Obliviate seems to be a recurring theme in the film and a darker version of Hedwig’s Theme. Can you talk about that track and how you came up with it?
Desplat: First of all, it has nothing to do with Hedwig’s Theme. It is completely away fro Hedwig’s Theme. There’s not any combination of notes that look or sound like Hedwig’s Theme. I love Hedwig’s Theme and I was actually impatient to write a new version of the theme, but unfortunately the movie was repelling. It was not of the nature of the film, the dramaturgy. This theme didn’t match.

Obliviate is the seed of the score. This piece is the most important piece - the piece around which the whole score was built. The idea was to find a theme that had the sense of sorrow, loss of innocence but still with a propelling motor, and also a sense of wide sound to deliver an epic feeling to it. So this piece opens the movie. It’s the first music that we hear and it’s the music that goes with the theme where the three heroes leave their families, their homes to go to the unknown. They go on the road to fight the dark forces and it captures their anxiety, their fears, their sadness – and that’s why this theme would be recurring in various shapes all over the film.

SnitchSeeker: Fans really love Hedwig’s Theme. How did you go about choosing which scenes would feature it?
Desplat: It’s very easy to understand that the movie being so different from the previous ones. The first time our heroes are away from Hogwarts. They’re not children anymore. They’re young adults. The theme of Hedwig is really related to the early days of Harry Potter, Ron and Hermione. We tried really hard with David Yates to use it at very specific moments. Some of them did not make it until the end of the process because they were bring the children to childhood when the movie was doing exactly the opposite – bringing the children into adulthood. So it’s only a few moments. When he’s leaving his house we see Hedwig go in the sky from Harry’s hand; when Hedwig is killed also by the Death Eaters. Then we’re not related anymore, not to Hedwig, not to the childhood of this hero. That’s why and how the theme could not be recurring more than that, sadly, because it’s fantastic.

Which moment of the film was the most difficult to transcribe in music?
Desplat: Obliviation, which opens the CD, was one of the most difficult pieces to find bcause it sets the mood of the film. Of course, I would like to take time finding the overture. I always enjoy writing the overture of the film. I think maybe that was the most difficult. And there was another scene which was really tricky, when Ron was leaving and Harry and Hermione are on their own. That was also very difficult to find the right balance between the epic fantasy of the film and the restrained emotion of the moment, the despair that they’re losing their dear friend. So these two were the most challenging ones.

How did you get to know the characters to write a theme about them? Like Dobby - how did you create Dobby’s theme?
Desplat: I like Dobby a lot because he got the innocence and a courage and some kind of a sense of humor that he doesn’t know about, which is really great because of this innocence. He’s a pure spirit and I like that a lot. Actually it was rather fast to write a theme for Dobby because I had many ideas that could work. He’s very touching. He’s a very touching character. We haven’t seen him for awhile in the series. Also he’s a very brave little elf. He’s a very small person, a very tiny little creature, but still he has no fear. I like his statement at the end of the film when he says that he has no master. I’m a great Mozart fan and admirer, and he would have said the same, “I have no master.” I guess that’s why I like Dobby so much.

How did your research it? Were you allowed clips or did you read the book?
Desplat: I’ve read all the books and seen the movies many times. He’s just one more character but with a special personality

How does scoring this film rank in your career for you?
Desplat: Harry Potter has become such a huge, global thing that when I was asked to write the music for that I was real big fan of the John Williams’ score since I first chose to become a film composer. So, to me, it was like taking over John Williams’ baton … john Williams’ wand (laughs). I must say that when you start working on a film like this you’re thrilled because you’re excited, but you’re also very scared of the challenge because you know that every single note that you write will be heard. It not only has to be perfectly right with the film, driving the emotions and the dramaturgy of the film, but also that all your peers will hear the music with much more scrutiny than any other score that you’ve written before. So it’s a big, big challenge that I took with great joy and very seriously.

What was the first piece of music you wrote for the film and how did the rest of the music evolve from that idea?
Desplat: I wrote many bits and pieces, that’s always the way I build my soundtracks. I take a lot of notes on a music pad, a music writing book. So I take notes, sometimes it’s only a few bars. Many of them, it’s not just one. I remember one of the earliest was the opening titles, the scene of obliviation, and also the Ministry of Magic. These three were the three that I started to play around with , trying different ideas. But I can’t say that one was leading the others because at the same time I was also playing around with Hedwig’s Theme, making many versions of how I could twist the neck of this theme and make it different and bring it to my own little world of music. Except that, at the end, it did not happen because there was no room for the theme to be in the version that I had written. So it’s really a complex process. It’s not just one theme. It’s many, many ideas and themes, or sometimes just a chord or a rhythm part that I know I’m going to use and reuse, or display here and there.

At what point in the film process were you brought in and given a rough cut of the film to work from?
Desplat: I went on the set a year ago, during the winter of 2009, end of 2009, beginning of 2010. I went on the set, met with David Yates, we had a chat about how the music would work, what we should try, not try … so it was an early process. We started working together closely from June 2010.

How did you deal with the task of composing a good soundtrack that will keep maintaining the Harry Potter films and charming the audience as the previous soundtracks have done?
Desplat: It’s a challenge for a composer for films to always try and write music that could stand alone away from the film. That’s how I’ve admired the masters of the past (like) John Williams. Therefore, when I start working on a film, and especially a big movie like Harry Potter, I always keep in mind that the music should be able to stand alone. Which means I’m not just throwing notes or chords to the film but I’m trying to also have some music integrity inside the pieces of music. That’s something you learn from working on movies as a composer but it’s also something you define. It’s a goal that you have to aim every morning when you start working and writing music that you are a composer. Yes, you’re a composer for films, but you are a music composer. You have to pay your respects to the masters that have inspired you.

Is it easier or more difficult to create original work when you’re coming into a project that already has a basic foundation of music?
Desplat: I think it’s more difficult to take over from such long serial films with such great scores. More difficult is not the word. It is more challenging, let’s put it that way. There’s two things: the weight of the previous scores and, of course, the weight of the master, John Williams - the weight of six movies before you having so many millions of viewers through the whole tenet, and then the amount of music, the number of minutes. It’s almost two hours of score.

SnitchSeeker: Which character did you most enjoy or connect with when writing and what was your favorite scene to compose for?
Desplat: I mentioned Dobby before. He’s a character that I really like. There’s a scene which I really liked scoring … there’s two of them. There’s the scene when Ron comes back and Hermione and Harry are listening to him doing a little speech. I really enjoyed trying to find the color of this friendship. It’s like writing a love theme but it can’t be a love theme because they are not in love, they’re just friends. It’s on the edge. It’s very difficult to not become too emphatic or too cheesy. If the music is too romantic, you know … they’re not in love. So that was a challenging one. I liked the scene a lot. The other one was actually the sky battle because I like doing very animated, strong, quick pieces. My career was built on more intimate scores, but I’ve always actually written this kind of fast, action-driven pieces that were not movies that were seen, or shows that anybody saw, in America. But now I can prove also that I can do that.

Going back to Ron’s departure, as far as writing something that sad, do you tap into your own memories of similar events happening in your own life?
Desplat: You’re always connected to an emotion you’re feeling. That’s actually how I decide whether to do a theme or not. If there’s nothing that resonates in me, I do not go because I know that I’d be struggling to write even two notes in a row. Yes, that scene where friends are trying to find new boundaries and find a way of getting together again, that’s something which I think is very moving. These three kids are abandoned. They have no family. They have no one to turn to and this sense of solitude is very strong.

Have you seen the finished film with the cuts and edits and your score, and what was your impression?
Desplat: Yes, I have. It was fantastic. It was a fantastic experience. It was a good to at least see the film with the special effects. I hadn’t seen the special effects before. Most of the version I had were still in progress with green screens and the sound was … it was not yet there. There was no grading on the copy I had. It was a great experience. I was so happy to at last see the film. It was the premiere in London and the crowd was so happy, too, that it was a great joy to share.

How much flexibility were you given on this film and was David Yates working very closely with you through your composition?
Desplat: Funnily enough, I’m a composer who likes to work very closely to the directors. I chose to be a composer for films because I was a cinephile. I was crazy about cinema. I would go to the movies sometimes two or three times a day. I would also be a fan of movie soundtracks. So, to me, the collaborative process is very, very important. I would actually be unhappy just sitting in my studio without the regular daily basis exchange with the director I’m working with. So working with David, as I always do, is a regular meeting where I submit the ideas that I have, listen to my demos, I play on the piano, I explain what I want to do and I change whatever we have to do to make it exactly how the director’s point of view wishes the music to be. There’s one leader on the film for every department, and it’s the director. For the sound, for the picture, for the progression of the light, for the actors, there’s only one man who decides and it’s the director. So it’s good to be exactly, closely, precisely in line with his desires.

What would be your main theme for Deathly Hallows?
Desplat: There are many themes in Deathly Hallows. There couldn’t be only one theme. It didn’t work, actually, because there are too many things happening. There are too many different moods. They’re changing places over time. They’re on the road. They apparate here. They apparate there. And all the moods change all the time. There was no way to keep one theme just repeating itself and coming back. No, it was impossible. Also, this movie is very dark. It’s one thing that’s recurring – full of darkness from letter A to letter Z. It would have been very, very boring. So we’re actually following the characters through their journey with different moods and atmospheres. The only theme that is recurring, but again very subtlely, is the Obliviation theme and the other theme is Voldemort’s theme. Dobby’s theme at the front of the movie was here again at the end but, aside from that, it’s more about anecdotes. It’s more a journey through different countries. You hear the music of each country as you go into the country.