JW is… JW nobody ever did it better with all due respect. His music has such immediate recognizable qualities yet being quite complex for something like movie music. Another great video. Thank you
Nice work! Completely understand how hard/time-consuming/frustrating it can be to reverse engineer action cues like this. I've wanted to see this cue done for quite a while. I see the "Flying Car Theme" and "Panic Motif" as polar opposites of each other. I think one of the most effective aspects here is how much Williams uses each theme - towards the beginning the "Flying Car Theme" dominates as we're enjoying the freedom and the fun ride, but eventually the "Panic Motif", as well as those plonking chords at bar 69, begin to dominate the soundscape. I think this cue is also a great example of how to integrate old material in a sequel, though there are certainly parts of this film's score that don't do that. One thing I will comment on is that while yes, it's certainly likely that a bunch of this scene was cut out due to runtime, you tend to see often with more CGI-heavy sequences like this that a lot of Williams' music is cut out because the scene changes a lot from the early version he would have written this music to. Anyway, amazing stuff. If you're looking for more pain.. I'd love to see someone deconstruct "Cornish Pixies", or the Quidditch cues from either of the first two films, or anything from this film really! It's been covered so little. I might take a look at "Dueling the Basilisk" one day if I get around to it, though of course you should feel welcome to do it if you want! Side note: are you on discord?
Great point about certain melodic content being more saturated at different points throughout the cue. The original Quidditch music has been a work in progress for me since 2022, I'm fairly far long on the first two cues, but the thought of Slytherin Scores has made me consider my life choices. I've looked at both Cornish Pixies and Duelling the Basilisk (or "Dragon" as Williams calls it for some reason), but not started anything so we'll see. And yes I am on Discord, it's my gamer tag - I'll send you a friend request, I think we're in one or two of the same servers.
@@BenSmithFilm Dueling the Dragon is up there with ‘To Bangkok Palace’ from Temple of Doom in terms of confusing cue titles. The original quidditch music would make for a great video - Slytherin Scores is just Ludlow motif galore. For me, often the hardest part is starting it, then it gets easier from there.
I have to ask. How do you transcribe the notes and rhythms so accurately? Are you reading an actual or do you do all of this by ear? I, myself, have attempted to transcribe the scores from these movies by ear and you are definitely catching subtleties that I had never noticed before.
Usually I reduce from the score, if I ever don’t (either a whole cue or if parts of the music deviate from the score) I’ll make a note of that in my annotations.
@@BenSmithFilm Fascinating - so does that mean you have access to an actual score? The ones I have access to are published in the John Williams Signature Edition (Hal Leonard Publications) and do not include all tracks - so pieces such as The Flying Car are not in the score I have and I have to transcribe by ear.
Hi! Do you also take requests from viewers? If so, I have request for the next video. Can you do "Bad Dates" score reduction and analysis from Raiders of the Lost Ark? :)
As impressive as these kind of compositions are, at a certain point it just starts to sound like noise and meaningless gibberish to me. Without a movie to accompany, it basically just comes off as a schizophrenic person
JW puts so many composers to shame with his skill in creating texture. aMAAAAAAAZing work, Ben!!!
JW is… JW nobody ever did it better with all due respect. His music has such immediate recognizable qualities yet being quite complex for something like movie music. Another great video. Thank you
3:00 Goosebumps every time! I still think the first two HP movies are among Williams' best works.
Incredible 🫡🎉❤️🔥❤️🔥
I have chills, love your videos
Incredible writing from JW, and terrific work from you! 👏
your account is so incredible i cannot thank you enough for your vids
Nice work! Completely understand how hard/time-consuming/frustrating it can be to reverse engineer action cues like this. I've wanted to see this cue done for quite a while. I see the "Flying Car Theme" and "Panic Motif" as polar opposites of each other. I think one of the most effective aspects here is how much Williams uses each theme - towards the beginning the "Flying Car Theme" dominates as we're enjoying the freedom and the fun ride, but eventually the "Panic Motif", as well as those plonking chords at bar 69, begin to dominate the soundscape. I think this cue is also a great example of how to integrate old material in a sequel, though there are certainly parts of this film's score that don't do that.
One thing I will comment on is that while yes, it's certainly likely that a bunch of this scene was cut out due to runtime, you tend to see often with more CGI-heavy sequences like this that a lot of Williams' music is cut out because the scene changes a lot from the early version he would have written this music to.
Anyway, amazing stuff. If you're looking for more pain.. I'd love to see someone deconstruct "Cornish Pixies", or the Quidditch cues from either of the first two films, or anything from this film really! It's been covered so little. I might take a look at "Dueling the Basilisk" one day if I get around to it, though of course you should feel welcome to do it if you want! Side note: are you on discord?
Great point about certain melodic content being more saturated at different points throughout the cue. The original Quidditch music has been a work in progress for me since 2022, I'm fairly far long on the first two cues, but the thought of Slytherin Scores has made me consider my life choices. I've looked at both Cornish Pixies and Duelling the Basilisk (or "Dragon" as Williams calls it for some reason), but not started anything so we'll see. And yes I am on Discord, it's my gamer tag - I'll send you a friend request, I think we're in one or two of the same servers.
@@BenSmithFilm Dueling the Dragon is up there with ‘To Bangkok Palace’ from Temple of Doom in terms of confusing cue titles. The original quidditch music would make for a great video - Slytherin Scores is just Ludlow motif galore. For me, often the hardest part is starting it, then it gets easier from there.
This job is just a-ma-zing!
I have to ask. How do you transcribe the notes and rhythms so accurately? Are you reading an actual or do you do all of this by ear? I, myself, have attempted to transcribe the scores from these movies by ear and you are definitely catching subtleties that I had never noticed before.
Usually I reduce from the score, if I ever don’t (either a whole cue or if parts of the music deviate from the score) I’ll make a note of that in my annotations.
@@BenSmithFilm Fascinating - so does that mean you have access to an actual score? The ones I have access to are published in the John Williams Signature Edition (Hal Leonard Publications) and do not include all tracks - so pieces such as The Flying Car are not in the score I have and I have to transcribe by ear.
@@hornguy04 I wonder the same thing. I'm sure it's a closely guarded secret, but how do you find all these scores?
@@ethanhayward9624Maybe he broke into John’s house
Hi! Do you also take requests from viewers? If so, I have request for the next video. Can you do "Bad Dates" score reduction and analysis from Raiders of the Lost Ark? :)
@@bartolomeomusic I’ll add it to my list.
@@BenSmithFilm Thanks! "Bad Dates" or "Indy Follows the Ark". Any of these. These are short motifs :)
Is it possible to access the analysis on paper?
I plan to make the PDFs available very soon. In the meantime you could just screen grab the stills from the video.
As impressive as these kind of compositions are, at a certain point it just starts to sound like noise and meaningless gibberish to me. Without a movie to accompany, it basically just comes off as a schizophrenic person
Well, they certainly are not to be taken as standalone pieces