Terribly good

I remember it like it was yesterday: Christmas 2002, Mattis is ten years old and has completely succumbed to Harry Potter-fever. Next year he will be eleven and will definitely get his letter to go to Hogwarts - because he has magical abilities. For example, he can turn on the TV at the touch of a button or knows when a traffic light turns green. Magic! And if that doesn't work out, perhaps a career as a Jedi or Super Saiyan is still on the cards.

So it was not surprising that The Chamber of Secrets was at the top of his wish list and yet surprising to find it under the Christmas tree from the (certainly existing) Christ Child. That very evening, after the dinner ceremony was finally over and all the presents had been joyfully unwrapped, I stormed into the cellar with my parents' reluctant permission and installed the game.

Other entries in the Harry Potter -series

Soundtrack

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (2001)

Soundtrack

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002)

Soundtrack

Harry Potter: Quidditch World Cup (2003)

The successor to The Philosopher's Stone was everything I could have imagined at the time. That wasn't much due to a lack of gaming experience, but the game fulfilled these expectations 100 percent: you could move around while casting spells, the world was bigger, the plot was more exciting and overall it was simply more Harry Potter. Even if the packaging once again featured screenshots of the Playstation version with no content and we never visit Diagon Alley or the foxhole in the PC version, I was happy.

The score

The fact that the game felt like a seamless sequel to the first installment was not least due to the soundtrack. This was once again created by Jeremy Soule and is similar to its predecessor in every respect. So that I don't repeat myself too much at this point, I recommend reading the review of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone as I mention many of the points there that also apply to The Chamber of Secrets . In fact, a few tracks from the predecessor can also be found in this score.

Thankfully, EA had released an OST that comes with 30 compact tracks and is incomprehensibly no longer for sale. For me as a completionist, this is of course not enough, which is why I also looked around for gamerips. Here, the usual problems for such collections come to light, problems that also plagued the first magical adventure: sometimes poor mixing, differences in the game versions and labeling as well as repeatedly appearing tracks make evaluation difficult. But well, that's my problem, you can now listen to my selection of the best tracks - and there are quite a few! But before I start, I'd like to point out a little nugget of knowledge that I found in my review of 2006's Prey.

Contrary to what I have written in many of my reviews of Jeremy Soule's scores, the compositions were recorded by a real orchestra, but not in the form that we hear in the game. This is because Soule worked with plugins and a self-created sound library, VST (Virtual Studio Technology) for short, which explains why many of his soundtracks sound so similar - after all, they are mostly the same set pieces, just arranged differently.

Reasons that speak against this form of composing can certainly be found somewhere, but for me there are no grounds for criticism - on the contrary. Working with samples is standard nowadays and was probably groundbreaking in terms of quality back then. And even if this makes some pieces sound more similar than if they had been recorded from scratch, it's a sign of Soule's artistic ability to put these parts together in such a way that it sounds beautiful.

Well, enough of this little digression and back to the score of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. As already mentioned, I differentiate here between the OST with 30 tracks and a gamerip with 108 tracks. Starting from the official album, the game welcomes us with the theme song Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets: The Video GameJeremy Soule5. With a soulful piano introduction, Soule immediately evokes the childlike feeling of a magical world without appearing childish.

As an intro, the keyboard tones lead us to the wizard's school, which first curiously announces its sublimity alone, then supported by fanfares and strings. The piece is not dissimilar to John Williams, yet does not emulate the style of the original film; it is playful, joyful and then, a few seconds later, turns into the apocalypse - only complete with a dramatic choir. A stark contrast that ultimately leads us back to the solo piano. Great!

Incidentally, the website greatestgamemusic.com features an extremely readable review, which I found inexplicably hidden in the archive and about whose author no information can be found. A soundtrack review site where you don't know who created it? Ridiculous! The following is written about the score:

All these impressions come together on the album’s opening track Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Title Theme. The cue successfully evokes the requisite sense of both magic and majestic sweep essential to a Harry Potter-score. A substantial choral component gives the music unexpected heft and scope, before the orchestration pulls back to solo piano only. With impressive ease, Soule shows his aptitude at handling these swift, fluid changes of orchestration and mood. At the same time, it’s obvious Soule has found his individual musical entry point to the world of Harry Potter never coming off as a mere Williams rip-off.

Unknown on Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Title Theme

You could almost think that I only ever look for statements that match mine or make use of wordings, but I actually refrain from reading other people's opinions before I've finished my own review - so apparently I'm not that far off the mark with my assessments. Anyway, I don't want to praise myself here, but instead Soule's work.

Unfortunately, the album doesn't follow any apparent order, so that no form of suspense or narrative is built up. Instead, pieces like SnitchJeremy Soule4 appear as a dramatic catch of the Snitch during the Quidditch games shortly before the end, whereas the wonderfully action-packed Dada ActionJeremy Soule5 which is reminiscent of a rollercoaster ride, plays directly after the theme song. No matter, in the end you probably won't listen to the music in one piece anyway, but my order-spoiled heart is still bleeding a little.

Meanwhile, let's talk about the music of the OST, which comes up with one banger after the next: Diagon Playful Jeremy Soule4and Playful 2Jeremy Soule4 feel a little like we've landed in a Harry Potter-shopping mall or a Sims-addon. It immediately brings back memories of Williams' own Diagon AlleyJeremy Soule5 . The same applies to Day FollowJeremy Soule5 and WashingJeremy Soule4, even if they build up a little more tension with their change of pace.

Ähnlich positiv, dafür etwas magischer sind Slug Chase / Broom LessonJeremy Soule4, Spell AtmosJeremy Soule5 and Library EnterJeremy Soule5, die Spuren von Soules spätere Arbeit für die Elder Scrolls-Reihe enthalten oder wie ein Crossover ins Fable-Universum wirken. Das wunderschön gefühlvolle DayJeremy Soule5 kennen wir dagegen schon als Fireseeds aus dem Gamerip zu Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Mit den Tracks House Point ThemeJeremy Soule4 and Ball SmashJeremy Soule4 kommt sogar etwas Pomp und Heroik in die Kinderstube.

However, as readers of the source material will know, the second Potter-book, with its ominous death threats and petrifactions, is somewhat scarier than the first volume (even if its visit to the Forbidden Forest or the teacher crumbling to dust was no less nightmare-inducing for little Mattis). As a result, Soule pressed the horror button a little, meaning that pieces like Willow Level 2Jeremy Soule4 or Library TowerJeremy Soule3 still make the hairs on the back of my neck stand up today. Willow Level 3 Jeremy Soule5and NightJeremy Soule4 go in the same direction, but for me there is a touch more hope.

Drama and comedy - if we stick to the words of the school of German rapper Alligatoah in his song Willst du ("Do You Wanna") the only thing missing is “action”. And the OST offers us that too: Willow BossJeremy Soule3, Aragog BossJeremy Soule4, ActionJeremy Soule3 (Duh), Anglia FlyingJeremy Soule3, Spider ActionJeremy Soule4 and Stealth PursuitJeremy Soule4 seem to be borrowed from Knight of the Old Republic or Neverwinter Nights but the absolute overkill here is DracoJeremy Soule5, which sounds like the ultimate final battle, even though it's just about a blonde bully.

The gamerip, on the other hand, offers more of the familiar, such as the pathetically euphoric QuidditchJeremy Soule5, which didn't make it into the OST. But melodies from the predecessor also reappear: Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets [Alternate] 2Jeremy Soule4 for example, is a variation on Story BookJeremy Soule4 from its predecessor, and the short pieces are stinger versions of familiar motifs. Diagon AlleyJeremy Soule5, the fantastic theme of the pause menu, which often made me pause the game and then accompanied me as I browsed through the wizard cards, also appeared in the first Harry Potter according to my memory. But I'm not at all sure about that anymore.

As the Playstation and GameCube versions of the game contained completely different sequences or even levels, there are also a few (to me) new pieces. With its woodwinds, Expelliarmus Spell Challenge (Part I)Jeremy Soule5 is wonderfully ominous and almost Lord of the Rings-like, Fight BasiliskJeremy Soule4 brings back the choir and parts of the main theme. Fight Whomping Willow (Part I)Jeremy Soule5 is just as beautifully dramatic and FlyingJeremy Soule4 (the version of the same name from the Gamerip) takes Buckbeak’s Flight from John William's score to Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and strives for freedom. What the carnival-like Gambol & Japes Wizarding Joke Shop Jeremy Soule2actually is about, I don't know.

If we take both albums together, we end up with a total of 135 tracks and a duration of just under 3.5 hours. Therefore, listing all the other, no less exciting tracks is not really expedient. Nevertheless, you should check out the score, whereby my ratings can serve as a guide. At least the OST should be blasted through your speakers, as it is one of his best works, for which Jeremy Soule even received the (very first) BAFTA for best music for a video game in 2003. Or to put it in the words of my fellow reviewers:

The soundtrack of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets is easily the best of Jeremy Soule’s five scores for the franchise. […] In fact, The Chamber of Secrets is Soule’s most satisfying fantasy soundtrack. Yes, that’s a big claim to make, considering his work on franchises like The Elder Scrolls and Guild Wars . But The Chamber of Secrets achieves a consistency of quality that Soule’s more bloated scores don’t accomplish. […] Soule gets the necessary mix of adventure, menace and child-like wonder just right. He crafts the perfect soundtrack for a quest that is light-hearted, but not without dangers and dramatic encounters, set in a colourful world both homely and of immense scale.

Unknown on the OST

I wouldn't like to say whether it really is Soule's best score, but with regard to the Harry Potter-games, this conclusion can certainly be drawn.