Harry Potter & The Half Blood Prince Harry Potter & The Half-Blood Prince Soundtrack CD

Composer: John Williams .
Audio Mixer: Peter Cobbin.
Liner Note Authors: David Yates ; Nicholas Hooper.
Recording information: EMI Abbey Road Studios, London, England.
Nicholas Hooper's lively score for the sixth HARRY POTTER entry echoes some of the atmospheric work he did for the previous film, with some creative detours. The score takes a playful turn on the snaky, pseudo-Indian "Slug Party," and the swingin', brassy rhumba beat of "Wizard Wheezes," while the heraldic "The Story Begins," and the subtly powerful "Into the Rushes" hearken to more traditional symphonic soundtracks of masters like John Williams.
Composer Nicholas Hooper infused the sixth film in the Harry Potter series with much of the same utilitarian weight and whimsy that drove his work on 2007's Order of the Phoenix. As the third composer to be brought in to the world of Hogwarts, Hooper deftly balanced John Williams' original themes with those of his own creation, a track he continued to stroll down for 2009's Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. Unlike its predecessor, the Half Blood Prince score is nearly bereft of any of Williams' or Patrick Doyle's themes. Hooper treats the transitory story to a rather transitory score, opting for atmosphere over memorable melodies, but while it may not be the most glamorous of Potter scores (that would belong to 2003's Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban), like the story itself, it certainly gets the job done. ~ James Christopher Monger