"Voldemort" - John Williams (Score Analysis & Reduction) 

John Williams’ dedication to showcasing the full ranges and capabilities of the instruments in his concert music is worth paying attention to, and I was hoping to shed some light on that here via the graph at the bottom of the video. The Y axis here indicates the full range of the bassoons, from low to high, with the black line indicating where exactly the instrument is playing within that range at any given time, averaged across all three bassoons. If you like weird music graphs and not being murdered by a Dark Lord, then consider becoming a member by clicking “JOIN” above. Memberships help support the channel, and grant you access to the downloadable analysis PDFs and members-only analysis videos.

On the third slide: “J.K. Rowling once stated that Voldemort prefers bassoonists, and sought to recruit many of them for his army of Death Eaters [...]” Wait, *what* ? Is this a serious remark or just another jolly example of JK "just kidding" Rowling?

biggest dissapointment during the HP movies for me was they totally forgot about Williams them for Voldemort after the 2nd movie. An iconic theme always gives the character even more atmosphere (*caughs in darth vader*). Except for the HP main theme the HP soundtracks turned out to be mostly generic and barely memorable after Williams left.

That connection to peter and the wolf at the end tho

Oh man this cue is incredible, the last page absolutely killed me, what a genius to do so much which relatively little

Yo omg! Just yesterday I dug this piece out and tried to analyze it which resulted in me thinking "Hey, too bad Brad didn't do a video on it yet". I'm happy as a child on christmas rn. Thanks for your efforts, m8!

Great analysis! Never heard of this, it isn't from the official OST right? Where can be found? Does it come from an album?

A bassoon choir is such a creative and brilliant way to contextualize this theme, John Williams is a genius!

The Tarnhelm motif inspired many of Williams' villain themes

video lenght: 2:30 video lenght when you try to understand and read all the stuff: 8 hours

Wonderful! I've been dying to hear the full suite

The new “Anthem of Evil” from Rise of Skywalker reminded me of this.

1:00 "The Imperial March" motif fragment

Would you consider analysing the Diagon Alley motif that appears in the first movie? Or perhaps Fluffy's Harp? And maybe Quidditch 3rd Year from The Prisoner of Azkaban Orchestral Suite? So much great music by Williams in the third movie. Thank you so much for your work, it's truly special and I can't wait to see more of your analyses :-)

At last, the contrabassoon and bassoon's time to shine 👍👍

Wolf's Theme by prokofiev... that's perfect!

Please do Leaving Hogwarts, that's possibly the best of the Soundtrack

As a former bassoonist, I find this piece fascinating. Thanks 😊

I’m getting The Elfking vibes from this

I finally heard the cue, "The Face of Voldemort" on my Spotify shuffle, and that theme was all over it once you get to the point of the big reveal of Voldemort on the other side of the guys head. I never would have caught that if not for this, so thank youuuu!!!!!!!

It’s very similar to the emperor theme from return of the Jedi

Where did you find a recording of this? I’ve never been able to find a recording of the complete children suite 😩

Now you just need to analyze The Face of Voldemort to get the best versions of his themes haha.

I know I may get hate for this, but the first two Harry Potter films are more memorable than the later films. The overall tone and music of the first two just fits a lot better in my opinion.

The augmented second (the B-flat going up to the C-Sharp) has me curious. Obviously the B-flat makes for the minor feel, so I'm curious as to the what the c-sharp is doing. Would it have mattered if John Williams respelled the C-sharp to a D-Flat?

Maybe it's just me, but I always find it funny comparing _The Sorcerer's Stone_ to _Voldemort._ One manages to use an orchestra to wring dread, terror, and suspense out just one motif...and then you have a colorful, fascinating (if somewhat over-the-top) collection of three motifs, brought to bizarre life by a bassoon trio to add a final splash of odd color to it all. John Williams' genius is as admirable as it is strange and unique.

Yas bassoons!!!!!! Bassoons rule!!!!

It does feel like a variation on the imperial March theme....

Wich program do you use for the graphics?

Thats great, and the bassoons match the music of this piece perfectly!

By the way, "vol de mort" is French for flight of death.

Isn't the main theme from the Beethoven piano sonata no. 32?

What a beautifully written piece of music.

JDubs knowledge of harmony and ability to cascade between polytonality yet still remaining harmonically relevant and character-driven will forever a be a musical gem worth studying for ages to come

very well done! i love the sound of the bassoons

Great video, I just wanted to know how you get the scores for the Harry Potter movies? Above all continue what you do.

Amazing video! Reminds me when I has to write Schenkerian Analysis at uni lol what do you use to write your music? Sibelius?

Do you know where I can find the pdf or the file of this cue? I really want to learn this!

You should do John Williams score of Lincoln. Malice towards none.

great work dude

No words. A very very very good job, thank you!

Omg, the content we need thanks

Ook!

Cool!

2:12 What's the title of this music?

That goes in so chunky I'll need an antacid tablet later.