Thomas J. West Music

In honor of the recent release of the final motion picture in the Harry Potter series, and in light of the fact that I just read this quote to my youngest son as he and I read through the first book in the series together, I offer the following quote from Hogwarts Headmaster Albus Dumbledore:

"Ah, music," he said, wiping his eyes. "A magic far beyond all we do here! And now, bedtime. Off you trot!"

As I am going back through the series now with my son, in light of seeing movies 6 and 7.1 recently, I realize how much more light-hearted and nonsensical the series was at the beginning. There are definitely elements of Roald Dahl or Lewis Carroll in the writing at the beginning, where unexpected events or illogical leaps find their way into the action. I also have a much better appreciation this time around for the subtle hints that Rowling gives the reader to the nature of the villians in the story and the over-arcing connection between Potter and his nemesis.

The scene that this music quote appears is the first banquet when Harry is first sorted into his house. Dumbledore leads the students in the singing of the school song, a song that allows the singer to choose whatever  melody they wish to sing the words to. The lyrics of the school song are nearly as ridiculous as a congregation singing a cacaphony of melodies simultaneously. It is a good display of self-expression, however, as the Weasley twins demonstrate by being the last singers still vocalizing because they chose a funeral dirge. Dumbledore oblidgingly conducts them on their final few words, and speaks the quote above.

This article (c) 2011 Thomas J. West. All content on ThomasJWestMusic dot com is licensed under a Creative Contributions Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0 License. Please contact the author before publishing on or off-line.

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