Amazon.com's Best of 2001

You needn't see the film of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone to appreciate the wonder, magic, and fearful chills of J.K. Rowling's phenomenal bestseller in John Williams's outstanding score. Williams typically avoids the source material for the films he scores, but he reportedly derived great pleasure and inspiration from Rowling's first Harry Potter adventure, and created a perfect motif (fully expressed in "Hedwig's Theme") to dominate his score. It's first heard as a dreamy celesta waltz and embellished through myriad incarnations and moods, often with a sinister edge befitting the darker tones of Chris Columbus's direction. Evident are fantastical allusions to Saint-Saëns and Tchaikovsky (among others), and Williams's epic track is "Quidditch Match," a breathtaking frenzy to accompany the film's dazzling highlight. And while Williams occasionally flirts with self-plagiarism (with inevitable variants of his Hook and Star Wars themes), this is nevertheless a richly regal score that brilliantly evokes the mystery and magic of Harry Potter's world. --Jeff Shannon

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Discs and Tracks

Disc 1
  1 - Prologue
  2 - The Arrival of Baby Harry
  3 - Visit to the Zoo and Letters from Hogwarts
  4 - Diagon Alley and The Gringotts Vault
  5 - Platform Nine-and-Three-Quarters and The Journey to Hogwarts
  6 - Entry into the Great Hall and The Banquet
  7 - Mr. Longbottom Flies
  8 - Hogwarts Forever! and The Moving Stairs
  9 - The Norwegian Ridgeback and A Change of Season
  10 - The Quidditch Match
  11 - Christmas at Hogwarts
  12 - The Invisibility Cloak and The Library Scene
  13 - Fluffy's Harp
  14 - In the Devil's Snare and The Flying Keys
  15 - The Chess Game
  16 - The Face of Voldemort
  17 - Leaving Hogwarts
  18 - Harry's Wondrous World
  19 - Hedwig's Theme

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