Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
List Price:
Our Price: $14.99
You Save: $3.99 (21%)
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Buy Used: from $3.85 (click here)
Category: Music CD
See more CD details
Buy this Music CD at online store in your country
Canadian Music Store
Canadian Music Store
CD Details
Composer: John WilliamsEdition: Music CD
Format: Enhanced, Soundtrack
CD Release Date: 2004-05-25
Music Label: Warner Bros. Pictures
Soundtracks:
- Lumos! (Hedwig's Theme)
- Aunt Marge's Waltz
- The Knight Bus
- Apparition on the Train
- Double Trouble
- Buckbeak's Flight
- A Window to the Past
- The Whomping Willow and the Snowball Fight
- Secrets of the Castle
- The Portrait Gallery
- Hagrid the Professor
- Monster Books and Boggarts!
- Quidditch, Third Year
- Lupin's Transformation and Chasing Scabbers
- The Patronus Light
- The Werewolf Scene
- Saving Buckbeak
- Forward to Time Past
- The Dementors Converge
- Finale
- Mischief Managed!
Music reviews of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Music Review: Hugely creative. The best of the Potter scores.
Rating: 5 Stars
The greatest thing about this soundtrack is the pure creativity that fuels the entire thing from start to finish. Williams did good work on the first two films, using all the expected instruments in the expected style for a fantasy film, and of course adding his magic touch to make it, well, magical. Here, he goes beyond what he did for the first two films.
The soundtrack starts off with Hedwig's Theme, which serves as the identity for the Harry Potter series. Anyone would have expected this. Then, in the second track, he does something different, and he writes a Tchaikovsky-esque comedy sequence that in the film, accompanies Aunt Marge's scene. This is a fun cue that for the most part is detached from the rest of the score, but it is hilarious and fits its part perfectly.
The next track, The Knight Bus, starts off with a bassoon solo that is a perfect fit for Stan Shunpike. Then suddenly, the track bursts into wild jazz, which is a perfect fit for the Knight Bus (sorry if I'm starting to sound like a broken record!). This track recalls a past Williams score, Catch Me If You Can.
The next major track, Double Trouble, contains the new major theme for Prisoner of Azakban, and again, it is something different: it takes Shakespeare lyrics and matches it with music that sounds almost Baroque. Thus, we have the first three major tracks that are Romantic, Jazz, and Baroque.
Then, we get into the heart of the soundtrack. Buckbeak's theme is soaring and gusty and wonderful, and rivals the music Williams wrote for E.T.'s flying scene oh so many years ago. Then, we are introduced to the other major theme of Prisoner of Azakban, a Window to the Past, which is played on some sort of flute or piccolo. It plainly speaks of solitude and love, and is one of the highlights of the score.
I could go on and on about every track, but that would make this review stupidly long. So, I'll just talk about one more track: Quidditch, Third Year. I can't even fathom how much inspiration must have been behind this track. The strings, winds, and brass are all in a flurry in this track. Basically, it is a fugue, with a main motif and a ton of highly complex music to go along with it. It's fun listening to it and trying to wrap your mind around everything that's happening. I'd be prepared to bet that Williams worked harder on the Quidditch scene, then the people in the Visual Effects department, and that's saying something.
Another highlight of the score is the little motif for Wormtail and Sirius Black. Simple but creepy, William employs it whenever Wormtail and/or Sirius are near.
Overall, Prisoner of Azakban is a highly effective score, and chock full of creativty, but also substance. If it has a weakness, it is that it doesn't use many of the great motifs that were used in the first two films, although I think this has much to do with the new director--I honestly can't imagine Voldemort's theme from the first film being used in Alfonso Cuaron's Harry Potter film. I wish this score had won the Oscar, but alas, Williams will have to win his sixth another time. Still, I can give this score a great recommendation.
Description of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Oscar and Grammy Award winning composer John William returns with an enchanted score inspired by the magic of the forthcoming summer blockbuster Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban. Always a hit with fans of the enormously successful Harry Potter films, as well as fans of John Williams -- one of the most popular and successful American orchestral composers of the modern age. Extras, enhanced with exclusive wallpaper and screensaver, flip book of stills from film, exclusive link to demo of new EA Harry Potter video game, Golden Ticket Contest: Winner receives trip to Hollywood to tour WB lot and museum, pull out poster.If the commercial constraints of genre and chronic Hollywood sequelitis threaten to musically straitjacket even a legend like John Williams, the veteran playfully rebuffs such cynicism in his rich, mirthful score for this third chapter of the Harry Potter cycle. Whether inspired by a willful desire not to repeat himself, the continued reinvention of his jazz roots that brightened his scores for Spielberg's Catch Me If You Can and The Terminal, or the story's requirement for a handful of fresh themes, Williams informs his work here with an often dizzying range. The warm mysticism of "Hedwig's Theme" and classical farrago of "Aunt Marge's Waltz" can scarcely prepare one for the swinging, off-kilter "Knight Bus," a romp that suggests a head-on collision between the big-band bombast of1941 and the loopy, Cantina Band kitsch of Star Wars. From there Williams skips back a half-millennium or so for inspiration, conjuring the ancient children's chorus "Double Trouble" (its text adapted from no less than MacBeth), a medieval theme that becomes one of the score's inspirational foundations. Those with a taste for the composer's patent orchestral thunder won't be disappointed either, as the Herrmann-influenced percussion/brass bombast of "Buckbeat's Flight" and "The Whomping Willow.." attest with rousing zeal. It's arguably Williams' best Potter score to date, a soundtrack whose inspirations sprawl across six centuries -- and as many disparate musical styles. Enhanced CD features include a photo gallery and exclusive computer wallpaper and screensaver files. -- Jerry McCulley
General CDs
Music Genres
Bestsellers in General CDs
Les Miserables 10th Anniversary ConcertRelease date: 2004-06-01; Music CD
Best price: $16.99
Price in other shops:
Original Soundtrack - Once: Music from the Motion PictureRelease date: 2007-05-22; Music CD
Best price: $8.16
Price in other shops:
Mamma Mia!Release date: 2008-07-08; Music CD
Best price: $8.00
Price in other shops:
Les Miserables Original London CastRelease date: 2004-06-01; Music CD
Best price: $17.84
Price in other shops:
Wicked (2003 Original Broadway Cast)WICKED; Release date: 2003-12-16; Music CD
Best price: $9.68
Price in other shops:
Slumdog MillionaireRelease date: 2008-12-21; Music CD
Best price: $6.00
Price in other shops:
David Foster & Friends - Hit Man: David Foster And Friends (CD/ DVD)Release date: 2008-11-11; Music CD
Best price: $17.32
Price in other shops:
Twilight: The ScoreRelease date: 2008-12-09; Music CD
Best price: $10.50
Price in other shops:
Twilight SoundtrackRelease date: 2008-11-04; Music CD
Best price: $7.98
Price in other shops:
Hannah Montana: The MovieRelease date: 2009-03-24; Music CD
Best price: $9.68
Price in other shops:
Similar CDs
Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's ChestPIRATES OF THE CARRIBEAN-DEAD MA; Release date: 2006-07-04; Music CD
Best price: $9.19
Price in other shops:
Harry Potter Schoolbooks: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them / Quidditch Through the Agesby J.K. Rowling
Arthur A. Levine Books; Published: 2001-11-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $8.96
Price in other shops:
The Tales of Beedle the Bard, Standard Editionby J. K. Rowling
Harper Collins Publishers; Children's High Level Group; Published: 2008-12-04; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $3.90
Price in other shops:
Pirates Of The Caribbean: At World's EndRelease date: 2007-05-22; Music CD
Best price: $12.51
Price in other shops:
Klaus Badelt - Pirates Of The Caribbean: The Curse Of The Black PearlRelease date: 2003-07-22; Music CD
Best price: $9.87
Price in other shops:
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Widescreen Edition)Warner Brothers; Release date: 2007-12-11; DVD
Best price: $5.88
Price in other shops:
Harry Potter and the Order of the PhoenixRelease date: 2007-07-10; Music CD
Best price: $6.19
Price in other shops:
Harry Potter and the Goblet of FireRelease date: 2005-11-15; Music CD
Best price: $6.63
Price in other shops:
John Williams - Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone - Original Motion Picture SoundtrackRelease date: 2001-10-30; Music CD
Best price: $4.39
Price in other shops:
John Williams, William Ross - Harry Potter and the Chamber of SecretsHARRY POTTER & THE CHAMBER OF SE; Release date: 2002-11-12; Music CD
Best price: $4.08
Price in other shops: