Goodbye Mr. Williams

Rating: 7/10 (6 January 2008)

I write this shortly after The Order of the Phoenix came out on DVD, so I'm going to dispense with commenting too much on the film itself because chances are most people already know what they think as far as this film goes.
I put this writing here because this is the first of the Harry Potter films for which John Williams has not done the music. He has also apparently bowed out from film #5 too. I wonder if he'll ever be back.
When I first saw this film, I actually stayed a long way through the end credits. A friend I went with asked why I was sitting around. I said, "I've got to know who did the music because it couldn't possibly be Williams." I was, of course, right.
I don't know why he's not doing it anymore. Maybe he overpriced himself. Maybe he's not getting along with the producers. Maybe he's too busy. Maybe he doesn't feel like it. Maybe he retired. It's as noticeable an absence as Richard Harris' Dumbledore, though. Williams has created a great deal of memorable film music which nearly everybody knows even if they don't know who wrote it.
He has always had a superb sense of what to do with an orchestra within the framework of films. The new people doing the soundtracks are adequate I suppose, but they lack the marvelous subtlety that Williams seems to pull off so effortlessly. I wish they'd get him back.