Why Prisoner of Azkaban's Score is the Best in the Series

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban is the only Harry Potter DVD that I own I can't remember when I bought it aware but I can remember watching and re watching it through my teenage years it was released when I was 13 the same age that Harry is when he enters Hogwarts for his third year and it seems to be the only film in the series that I would always return to but I wasn't sure why but then last year I put it on again and it became clear to me it was the tone the subtlety of treatment the reality of the world and most importantly for me the score [Applause] there are a number of reasons why Azkaban is a departure but it can mostly be ascribed to a change in director Chris Columbus had decided to step back from directing the series was working on chamber of secrets so it fell to the creative team to find someone new Alfonso Cuaron was brought in to reimagine the cinematic world of Harry Potter this was a director whose previous high-profile films about children had not relied upon Hollywood cliches or archetypes but dealt instead with the emotional essence of being a child and dealing with growing up his approach to Azkaban was treated as a story about family relationships and love that happened to be set in a magical world instead of one driven by the magical elements he brought new artistic cinematic techniques designed longer more developed shots used a darker colour palette and daringly redesigned Hogwarts Hagrid's hut was moved he added the footbridge and shot the outdoor scenes in Glencoe and Loch Ness he wanted the world to feel more real more alive and more connected to nature and you can see this clearly in the way the quarren jumps forward in time by using the transition from season to season this naturalistic approach and the shift in a visual landscape though had to be accompanied by a shift in the sonic landscape John Woo names his scores for the first two films were used primarily to embody the fantasy elements of the world to act as an accompaniment to anything magical that was happening on-screen he used a number of light motifs musical ideas that are associated with a character feeling or event the scores for these two films were mainly in one style late romantic orchestral music inspired by composers like Korngold Marla and Tchaikovsky but this wouldn't work when paired with Cuaron's approach for prisoner of azkaban Williams stripped back his motifs for the third film the only idea that was reused more than once was Hedwig's theme and a variant of it in the form of double trouble and he introduced only a small number of new motifs but the largest changed that Williams made was to produce music in a number of different styles the score still relies heavily on romantic orchestral music but it also uses experimental jazz for the night bus sequence avant-garde orchestral music for the Dementors and the Boggart choral music to represent the Patronus charm and a medieval ensemble to accompany scenes in and around Hogwarts this was to move in line with Korins desire to make the world more realistic the music was also designed by Williamson Quarren to serve the action not merely accompany it and with the shift to longer more developed sequences Williams had to create musical ideas that could be drawn out and then matched the emotional and physical way to the visuals this is demonstrated perfectly in buck beats flight the music in this sequence is harmonic and rhythmical shifts are all designed to carefully reflect the visual cues throughout it begins with thunderous timpani and tom toms to match the beating of buck beaks whose then an ascending string line as they take off followed by rising horn and woodwind lines the saw in tune in F minor that we then hear feels almost weightless with the strings gliding above the rhythmical patterns in the woodwind and brass but the music shifts even higher into B minor up an Augmented fourth then into C minor up a semitone then is Buckbeak heads down towards the lake the score moves to music with faster subdivisions as well as a much faster harmonica rhythm the chords change every bar now from D flat major to B minor to F sharp minor to C sharp minor and so on the unsettled nature of the music gives the feeling of joyous Restless energy then as Harry stretches out his arms we return to the opening melody now an E minor this is the first time Harry has felt free he's experiencing complete freedom and complete joy finally as they float back to the ground we then hear descending lines in the woodwind and percussion [Music] leading to the B major tonality that finishes the sequence the music in the scene allows you to feel the action instead of just looking at it it allows you to experience what Harry is experiencing this focus on the literal and the weight that is placed on creating a living cinematic world in Azkaban leads to some incredibly inventive musical features the most prominent of these is the use of digesting or source music musical features as part of the world instead of being part of the accompanying incidental music that makes up the score perhaps the most interesting example happens right at the beginning of the film when art Marge is visiting the Dursleys and is literally blown up by Harry as Aunt Marge starts to slowly expand we here at chirpy waltz in G major when she eventually floats away the waltz finishes on a bombastic G major chord it then cuts straight away to Dudley fixated on the Boram dances on the TV or we hear la cumparsita a tango played in g minor the camera then shifts to Harry who storms up to his bedroom slams the door and we hear a gentle tune played on a Celeste in G minor the continuity of harmonic language here the fact that all the ideas of in g major or g minor is so subtle but crucial as it provides a link between the incidental and the diegetic music from the absurdist visuals of Aunt March flying off back into the real world back inside the house into Harry's mind enough so when we see Harry looking longingly at the photograph of his parents this moment of deep sadness and fragility has felt even more acutely this theme this motif which is introduced for the first time here is the most important musical idea in the whole of Prisoner of Azkaban and perhaps John Williams his finest in all of his output this is a window to the past although I think of it more as a theme of longing a family and of love the Prisoner of Azkaban is ultimately a narrative journey harry's learning to embrace the reality of the death of his parents but has also coming to terms with his relationship with Sirius Black this melodic theme therefore has to develop with the shift in Harry's under as he learns the truth and John Williams does this in a very intelligent way through instrumentation a window to the past is first played by the Celeste the bell-like instrument that was famously used for Hedwig steep but the second time we hear it it's played by a recorder accompanied by the harp and eventually strings and a nova a softer sound of the recorder lends a more plaintive grounded feel to the melody it's tinged with nostalgia but there was a warmth that was missing from the first time we heard the motif we their neighbor played by the clarinet followed by the flute the second time Lupin discusses Harry's past with him leading naturally into the soft horn rendition of the tune as Harry looks out on his friends leaving for hogs meet the horn version seems to be a direct evolution of the version played by the recorder it feels like the motif is building and growing but although the Association hasn't been made yet the horn version will eventually come to represent much more than loss or sadness Harry will ultimately use his longing for love and connection to give him strength strength will allow him to battle inner pain as well as to overcome the physical challenges he will face in the form of the Dementors the Patronus charm the only spell the considered Dementor requires a memory of intense happiness so when Harry uses the memory of his parents to conjure the charm we hear the most triumphant version of a window to the past [Applause] ecstatic horns playing on top of a rich coral texture this is also mirrored when harry conjures the Patronus to save Sirius and his past self by the lake the final time we hear the melody is during Harry's last conversation with Sirius in the film The Longest rendition of the motif it starts off being played by the recorder but this is followed directly by a version played by horns [Music] the progress of the motif throughout the whole of the film is being mapped here from the first floor and ition during harry's conversation with Lupin on the bridge to the climactic conclusion by the lake but importantly this rendition of the melody is not the same as the beginning it has now been expanded and developed and is eventually taken over by the full orchestra the evolution of the idea is now complete marking Harry's full understanding of the truth and his realization that love has a transformative power even in the face of sometimes overwhelming darkness [Music] I really think this film is a masterpiece of visual and audio design and I hope you agree and I also hope you enjoyed my analysis at the school if you have a particular film score in mind that you would like me to analyze then please do let me know in the comments below see you next time [Music]

Channel: Listening In

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Keywords: The Prisoner of Azkaban - Harry Potter Score, The Prisoner of Azkaban John Williams, Azkaban score, Prisoner of azkaban music, John Williams Harry Potter, Azkaban John Williams, Azkaban Williams, Harry Potter Williams, Williams Potter, Harry Potter music, Harry Potter score, The prisoner of azkaban score, John Williams, John Williams Alfonso Cuarón, Alfonso Cuarón, Listening in, Why Prisoner of Azkaban's Score is the Best in the Series

Id: iGN_5oNla_8

Length: 10min 10sec (610 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 26 2019