About the Soundtrack: Nicholas Hooper returns for a second turn on the Harry Potter series with his soundtrack for
The Half-Blood Prince. Just like all Potter scores, this is a soundtrack release that creates a bit of a buzz in the film music community. On
The Half-Blood Prince, there are 28 cues on the soundtrack and the music follows the film's sequential order for the most part. The only slight variation is the inclusion of nicely placed bonus tracks that didn't make it into the film but are included on the soundtrack
What You Need to Know: As long as everyone can accept that John Williams is no longer the composer who is working on the Harry Potter series, than you'll have a better chance of freely enjoying the music of The Half-Blood Prince. It's a score that has the signature of Nicholas Hooper and not of John Williams, and there's a distinct difference. Mostly, this difference is in the manner of storytelling that's afoot in these later Potter films. While I am no expert on the book and just a general follower of the movies, it's not hard to see that the characters growth requires more and more of a refined, subtle scoring approach. That's what Hooper did in The Order of the Phoenix and what he does similarly in The Half-Blood Prince (though the latter offers a bit more in the way of enthusiastic splendor).
Listening to the Half-Blood Prince, I couldn't help but notice that there is a subtle harmony about the way the music develops. Nicholas Hooper was right when he stated that this is a score that develops its themes over the duration of the album, and specifically, in its latter half. Overall, there is an inner-beauty to this score that may require a couple of listens for it to thrive with you, but rest assured, the magic is there. Case in point is the full choral piece early in the album, which plays beautifully here on the soundtrack.
One of the top cues on here is less subtle and more triumphant, and that would be the track of Ron's Victory, which is one case where Hooper does indeed represent Williams' writing in full. It is a hard charging, determined piece of music that makes full use of its 2 minute running time and makes for a faithful interpretation. I also enjoyed the Jazz number on Track 6 quite a bit and absolutely loved the uplifting charm of the final cue, The Beasley Stomp. It seems to me that Hooper is at his best when his music is more expressive and colorful and the tracks I just mentioned back that up.
In all, while I do miss some of the classic Potter themes and wish they could have been utilized a bit more in these new movies, I do feel that Hooper has done an excellent job in composing The Half-Blood Prince. It's a score that has a very even keel to it with just enough bursts of energy to keep the momentum progressing onward.
