An agreeable surprise awaits us in the score of the unknown Christopher Gordon for the television version of Herman Melville's classic; surprise by the sobriety and musical seriousness that demonstrates, not exempt it of certain personal touches, as well by its simplicity and instant sound. Without any doubt Gordon knows the marine adventures gender, and he must also know the score of Philip Sainton for the John Huston' s version of 1956 (with whom, once said it, it does not maintain any relationship neither of sound nor stylistic), but his music seems more anchored in the British symphonic inheritance started and developed by Edward Elgar, William Walton and, especially, Ralph Vaughan-Williams, with their well understood neo-classicism on which there are room enough for athonal touches (Bad Magic), or syncretic ones (Queequeg). The score appears split it into two parts that correspond with the two halves of the film. M.A.F.

/ VARESE SARABANDE VSD-5921 / 73'