Who composed the main film score for J.K. Rowling’s first Harry Potter movie?

John Williams composed the main film score for J.K. Rowling’s first Harry Potter movie, Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.

Directed by Chris Columbus and released in 2001, the film adapted Rowling’s first novel. Williams wrote the score and created the widely recognizable “Hedwig’s Theme,” whose opening celesta melody became strongly associated with the Harry Potter franchise. The score was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Score.

Williams also scored Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Other composers took over for later films, including Patrick Doyle, Nicholas Hooper, and Alexandre Desplat. This division sometimes leads to the mistaken impression that one composer wrote the music for the entire eight-film series.