Who composed the main musical score for Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone?

John Williams composed the main musical score for Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.

Williams created the film’s central themes, including “Hedwig’s Theme,” whose opening celesta melody became strongly associated with the wider Harry Potter franchise. He also wrote the orchestral music accompanying Harry’s arrival at Hogwarts, the Quidditch match, and the film’s other major set pieces.

Williams returned to score Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. He did not compose the scores for the remaining five films, which were written by Patrick Doyle, Nicholas Hooper, and Alexandre Desplat.

A common mix-up is to credit every Harry Potter film score to Williams. His musical ideas remained influential throughout the series, but later composers developed their own themes and arrangements for different stories and moods.