalizing the cut they have the opportunity to make adjustments as necessary. When you hear at the end has passed through so many people that you can’t just blame it on the composer. If a director finds the music distracting he has the power to make decisions and fix things. It’s such a collaborative process that the composer is involved with the rest of the crew to make the best thing possible. You can’t single out and blame a person for your personal distastes. Enough people work on this together to discern and produce the best film they can.