A Harry Potter Music Lesson

Click here for Your Personalized Music & Fine Arts Path!:

0 Shares

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!

Disclosure: I get commissions for purchases made through affiliate links in this post.

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

The Sorting Hat Song

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.

The Sorting Hat‛s First Song

Find the lyrics to The Sorting Hat's first song here.

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.”

Hoggy Warty Howarts

Hogwarts has a school song, too.

Find the lyrics to “Hoggy Warty Hogwarts” here.

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.