Soundtrack Review: The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian by Harry Gregson-Williams (2008)
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This is a review of the motion picture score for The Chronicles of Narnia by Harry Gregson-Williams.
“It is like the first soundtrack grew up and realized there is a complicated dark world out there”
Well, aren’t you excited! So am I to be honest. I have been waiting for this for a long time and so have you, admit it! Harry Gregson-Williams is finally here with the much anticipated sequel to The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. The first movie and soundtrack was really good and there’s no reason to expect any less from this one. Don’t worry, I won’t let my excitement spoil my enjoyment of it and this review. This is the track list of The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian:
Track List
- Prince Caspian Flees
- The Kings And Queens Of Old
- Journey To The How
- Arrival At Aslan’s How
- Raid On The Castle
- Miraz Crowned
- Sorcery And Sudden Vengeance
- The Duel
- The Armies Assemble
- Battle At Aslan’s How
- Return Of The Lion
- The Door In The Air
- The Call (by Regina Spektor)
- A Dance ’round The Memory Tree (by Oren Lavie)
- This Is Home (by Switchfoot)
- Lucy (by Hanne Hukkelberg)
Dark And Powerful
12 tracks by Harry Gregson-Williams and 4 songs make me a very happy man. The total play time is 1 hour 15 minutes and that’s way above standard. What is different than the score for the first movie? A lot! It’s still Narnia, but a Narnia dressed in darkness. It is definitely much darker than before, more heavier. It is like the first soundtrack grew up and realized there is a complicated dark world out there. Well, I like it, I like it a lot. It feels more powerful, more epic. It’s also a very pleasant surprise that a soundtrack is being released before the movie, usually it’s the other way around these days. I can listen to it now and get even more excited for the movie itself, which has to be really good if it wants to live up to the standards of this soundtrack.
Narnia Magic
What Harry Gregson-Willams has produced here is a score that recreates the magic of Narnia. I know he is one of the Media Venture composers, but this is not a typical Media Ventures score. It has glimpses of John Williams adventurous scores in there and Howard Shore’s “The Lord of the Rings” comes to mind. It is epic, but not as epic as the mentioned “The Lord of the Rings”. I am happy to say that Harry Gregson-Williams doesn’t disappoint and I can only fear what will happen to the third movie when he is not at the helm. Harry Gregson-Williams is Narnia, so please someone make it happen so he comes back for the third movie. I have to mention the “last” track on the soundtrack by Harry Gregson-Williams called “The Door in the Air”, which has more of a feel like the first movie. It’s really light unlike the other tracks and it is beautiful.
The Songs
I haven’t even gotten to the songs yet, but I will now. Regina Spektor’s “The Call” is not too dissimilar from Imogen Heap’s “Can’t Take It In” from the first soundtrack, a very nice track. Oren Lavie’s “A Dance ’round the Memory Tree” is the odd one out, there had to be one. It’s a bit odd, but that’s just my opinion. Switchfoot is one of my favourite bands, and they deliver again with the song “This Is Home”. It’s a wonderful song which I will definitely listen to many times. The last track “Lucy” by Hanne Hukkelberg is not in the movie, but undoubtedly aimed at the character Lucy in the movie. It’s a weird little song with a sad feeling attached to it. Even though this soundtrack ends on a sad note (no doubt because I want more), this is a great soundtrack which I hope will do really well, and I think it will.
Negatives:
- A couple of odd songs
Positives:
- The magic of Narnia is in this score
- Powerful and epic, dark and mysterious
- Wonderful and adventurous
Listen to The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian by Harry Gregson-Williams below:
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(14 votes, average: 9.21 out of 10)
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Comments
The Song is at the end of the movie when they go back to the real world is ‘The Call” (by Regina Spektor)
hey thanks i was looking for the name of that song,
i saw the movie this weekend and it was really good.
and i just loved the song that ended the movie,
:]
that song is by Regina Spektor.. “The Call”.. i saw the movie and it was great..I downloaded the tract list. “The door in the air is one of my fave.
Harry Gregson-Williams is great.. everytime i hear his songs it just send me off to another world..so magical and it makes me feel like a little girl again. cheers!!
I agree, Harry Gregson-Williams is great, it’s a shame he won’t do the composing for the third movie. I fear the magic will be lost without him.
the makers of Prince Caspian kept to the original story in a lot of ways, but then strayed in others… i had heard they were going to make it into a silly pure-action flick, but thankfully this was not the case
patricks last blog post..The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
Really? Well, disaster avoided then. Do you know why Harry Gregson-Williams is not composing for the third movie? Wolverine? Surely not, he has time 
Hey, does anyone know the name of the song that is played when the kids first arrive in Narnia after just being in the train station? It’s such a beautiful song that plays while they are running around on the beach… I want it!
Ya, the last song, when the kiss, is “the call” by Regina Spektor. It’s #13 on the list above. Hope I helped.
Big ditto with Jamie. I think this track was (in some version) in the first film as well. It’s the only piece of music from a good soundtrack that truly stuck with me like glue (and still does). Amazingly, sadly, and perhaps predictably, I listened through the samples on iTunes, and this track does not seem to have been released on either album. Can someone that owns one or both confirm this? It would be a real shame. I want this track too.
It’s indeed a shame that they are not releasing everything. It happens with every single movie I’m afraid and all we can hope for is a release of a better, more complete edition.
well, I read on another site that this cut actually has been released, on the first Narnia soundtrack. It’s roughly the second half of the track “Evacuating London.” I bought it. Lovely stuff, and it’s a relief they didn’t hold it back (such as we had to put up with with the whole Blade Runner fiasco).
You mean the recording session? Been meaning to check out that one. Hope they do one on Prince Caspian too for the complete experience. I’m sure they have lots of unreleased material.
no, I think this was just the regular release. I didn’t see anything about a special issue of unreleased material.
that song when they are on the beach was released in the original album. it is part of the song “to aslan’s camp”. this is my favourite on the first album. i think it is number 10.
ooops no i am wrong. 
Braden is right.
i have both albums from limewire. i know this is illegal but i cant find them where i live.
Hey Guys! I work in the cinema and everytime I clean up after Narnia 2 i listen to this song with “it’s a miracle, everything’s magic” while the credits. Do you know the name or the band? Thanks
Are you sure it’s Prince Caspian? I didn’t stay for the credits, but I couldn’t find those words in the songs on the album.
Yeah it’s Caspian. I watched the movie yesterday with my family and after the movie I cleaned up. And there it was again. The song is so great and everyone wants to know which song it is.
Well, I’m certainly curious now. Does anyone know which song this is?
Claire Reply:
January 25th, 2009 at 8:50 pm
Yeah, its the switchfoot song ‘This Is Home’. I thought it was the one that was released earlier, the one that goes ‘..This is home, now i’m finally where i belong, where i belong..’ladedah
but the ACTUAL credits version is ‘..ooh im moving forward,every day starts with a magic spark ive got my hopes high with the second start we are miracles, every breath is magic…’
the second one is almost completely different, the music is different, chorus is, only a few verses are the same. it doesn’t actually state ‘this is home’ at all.
if you want to listen to them to figure out the difference–
(normal one)http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=N0ykm1v9xbU
(every breath is magic)http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=Ol3o494lPII
i hope that helped. but, im reluctant to buy the album unless it has the every breath is magic version on it–can someone with it already tell me which it is? that’d b awesome. i already think it’s not the one im looking for, but not fully surre.
thx, xx
“oh no, not a modern score!” That quote encompasses some of the reviews that felt HGW’s approach to the first Narnia film, that his preferences of electric violins and such weren’t appropriate for such an epic. But me, I thought the score was quite good, and a 5-star effort when heard in its near-full form. “The Battle” was a superb action cue, and HGW unleashed a dearth of strong themes, with the brassy heroic theme dominating while the more flowing themes for the children and Aslan provided a nice contrast. Even the simple themes for the Ice Queen were well integrated, with “Peter, Wake Up!” being a minimalist highlight.
And so we come to our sequel score, with a much more darker atmosphere promised and delivered. You’ll notice that the sense of joy has been sucked out of most of the music. The playful nature of Lucy’s discovery of Narnia or the peaceful tones of “The World of Narnia” are gone, as are enthusiastic bursts of heroism in the opening of “To Aslan’s Camp”. That aside, it doesn’t mean the score is worse…in fact, this lack of wonder is traded off by 2 improvements: better thematic integration and more action music. HGW’s use of the heroic theme is superb, sometimes making it less obvious with the lower strings taking it in parts of “Battle at Aslan’s How” and then giving it different approaches in “The Duel”. When it weaves into Aslan’s theme around the three minute mark in “The Battle”, you want to cheer out! Ditto for the children’s theme, which is superb used in the opening parts of “The Battle” and creates a real sense of drive. And of course, there’s the heroic theme for Caspian, which HGW smartly never breaks out in a grand heroic fashion until the near end of the battle. He still manages to make it driving and regal throughout, and one hopes David Arnold keeps it (and most of the other themes going) in the next sequel.
One complaint levied against the first score was that there was only one action cue. The rest of the action music not commercially release indeed wasn’t numerous or expansive, but I still thought the cues for the wolf chase were quite good, building up a good percussive intensity and using wicked brass hits, even a choir in “The World of Narnia”. Instead of being loyal to either style, HGW instead goes with a more driving string-based style, really keeping the sense of urgency going even when the orchestra isn’t blasting away. I’m still disappointed a little with this release given that there’s a lot more to the main two battles that isn’t here, but one can always wait for a fuller version.
It should also be noted that “Sorcery and Sudden Vengeance” is an effectively creepy piece for an extremely creepy scene. Very good mutating of The Witch themes, even if it does lead into some all too familiar action material. And that’s really the only downside here. “Arrival at Aslan’s How” opens with a near-exact rendition of the Heroic theme we heard in “Only the Beginning of the Adventure”…ditto for parts of “The Door in the Air”. The last third of “Battle at Aslan’s How” is practically temped from “The Battle”. And the themes for the Telmarines sound like they spawned from Kingdom of Heaven. Still, slight similarities can’t deter me from what will probably stand as one of the year’s best. 4.5/5
I feel as you do, that this score delivers in spades, and I’m so glad it is darker, more serious than the previous one. I can’t imagine a David Arnold score for the next movie, but I will look forward to that as well. I liked the first score as well, but it wasn’t as impressive as this one. This will indeed stand out as one of the year’s best.
The first soundtrack should be all nice and light-hearted – its all about the new discovery and how wonderful it is, regardless of how much danger and sadness there is. I feel like the first soundtrack set up the themes perfectly, especially since they’re very easily identifiable (even though this idiot from my band class in high school disagreed).
What’s great about the Prince Caspian soundtrack is that HGW didn’t abandon the themes, but developed them and even let them evolve. I mean, the theme for Caspian itself is simply a rearrangement/evolution of the main Narnia theme. Which is completely awesome. My only complaint would be that there are times where he literally recycles music from the first movie – which is not the problem. The problem is that in the movie itself (the second one that is), the original climax of the song doesn’t match up to a climatic moment in the movie. I believe I’m talking about the part in Return of the Lion that recycles The Battle. I about died in the movie theatre when nothing happened at the point in the song where Aslan arrives at the battle in the first movie. It’s like being told you’re getting a puppy for christmas and getting a little dog figurine or something.
Good catch Laura. I saw the film on a noisy airplane so unfortunately I didn’t get the details as well as you. I know I shouldn’t have done that, but it was a 19 hour flight so I needed something to do . Anyway, loved the score and the movie as well. I’m a bit concerned that David Arnold will do the next one, but hopefully it works out great.
I really Love the end of song, really seems like lucy is singing coz she is sad leaving it…. but it makes me sad too coz there is no more releasing of Narnia movies 
.
Narnia ROCKs! -rates 10000 stars-
hey i just watched the movie!
and i wanted to know what was the last song played in the movie, where the kids go back to the real world, and it was when she kissed prince caspian.. do you know what was the last song called??? please someone answer asap!
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Sharon Maclean Reply:
December 26th, 2008 at 8:54 pm
The song you are looking for is called The Call by Regina Spektor. hope this helps you track it down.
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