All vikisHarry Potter Soundtrack
John Williams's soundtrack for the first Harry Potter film (2001), Sorcerer's Stone in the US and Philosopher's Stone elsewhere, in full: all 19 tracks, 1 hour 13 minutes, each playing from its first second, under measured highlights. Its celesta melody, Hedwig's Theme, was written before Williams had the job.
We rate the Harry Potter soundtrack B tier. The album on this page is the first film's, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001), titled Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone outside the US, and we think its closing track holds the last film melody that most of the world can hum after one bar. It is B under our rule because its maker has released it in full, in the expanded set John Williams approved for La-La Land Records, while we could confirm neither a complete recording by a second orchestra nor a current concert on a page we could open. One confirmed live date would lift it to A.
This is Hedwig's Theme, the track that closes the album, and the lone instrument at its start is a celesta, the one Tchaikovsky wrote the Sugar Plum Fairy's dance for (Classic FM, Jun 6, 2023). The story is about to get new music: HBO has announced that Hans Zimmer and Bleeding Fingers Music, with Kara Talve and Anze Rozman, will score its Harry Potter series, which debuts in 2027 (Warner Bros. Discovery), and Classic FM noted on Jan 16, 2026 that nobody has said whether Hedwig's Theme will be heard in it. The album itself came out on Oct 30, 2001 with 19 tracks: 73 minutes 26 seconds by Apple Music's track times, and 1 hour 13 minutes 46 seconds in the uploads by Vi.ki's count on Nov 10, 2026.
A theme written for the trailer
Hedwig's Theme existed before the score did. Warner Bros. and the director, Chris Columbus, asked Williams for promotional music before they hired him, and the piece he handed over became the theme (Classic FM, Jun 6, 2023). Filmtracks adds that he had not written a theme specifically for a film's trailers since Hook in 1991, and that he had already read the book with his family when he joined. One of the producers recalled in a making-of video that the theme sounded right for the film the first time it was played.
It outgrew this film. Classic FM hears the motif in all eight films, in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, and in the games, trailers, shops and theme parks. Williams himself scored only the first three films, and on the second his themes were adapted and orchestrated by William Ross while he worked on three other scores (The Second Disc, Oct 29, 2024).
Williams on the podium
Williams composed, conducted and produced the score, with Eddie Karam and Conrad Pope as orchestrators, and the credits name Marcia Crayford, Randy Kerber and the choir London Voices (Filmtracks). The sound everyone remembers is small: a solo celesta carries the opening melody of Hedwig's Theme, a rush of violins follows, and then the brass take the tune (Classic FM).
The same sessions produced a concert work. Williams arranged and conducted a Children's Suite for Orchestra in 2001, and only half of it was folded into the album; Harry's Wondrous World, track 2 here, belongs to that material. The suite was first released complete in 2018, on the third Sorcerer's Stone disc of La-La Land's box, which Mike Matessino produced and for which Simon Rhodes remastered this score from newly transferred analog tapes (La-La Land Records). We think the suite is the clearest sign of how Williams saw this music: as pieces for an orchestra first, and film cues second.
Gold in four weeks, second to Fellowship
The album was certified Gold in the US on Nov 28, 2001, four weeks after it went on sale, and has not been certified higher since (RIAA). It entered the Billboard 200 at No. 52 on the chart dated Nov 17, 2001, peaked at No. 48 on Dec 1, 2001, and had spent 11 weeks there by the chart of Jan 26, 2002.
The prizes went to another fantasy film. The score was nominated for the Academy Award, one of two Williams nominations in the category that year beside A.I. Artificial Intelligence, and Howard Shore's The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring won (oscars.org). The album was nominated for the Grammy for Best Score Soundtrack Album in 2003 and lost to the same film (grammy.com), and Hedwig's Theme lost Best Instrumental Composition to Thomas Newman's Six Feet Under title theme (grammy.com). A new arrangement of the theme brought Williams one more nomination at the 2020 Grammys (grammy.com).
Highlights
Seventeen moments inside the tracks of this album, measured by Vi.ki from the uploads on Nov 10, 2026 and not picked by ear (the home page says how). It heard a harp, violins and cellos come in, and a climax in 18 of the 19 tracks, of which the ten strongest are kept. The Play column is the time inside the track.
All tracks
The 2001 album in its own order, from the label-provided uploads on John Williams's YouTube channel, where track 2 carries the title Harry's Wondrous World (Extended Version). Each track is its own video, so every Play link starts at 0:00, and the 19 lengths add up to 1 hour 13 minutes 46 seconds; the longest is The Quidditch Match at 8:29 and the shortest is Prologue at 2:13.
Editions
| Edition | Released | Tracks | Label |
|---|---|---|---|
| Original album, US (Sorcerer's Stone) | Oct 30, 2001 | 19 | Warner Sunset |
| International album, 2 CDs (Philosopher's Stone) | |||
| The John Williams Soundtrack Collection, 7 CDs | Nov 23, 2018 | La-La Land Records | |
| Original Motion Picture Soundtracks I-VII, 16 LPs | Nov 29, 2024 | Rhino |
Sources name the first album's label differently: Filmtracks gives Warner Sunset Records, Billboard lists Warner Sunset/Nonesuch/Atlantic/Rhino, the RIAA lists Atlantic, and Apple Music's copyright line reads Warner Records. The European two-CD version has the same Williams music on its first disc and only multimedia on its second (Filmtracks). La-La Land's set, limited to 5,000 copies, holds the expanded scores of the first three films, just under eight hours, and Filmtracks supplies its date. Rhino's box, limited to 3,000 copies, presses the original albums of all eight films without the La-La Land extras and shipped from Nov 29, 2024 (The Second Disc).
Sources
- Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack), Apple Music, read Nov 10, 2026
- Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, Filmtracks
- Harry Potter: The John Williams Soundtrack Collection, La-La Land Records
- The Harry Potter soundtrack: its famous themes and composers, Classic FM, Jun 6, 2023
- Hans Zimmer to score the HBO Harry Potter series, Classic FM, Jan 16, 2026
- Hans Zimmer and Bleeding Fingers compose new score for the HBO Original Harry Potter series, Warner Bros. Discovery
- Harry Potter soundtrack vinyl box from Rhino, The Second Disc, Oct 29, 2024
- Gold and Platinum: Harry Potter, RIAA, read Nov 10, 2026
- Billboard 200, week of Jan 26, 2002, Billboard
- The 74th Academy Awards, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
- Best Score Soundtrack Album, 45th Grammy Awards, Recording Academy
- Best Instrumental Composition, 45th Grammy Awards, Recording Academy
- John Williams, Recording Academy
Moments
Hedwig's Theme
John Williams
The Arrival of Baby Harry
John Williams
Visit to the Zoo and Letters from Hogwarts
John Williams
Diagon Alley and the Gringotts Vault
John Williams
Platform Nine-and-Three-Quarters and the Journey to Hogwarts
John Williams
Entry into the Great Hall and the Banquet
John Williams
Mr. Longbottom Flies
John Williams
The Norwegian Ridgeback and a Change of Season
John Williams
The Quidditch Match
John Williams
Christmas at Hogwarts
John Williams
The Invisibility Cloak and the Library Scene
John Williams
Fluffy's Harp
John Williams
The Chess Game
John Williams
The Face of Voldemort
John Williams
Leaving Hogwarts
John Williams
Prologue
John Williams
Harry's Wondrous World (Extended Version)
John Williams
Hogwarts Forever! and the Moving Stairs
John Williams
In the Devil's Snare and the Flying Keys
John Williams
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