The Mephisto Waltz

The Other

Music by Jerry Goldsmith

 

 

 

In Jerry Goldsmith's career, horror film scores take respectable place. Poltergeist and The Omen are his immediate highlights, but Mephisto Waltz deserves attention as one of the great climatic moments of the composer.

The included mention to Lizst´s Mephisto Waltz is obvious, unavoidable in this soundtrack, is the theme that Duncan (Curt Jurgens) performs at the piano in the opening scene, but the soundtrack works more on the strings, especially the violin, as main sound element. The "diabolical" tradition of violin (gypsy, Paganini) is characteristic here as evil suggestion. Violin phrases are like a parallel presence on the entire soundtrack. And the music goes further making room for the unknown, through electronic and dissonances. Sound clusters oppose to each other and rarely the music is recognizable for melodic lines or scales. Quoting occasionally Liszt, Dies Irae and even Psycho stinger, Mephisto Waltz has its high point in the "distorted waltz" The Last Victim. As a whole the soundtrack can be cited just as “atmospheric”, but in Goldsmith's work occupies an interesting place as exploration whithin his own repertoire.

Along with Mephisto Waltz, the Varese release includes a suite (22 minutes) with The Other music, excellent thriller directed by Robert Mulligan after the successful Summer of 42. It is a youthful composition and of broad lines, appropriate to the rural environment in which the movie is set. Predominating strings works for delicate and introspective passages. An exercise in subtlety that evolves from sunny atmospheres to the dark closing climates.

As italian composer Ennio Morricone, Jerry Goldsmith´s work seems to be an infinite place of discoverings.