Hogwarts Choir

Well, there isn’t a Hogwarts choir, really. But in the third film, director Alfonso Cuarón created one for the Welcoming Feast. The choir members are inexplicably holding very large toads as they sing. The director is Professor Flitwick.

The music that the choir sings was written for the film version of Prisoner of Azkaban by John Williams. The words come from Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Act IV, Scene I. These are the words spoken by the “weird sisters,” the three witches who turn up every so often as the story of Macbeth unfolds, foretelling his fate and creating various awful spells and brewing potions in their cauldron. The phrase “By the pricking of my thumbs / Something wicked this way comes” is spoken by the Second Witch and is a reference to Macbeth himself, who knocks on the door immediately thereafter.

It should be noted that the witches in Macbeth are really nothing like the witches of the wizarding world any more than they are like the humans of our world. They are two different fictional creations, sharing little more than the name “witch” and a fondness for cauldrons. In fact, Macbeth’s witches seem to be similar to Hags in the Potter universe.

The “weird sisters” from Macbeth also lend their name to a popular musical group in the wizarding world.

Something Wicked This Way Comes
Lyrics: William Shakespeare
Music: John Williams
Transcribed by: Steve Vander Ark

Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.
Double, double toil and trouble
Something wicked this way comes

Eye of newt, and toe of frog,
Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,
Adder’s fork, and blind-worm’s sting,
Lizard’s leg, and owlet’s wing –
Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and caldron bubble.
Double, double toil and trouble
Something wicked this way comes

In the cauldron boil and bake;
Fillet of a fenny snake,
Scale of dragon; tooth of wolf;
Witches’ mummy; maw and gulf

Sung in each rhythm

(Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.)

a tempo

Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.
Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.
Something wicked this way comes

The notes are written above each word. The key is Dm. The basic guitar chords are written below, with a simplified interlude.

  A – G – A    A – G – A     Bb      G     A    A           A    G-F-G       E       E       E         A   A 
Double double, toil and trouble, fire burn and cauldron bubble
  Dm                                                         A7                          Dm

D – E – F     D – E – F      G      E       A    A          C#     C#-C#      C#   C#     C#      C#          C#
Dou–ble dou–ble, toil and trouble, something wicked this way comes!
   Dm                     Gm                      A7

   D      C#     C#      C      C      Bb       Bb
Eye of newt and toe  of   frog
  Dm                             Gm

  Ab         G    G        F          F          E    E
Wool of bat and tongue of dog
  Gm                         A7

   C#    C – C    Bb    Bb    A     A
  la  la-la  la   la  la  la
   Gm              A7

MUSIC INTERLUDE
[Dm Dm Gm Dm Dm A7 A7 Dm Dm Dm Gm Gm A7 A7 A7 A7]

A – G – A    A – G – A     Bb       G     A    A           A    G-F-G       E       E       E         A   A
Double double, toil and trouble, fire burn and cauldron bubble
 Dm                                                         A7                           Dm 

  D – E – F     D – E – F      G      E       A    A          D D – E          E        A     A               D    D
Double double, toil and trouble, fire burn and cauldron…..bubble!
 Dm                       Gm                                                A7               Dm

  D            D         D     D      C#      C#         D
Something wicked this way comes!
   Gm                          A7              Dm