Jerry Goldsmith had not worked in any film of pure horror previously to his score for The Mephisto Waltz (1971), and since then his successive incorporation to the gender have resulted, generally, of an excellent level, when not at the best possible; we would recall that the only Oscar Award in his career was thanks to The Omen (1976), as well as the superb scores composed for its two sequels, Damien: Omen II (1978) and The Final Conflict (1981), and the genial Alien (1979). For the Paul Wendkos film on satanic cults, Goldsmith seems to be inspired in sounds and musical gestures that he already had experimented previously, as several of the fearful sequences of The Planet of the Apes (1968) or Seconds (1966), using a very peculiar orchestration, with strings, piano and percussion, and gaming with two easily recognizable classic motives: the initial theme of the very well-known Franz Liszt's Mephisto Waltz Nr.1, and the too used medieval Dies Irae, one of the musical themes associated with Death, God and the Demon, more utilized throughout the history of the music. Quite opposed in character and color is the music for Robert Mulligan's forgotten but splendid film The Other (1972), a study on the human duality. The basically more lyric tone of Goldsmith's score, with continuous references to the "innocence" of the infancy, finds its perfect balance in the delicate sound sieve of its orchestration, in one of the better and more unknown works of his author. Not to be missed.

THE MEPHISTO WALTZ (1971) - 34:13
THE OTHER (Suite) (1972) - 22:05
20th Fox Orchestra - Conductor: Jerry Goldsmith
VARESE SARABANDE VSD-5851 / 56'

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