Overview

By 2005, the Harry Potter feature films were becoming darker, soapier, and more critically lauded. A fourth film in the series was never in doubt, nor was a video game to accompany it. For the first time in the series, someone other than John Williams composed the music, and one might have expected game series composer Jeremy Soule to bow out as well. But Soule had never used Williams' themes, preferring to develop his own, and he returned for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, providing a sense of musical continuity absent from the big-screen version of the story.

Body

Soule's score doesn't have much in common with Patrick Doyle's music for the film, and he continues his practice of coining an all-new title theme for the game and then ignoring it in the subsequent underscore. The "Goblet of Fire Theme" is cut from the same cloth as the others, with a shade of the twinkling personality and chorus of the second and third games. It's easily the highlight of the music, as well as one of only two pieces that exceeds two minutes in length.

Far more than any of the others, Soule's Goblet of Fire is an ambient score. Soule can work very well in this style; the beautiful "Greenhouse" and "Greenhouse 2" cues work a subtle kind of magic and are highlights. But there is also filler, such as "Ambient" or the twin "Spooky" tracks near the end, which are curious choices given what was left off.

Much of the rest is wildly inconsistent, ranging from the light Celtic beat of "Irish Campsite" to the bizarre creaky vocals of "Erk Voice Piano." The action music, as heard in "Erk Creature" and "Dragon Challenge," is serviceable but often underwhelming especially considering the thunderous action music Soule provided for the other games. Part of the problem is the short length of most of the songs: most are under a minute in length, none are looped.

There was no album for Soule's Goblet of Fire work until a year after the game's debut, when EA released an iTunes exclusive digital download, alongside Soule's music for the first three Potterverse games and his Quiddich World Cup. Poor production values plague these releases, which were seemingly thrown together with little quality control. While Goblet is missing the jarring hard stops found in earlier albums, many of the suites are still badly assembled and padded with silence. Worse, the short running time (only 25 minutes) leaves out some of the very best music from the game, such as the Death Eater attack.

Summary

Goblet of Fire is ultimately among Soule's weakest work in the franchise, a curiously muddled effort made worse by the album presentation. Without a consistent style, and with such short tracks, it ultimately fails as a listening experience. However, even in complete form the music largely fails to impress. Goblet is also Soule's last Potter score to date, and it's unfortunate that he couldn't provide a better sendoff to his involvement in the series.