Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)

British composer Nicholas Hooper and British director David Yates have a track record of successful collaboration. The pair worked together on the Brit TV series, The Girl In the Café and the feature film, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and the score that Hooper composed for the Yates-directed Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is excellent. The album’s second cut, “In Noctem,” a choral piece featuring Latin lyrics, includes musical material that reappears throughout the score. (In the film, “In Noctem” is heard over the closing credits.) The soundtrack is both varied and thoroughly cohesive. One striking cue is “Inferi In the Firestorm,” where Hooper turns to the dissonance of the Second Viennese School of Schoenberg, et al, for inspiration. By contrast, “When Ginny Kissed Harry,” which accompanies a key moment in the narrative, is romantic in flavor. “Wizard Wheezes,” a big band-style workout, did not appear in the movie, but nicely fits into the album’s flow. And “The Weasley Stomp,” a lively orchestral dance with gorgeous timbres, is a nice send-off.