Harry
Potter Theme Song Analysis
Of the several themes John Williams has
composed for the Harry Potter Film, “Hedwig’s Theme Song” is the most
prominent. Although this theme may originally have been intended only for
Harry’s pet snowy owl named Hedwig, its pervasiveness throughout the film
captures much of the general air of mystery and wonder that a child like Harry
would feel in becoming part of a world filled with wizards, witches, and magic.
The concert version of Hedwig’s Theme actually incorporates two themes:
Hedwig’s Theme and the Flying Theme (or “Nimbus 2000”, the name of Harry’s
broomstick). Hedwig’s Theme breaks down into two closely related sections I
simply call A and B.
Below is my film music analysis in which I take
a look at some of the musical techniques Williams uses to convey the feeling of
magic and mystery associated with the world of Harry Potter.
The A section
Orchestration:
Probably the most
distinctive feature of the first A section is its orchestration. It opens with
a solo that combines synthesized and real sounds of the celeste, a keyboard
instrument whose keys strike metal bars that sound like small bells. Because
the celeste is not exactly an everyday instrument, it has something of an
ethereal sound, all the more so in Hedwig’s Theme since the sound is
electronically manipulated and therefore literally unreal. But at the same
time, the celeste is associated with the imaginative world of children
primarily through the “Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy” from Tchaikovsky’s
ballet, The Nutcracker, whose fanciful creatures are presented through a
young girl’s dream.
Harmony: Harmonically, Hedwig’s Theme
is essentially in the key of E minor, but the chord progressions are anything
but typical for a minor key. As shown in the example below, the first two bars
of the theme outline the E minor chord, and the bass extends the E into bar 5,
all of which clearly establishes the key. But in bar 6, we get a very strange
chord:
Taken
together, the notes of bar 6 are B-D#-F-A#, which is similar to E minor’s
dominant seventh chord, B-D#-F#-A. Had Williams given us the actual dominant
seventh, the music would have been within the realm of the ordinary. But by
substituting F# with F, and A with A#, he instead creates a chord that cannot
be fully explained, much like the workings of a wizard’s magic.
As
shown in the example below, bars 9 and 10 of the theme return to the original E
minor chord along with the same opening melody. But in bars 11-12, the music
suddenly heads in a new direction, sounding out three more minor chords that
bear no relation to one another. The resulting sound isn’t just unusual. Since
the progression is inexplicable, it creates an aura of wonder as well, a
perfect musical accompaniment for a world of magic and mystery. Indeed,
Williams even writes “Mysterioso” at the start of the score.
Williams
has used a series of minor chords before to accompany similarly mysterious
circumstances: the opening scene of E.T., when the aliens are collecting samples
of the Earth’s plant life and we are unsure at this point whether or not these
aliens are friendly, and in Raiders of the Lost Ark as the theme for
the Ark itself, whose divine source of power is shrouded in mystery. Hear these
two passages below (from the start of each clip).
In Hedwig’s Theme, after the string of minor chords,
Williams ends the section with two chords (see above musical example). Most
themes or sections of themes usually close with two cadence chords: dominant
and tonic, in that order. In Hedwig’s Theme, we do end on the tonic (in the
last bar above) but the chord preceding it is not the dominant, it is the
dominant of the dominant, which leads us to expect the dominant chord
next. Instead, Williams heads straight into the tonic. This ousting of the
usual dominant chord shifts the sound of the cadence out of the ordinary world
and moves it into the realm of the strange and ethereal.
Melody: Below is
the melody for the entire A section of Hedwig’s Theme, which itself divides
into two phrases.
While
the first five bars are entirely in the key of E minor, the sixth bar
introduces a note foreign to it— F natural, which is the lowered form of scale
degree 2. As we saw, this note is part of the strange dominant-like harmony of
the bar, but at the same time it also creates odd-sounding intervals in the
melody. With the previous D# the F takes the minor third we would have had and
“squashes” it into a diminished third, and with the following B it “squashes” a
perfect fifth into a diminished fifth (or tritone). These same intervals are
also heard at the end of the A section in bars 13-15, now with an extra
intervening note:
Both of the A section’s phrases therefore end with these
strange intervals, which helps impart an air of mystery to the theme.
Another
note foreign to E minor that Williams introduces is A#, the raised fourth scale
degree (#4), which first appears in the melody in bar 13. Notice that this note
comes a half step (or semitone) down from the preceding B, which is scale degree
5. This kind of semitone motion from 5 to #4 in a minor key is another musical
feature that has associations with mystery. Saint-Saëns’ famous piece,
“Aquarium” from Carnival of the Animals, is a prime example. The melody’s
swaying back and forth from 5 to #4 in minor certainly creates a strange and
mysterious aura. I would also point out that the melody of the A section uses
all twelve notes of the chromatic scale, and so in an abstract way could
indicate that wizards and witches can inhabit both the non-magical world of
muggles (or non-magical folk, as represented by a “normal” E minor scale) and
the supernatural world of magic (as represented by all the other notes outside
the E minor scale).
Rhythm and Meter: Many of Williams’
themes for blockbuster action films are marches, which are always set in a two-
or four-beat meter. Hedwig’s Theme is different, however, because it is set in
a three-beat meter, which creates an entirely different feel. In the moderate
waltz-like tempo of the theme, the three-beat meter evokes a feeling of
elegance and grace that befits a wizard’s ability to get out of many jams
quickly and easily with, for instance, the simple casting of a spell. But at
the same time, this triple time creates a lightness and buoyancy in the music,
a floating quality that captures the feeling of taking to the air, as wizards
so often do.
The B Section
The B section of Hedwig’s Theme shares many of the musical
features of the A section: it is exactly the same 16-bar length, it retains the
same orchestration in the celeste, and it closes with virtually the same 6-bar
passage. Here is the entire B section:
But
there are some significant changes in the B section as well. For example, the
harmonies at the start of bars 20 and 22 are from a family of chords known as
“augmented sixths”, which tend to have an unearthly sound when paired with a
sustained tonic note (pedal point) in the bass, as here. Again, Saint-Saëns’
“Aquarium” is another well known example of this.
The
melody of the B section differs from that of the A section in that it does not
sound the tonic of E minor until the very last note, instead hovering mainly
around its dominant note. Since the dominant is the fifth note of the scale, it
is, in a sense, “high up” from the “ground” tonic note with which the theme
began. Williams’ avoidance of the tonic therefore gives the theme a feeling of
being suspended in the air like a wizard on his broomstick.
Repetitions of Hedwig’s Theme: Both the
A and B sections are repeated, then the A is stated one last time before the
piece moves into the “Nimbus 2000” theme. With the first repetition of A,
Williams adds a prominent figure of rapid scales in the strings, harp, and
celeste that paints a more vivid musical picture of the sorts of aerobatics
that wizards, witches, and their owls engage in. The last repetition of the A
section continues this rushing figure in the strings but now sounds the melody
more powerfully in the French horns. In the Harry Potter films, this
strong scoring of the melody in the horns is appropriately associated with
views of the Hogwarts School, which is housed in an impressive and imposing
castle.
Hedwig’s
Theme is one of the more flexible themes in Williams’ oeuvre as it does not represent
a single specific character or thing the way, say, the Imperial March
represents Darth Vader and the Empire. Instead, Hedwig’s Theme seems to
represent the world of wizards and magic more generally. But even so, because
the theme is usually heard in the films when Harry is the focus of attention,
it may well be thought of as mainly representing the magical world as seen
through Harry’s eyes. This would explain the childlike sense of wonder heard in
the ethereal sounds of the celeste, as well as the features that suggest
strangeness, mystery, and the magic of flight. Thus, as we have seen throughout
this series of posts, Williams creates his effect by aligning many different
aspects of the music towards a common expressive goal.
References:
