Track Listing

1. Lumos! (Hedwig's Theme)
2. Aunt Marge's Waltz
3. The Knight Bus
4. Apparition on the Train
5. Double Trouble
6. Buckbeak's Flight
7. A Window to the Past
8. The Whomping Willow and the Snowball Fight
9. Secrets of the Castle
10. The Portrait Gallery
11. Hagrid the Professor
12. Monster Books and Boggarts!
13. Quidditch, Third Year
14. Lupin's Transformation and Chasing Scabbers
15. The Patronus Light
16. The Werewolf Scene
17. Saving Buckbeak
18. Forward to Time Past
19. The Dementors Converge
20. Finale
21. Mischief Managed!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #14814 in Music
• Released on: 2004-05-25
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Enhanced, Soundtrack

Album Description
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.

Amazon.com
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

Customer Reviews

The best Harry Potter soundtrack, so far
This is the only HP soundtrack I can listen to over and over again without getting sick of it. It's got the familiar "Hedwig's Theme", plus the wickedly fun "Aunt Marge's Waltz" and the hold-on-to-your-hats "The Knight Bus" and "Buckbeak's Flight". My favorite track, though, is probably "Mischief Managed", which incorporates nearly all the previous tracks in reverse order. Love it!

Magic!
This is a great Soundtrack! I think it's the most interesting from the whole Harry Potter series up to now.

The Great John Williams has done a really good work.

Starting from the main Hedwige's Theme, the listener can live an hour of full amazing entertainment. From Middle Age stiled music, to modern clustered chilling choir harmonies, to exciting rythms and romance... This is CD, trust me, is the real Magic! ;-)

Soundtrack Perfection?
After listening to this soundtrack again and again and again...I ask myself; How much better can it get?

Truth be told, there isn't much room between this and divinity. John Williams delivered a soundtrack that defies possibility (mysterious, emotional, dark, sweeping, epic, funny....)

He keeps some music from the first two, yet incorporates more themes and styles that add much more to the score. "Buckbeak's Flight" is beautiful, a perfect illustration of the scene in the film. "A Window to the Past" is a very good theme, and is incredibly effective when it is layered with the Patronus theme in "Finale."

And the underlying theme for me- the one that appears throughout the score, being played in different styles and by different instruments- is "Double Trouble." I don't know how many times I've found myself whistling or humming it because it's always in my head. Not because it's annoying (like "Its a Small World) but because it's so darn good.

So is it perfect? They say nothing is, so I'll suffice to say that this is about as close as it gets.