I am listening to the 30 second clips right now and am really enjoying myself. I am a total music geek, so I will not go into the technical stuff about the soundtrack, but I am very pleasantly surprised. The new material is very good (the cellist in my almost fainted with the cello solo in one of the tracks, sadly I missed which one ), the use of the flute is very prominent, and the percussion section has a very diverse amount of material. I also really like the incorporation of the original themes is excellent. If I get nothing else out of the movie, but the music I will be very happy, this music is exceptional. Great job David Arnold, two thumbs up, I am definitely going to buy this soundtrack.

My soundtrack arrived today! It wasn't supposed to come until tomorrow, but it arrived early.

I'm loving it so far. A good mix of new music with some of the older themes. I'm not familiar with a lot of Arnold's work, so I'm sure there's influences from that, but it's mostly completely new to me.

I must admit I do like the new soundtrack, I also noticed a lot of flute in there Not sure how I feel about it, I love flutes...but there were more than the other movies...yet at the same time it does fit the tone.

David is not Harry, but the soundtrack is cool!
Has anyone already listen?

I purchased the VDT soundtrack last evening, before we saw the movie, and so far I think it would be reasonable to say I love it. I must admit that I'm not up on the technical terms of music, and what makes a score good or bad, however, so my opinion is purely subjective. I like how there are some of the familiar themes from LWW (mainly, I can't recall hearing any from PC in this new soundtrack), but there was also a larger share of new "themes", I think they would be called. Anyway, just my two cents.

I'm enjoying it, Harry was better though, but this is great still.
For some reasons some portions remind me of the music from the old animated version of Charlotte's Web

I found the music original, for the most part. It did not necessarily remind me of anything else, and to David Arnold's credit, I've got the main theme (whatever it's called) stuck in my head. It didn't evoke that exquisite feeling of sehnsucht that Gregson-Williams' main theme did, but it did more than just do its job. It contributed positively to the movie. That being said, I felt that the music was often badly cued in the movie, which is no fault of Arnold's.

Hmm...I must say I'm not a big fan of the score this time round. It doesn't feel too Narnian for me. Then again, maybe that's because I've associated Gregson-William's music with Narnia so it's hard for me to accept something less majestic, for lack of better word. The Battle from the first film is one of, if not my most favorite movie scores of all time, and some other tracks from LWW and PC just feel magical and beautiful to me.

p.s: I do love Reepichep's song from the third movie though

I didn't notice the music too much in the VDT like I did with the other 2 but what I did notice I liked most of the time. The end credits with the Pauline Baynes pictures and Carrie Underwood's song was totally incredible, they couldn't have picked a better song.

I'll have to listen to the soundtrack by itself, or see the movie again (horrors! ) in order to judge exactly what I think of Arnold's score. I ... honestly didn't notice it much at all during the course of the movie. This is a good thing in one sense, because it means I wasn't cringing half the time, as I was whenever the "One Day" theme came up in the LWW and PC films. But then, it also means Arnold's work wasn't especially ear-catching, one flaw you couldn't charge HGW with, at least in LWW.

Underwood's credits song did nothing for me, and really broke the mood. When will producers learn that you can't just throw a modern pop/country song in at the end of a film and expect for it to mesh? Ooof. Including the Baynes illustrations at the end was a good call ... they should either have paired them with an orchestral reprise of the themes from the film, or had Arnold himself work with a singer to create a song that stylistically fits with the rest of the score, as Howard Shore did in the LotR films.

lysander said,
When will producers learn that you can't just throw a modern pop/country song in at the end of a film and expect for it to mesh?

Come on, The Call and There's a Place for Us were both awesome choices for the end credits, they mesh perfectly with the mood of the ending.

It's not just a mood thing. It's a style thing too ... to go from an almost purely symphonic score to a modern pop song ... eh. Just doesn't work for me, and I know others here who agree with me. Plus, nothing dates a movie more than a pop credits song.

(BTW, I like "The Call." I really do. But not in the context of the PC film.)

Well I guess we will have to agree to disagree

though I still think your wrong

*dittos Lys*

I think the most dreadful example of a jarring transition from a score to pop credits music would have to be the recent Alice in Wonderland. As much as I loathe the Underwood's song, I can't imagine it being as wretched as Avril Lavigne's Alice song.

*Dittos most of what aragorn said*

The transition like that doesn't bother me. It might if it occurred in the middle of the movie rather than the end, but I liked it. I thought "The Call" fit perfectly to what was going on on screen, and I'm not much of a pop lover either. I do like country though, for a lot of the same reasons why I like Narnia, but I'll have to see the movie before I make my call on "There's a place for Us" (no pun intended )