John Williams

[Sea Change]

Lizzie Snape wrote:

 
> Since we're discussing the movie music I have a question.  On the CofS soundtrack CD it 
says 'Music composed by John Williams,' followed by 'Music adapted . . . by William Ross.'   
Exactly what does 'music adapted' mean and why would they do that?  All the others 
(except GofF of course) are 'composed and conducted by John Williams.'

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Sea Change replies:

There's no way to be sure offhand.  In Prisoner of Azkaban, the scene with the bluebird 
getting eaten by the Whomping Willow is a pretty direct steal from Tchaikovsky, and 
therefore is an 'adaptation'.  Similarly the shawm music for the Headless Hunt is not really 
original as it is written in a very close style to some traditional English stuff.  There could 
have been something in CofS like this, or we can speculate wildly...

 John Williams may have not wanted to write something that the director wanted to be 
written, and so they had someone else adapt his style in certain scenes, because they 
could, or...

A scene may have changed very late in the film, after the contract for the music was paid 
for and was fulfilled, and they didn't want to pay him for the new music, or...

Something else.  There's no way of knowing without doing a little snooping.



Sea Change, who notes that this is how rumors get started