Sketches from the Wizarding World

I have several “projects” that are really just passing fancies. The problem (or is it a problem?) that they are recurring passing fancies.

One such idea is to arrange/orchestrate music from all the Harry Potter films, incorporating three composers’ contributions into one comprehensive suite. Imagine John Williams doing Patrick Doyle’s themes. Imagine the opening from Hedwig’s Theme (I truly hate it when albums refer to a suite as a theme) leading seamlessly into the theme from Prisoner of Azkaban. Imagine the options you’d have writing a suite of all six films’ scores. Heck, I’d even include Jeremy Soule’s (surprisingly good) material from the video games.

I love me some continuity, and it would be great to really unite all the Harry Potter music more closely. I’ve been listening to all six (at the time of this post) scores a lot lately, hearing all kinds of possibilities for development, especially with some of the lesser recognized moments in Nicholas Hooper’s scores (the fifth and sixth films) in particular.

Another approach would be to compose “tone poems” for specific locations, from Diagon Alley to Godric’s Hollow, from Hogsmeade to the floo network itself. This would yield a series of at least a dozen brief sketches.

Either way, how would you go about it? What themes would you develop and how? What lesser-known moments in any of the scores would you flesh out or tie into others? There’s so much material available to use…