Today, we'll be exploring music from the world of Harry Potter. The first part of the lesson has music from the first book, and the second part has music from the movies. Enjoy!
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Music from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone
Let's start out by looking at instances of music from the first book, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. This is music the characters themselves hear or make.
We'll focus on 3 instances of music within the book:
The Sorting Hat's Song
Singing the School Song
The flute that Hagrid gave Harry
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When students first arrive at Hogwarts, the Sorting Hat doesn’t just sort them into houses—it SINGS. Why do you think Hogwarts would use a song instead of a speech?
Possibly because it's:
Easier to remember
More entertaining
More magical
Songs help us remember information. Songs are sometimes more fun and more interesting than talking. And depending on the song's musical techniques, it can convey a particular emotion or feeling — such as making something feel magical.
What are some songs that have helped you memorize something? Examples include:
The Alphabet Song
church hymns
patriotic songs
jingles on commercials
Scripture songs
Presidents, states, or countries
Music reaches a different part of our brain and allows us to remember things for longer.
What do you do when you come across a made-up song like this in a book? Do you make up a tune for it and try to sing it instead of reading it like a poem?
The singing sorting hat was not included in the movie. But, here are a couple of versions that some have made up for how it might have sounded. Which one matches most what you heard in your mind?:
Activity: Compose Your Own Tune
If you were to compose a version of the Sorting Hat's Song, would it sound:
mysterious?
funny?
scary?
serious?
magical?
Do that now!
Hogwarts School Song
The next part in the book was a song sung by the whole school. They sang the Hogwarts School Song. Does your school or homeschool have a school song?
Many schools, especially colleges, do. Schools use school songs to help build community. You may have heard the school song from the musical and movie Wicked “Dear Old Shiz” which is beautifully sung here:
And, I wanted to play you the school song from my college, Baylor University, which is called “That Good Old Baylor Line.”
It says in the book that Dumbledore instructed the students to simply pick their favorite tune, as he conjured up an animated ribbon from the tip of his wand to write the lyrics in the air. This led to everyone finishing at different times. Fred and George Weasley, who chose to sing the song as slow as a funeral march, were the very last to finish.
What do you think it would sound like if everyone sang the same song but to a different melody or tune, and a different tempo or speed?”
Would that sound beautiful? Or maybe it would sound terrible?
The Composer Charles Ives
There is a famous American composer named Charles Ives who composed music like this. He loved to hear marching bands in his small Connecticut town. Maybe you've gone to a parade and heard a marching band play. Sometimes Charles could still hear the band that had just marched away, playing one tune, as another band approached, playing another tune.
So, he decided to write music that sounded like that. Let's listen to “Country Band March.” Listen to it here:
Do you think that sounded good? Why or why not? Would you listen to this music for fun?
Musical Texture
What we've just been talking about is called musical texture. It's telling you how many layers you find in a piece of music or in a song. One way to describe texture is to say, “How many sounds happen at once?”
A thin texture would have only one singer or one instrument. A thick texture might be a full choir or an orchestra or band. A Chaotic texture might have many unrelated sounds all at the same time: such as the way Dumbledore instucted the Hogwarts' School Song to be sung or Charles Ives' “Country Band March.”
Harry’s Flute from Hagrid
Now, onto our third musical moment in the book. Harry got a flute from Hagrid, which helped him with something important. I won't tell you what, so I won't spoil it. You'll have to read the book!
Flutes are among the OLDEST instruments in the world.
Archeologists have discovered flutes made from bone that are thousands of years old. Flutes can also be made from wood, reeds, bamboo, metal, and plastic. They can be played horizontally (like a flute in an orchestra) or vertically (like a recorder).
They can be blown into (like the recorder) or blown across the top (like a wooden pan flute from Peru). All flutes are cylindrical and have holes in them that you cover to make different pitches, or they are different sizes, as the case with the pan flute.
Listen to Some Different Flutes
Orchestral flute
Pan flute
An ancient instrument with many tubes
Wooden Irish flute
Gentle sound
Piccolo
Tiny, very high pitches
Sound Activity
Find an empty bottle that has a narrow opening. Blow across the bottle's top to discover a new sound!
Creative Activity
Design your Homeschool Song! Choose the title, mood, tempo (speed), lyrics (words), melody (tune), and instruments (optional).
Would your homeschool song sound more like…
A) Hogwarts chaos OR
B) Charles Ives chaos OR
C) Something fun or peaceful instead?
Closing of Music from the Harry Potter Books
Today we learned that music in Harry Potter isn’t only movie music.
We discovered:
Songs tell stories
School songs to build community
Music helps memory
Texture means different layers of a piece of music
Composers sometimes write beautiful chaos on purpose
Flutes are a very old instrument and can be made of many different materials
Tomorrow, we’ll move on to the MOVIES and discover how the composer John Williams created the sound of magic through the music he wrote.
Magical Movie Music of John Williams
How does movie music create wonder, mystery, excitement, and magic?
Let's learn about:
Film scores
Composer
Leitmotif
Instrumentation
Celesta
Orchestra and families of instruments
Mood in music
We’re going to discover how a composer can make us think of magic, castles, flying broomsticks, and heroic adventure using only SOUND.
The Composer: John Williams
The composer who created the music for the first three Harry Potter movies is one of the most famous movie composers ever.
His name is John Williams. He was born in 1932, and he's still alive. He also wrote film scores for other famous movies such as Star Wars, Jaws, E.T., Jurassic Park, Superman, Home Alone, and Indiana Jones.
What Is a Film Score?
A Film Score is music written especially for a movie.
Imagine watching a movie such as Harry Potter with NO music.”
No flying music. No suspense. No magical sounds.
Would the movie feel the same? Definitely not!
Hedwig’s Theme
Listen to Hedwig’s Theme.
How does this music feel? Magical, unsettled, mysterious, curious, exciting, calm?
Musical Elements
Let's talk about some musical elements that film composers consider when trying to convey the story and emotions through the music.
Melody is the tune. It's what you would hum or sing.
The melody of Hedwig's Theme jumps around instead of moving smoothly. That makes it feel unpredictable and gives a feeling of unpredictability.
Dynamics are the loudness or softness of the music.
Starts quietly and grows louder. This helps build suspense.
Tempo is the speed of the music.
Hedwig's Theme has a moderate speed (not too slow and not too fast), which gives it a floating feeling.
Instrumentation means which instruments the composer chooses
Williams chose a celesta for Hedwig's Theme. The celesta is one of the MOST important instruments in Harry Potter music. It looks like a piano with a keyboard of black and white keys, but it sounds like bells.
Look at a picture of it here:
Let me play it again. What does this sound make you think of? Maybe snow, stars, fairies? It's also played at the beginning of “The Sugar Plum Fairy” in The Nutcracker.
Instrument families of the orchestra:
Strings
The violins create a sense of flight, suspense, and excitement. Listen to how they go fast, up, and down, and up, and down. You can definitely feel it giving off the image of Hedwig the owl or broomsticks flying around.
Brass
The French horns give a Heroic sound and a sense of Adventure.
Percussion
Drums, such as timpani drums, provide power and are often used in the scarier parts of the movie. They can help convey action, danger, or even heroism.
What Is a Leitmotif?
A leitmotif is a short musical idea connected to a character, place, object, or feeling in a movie. It's also called a motif, motive, or a theme.
For example, when you hear the “Imperial March” played in Star Wars, you know it's about Darth Vader.
Many composers use leitmotifs because they help us connect more with the story. In the Harry Potter movies, Hedwig’s Theme begins as Hedwig’s music but gradually comes to represent Harry, Hogwarts, and magic itself.
Music Affects Meaningin Movies
Let's listen to some other Harry Potter movie music that describes different types of scenes, and tell me what you think they make you think of.
Harry’s Wondrous World
The Quidditch Match
Create a Leitmotiffor You
If YOU had a musical theme to represent yourself, would it be: Fast? Slow? Major? Minor?
What instrument or instruments would play it:
Flute? Trumpet? Cello? Drums?
Now, Design Your Own Leitmotif
Choose one:
wizard
dragon
owl
mysterious castle
hero
Include:
melody
tempo
dynamics
mood
instuments
Final Wrap-Up for Music from Harry Potter
Students should know this vocabulary now:
Composer — person who writes music
Film score — music written for movies
Leitmotif — recurring theme connected to character/place/idea
Instrumentation — choice of instruments
Orchestra — large group of musicians
Another fun way to play the piece–on a washer & dryer
