The composer had finally won an overdue Academy Award at the ceremonies just a year prior, and the obviously experienced Goldsmith was entering a ten-year period that many critics still consider to be the most richly textured of his career. Magic was a project for which Goldsmith could entertain a delicate love theme and weave it into a constant battle with the theme of the dummy, mirroring the schizophrenia of the ventriloquist as he falls victim to that physical object. His comfort with the horror and suspense genres was beginning to reign with consistency. The difference between Goldsmith at his prime and most of the other composers of later eras in film music was Goldsmith's ability to make the "less is more" idea work and work well. This is a score of few grand notes, and yet Goldsmith's ability to take a charming little love theme and twist it into an agonizing fight between fear, doubt, and love is grand in and of itself. Still, you need to investigate this score knowing that an appreciation of Goldsmith's talent is really the only reason to listen to Magic for any length of time. From the outset of the work, during which Goldsmith introduces the hauntingly stark harmonica theme for the dummy, the score quivers with uncertainty and frustration. It is built upon the same sparse constructs as a score like A Patch of Blue, but with none of the inherent affection. A laid back, jazzy theme for the good natured side of the primary character's heart battles the unpleasant harmonica for the entire score, only to lose at the very brink of victory. A maximum of a minute or two of actual horrific slashing music is to be heard in Magic, heightening the tension throughout the rest of an orchestral underscore that features atonal battles with accessible harmony in many sequences. In short, Magic's music is so passive aggressive that it's nearly impossible to tolerate for purposes of enjoyment on album. Still, remarkably, the score has received significant attention on CD through the years.

For ten years, a little more than 15 minutes of the Magic score was available on the highly collectible and cherished Society for the Preservation of Film Music Tribute CD pressed in limited copies for the audience attending a 1993 dinner in honor of the composer. For the very few who owned that album (or one of the countess bootlegs that came afterwards), it should be noted that the SPFM Tribute CD has all of the most pertinent and impressive Goldsmith cues from Magic (in roughly equal sound quality). None of the additional material provided on later albums dedicated to the score is significant in length, and the short cue times only add to the unsettling listening experience. True Goldsmith completists will indeed be interested in the whole score, but if you are going to choose one just Goldsmith score to further explore from that original SPFM CD, then Magic is by no means the best choice. The limited 2003 Varèse Sarabande Club album of 3,000 copies includes two nightclub cues required as source material from Goldsmith, and these add nothing to the experience except for an even greater appreciation of the composer's versatility. The product sold out within a few years and also became a moderate collectible. In 2015, La-La Land Records offered nearly the same presentation (revealing another 30 seconds of actually quite impressive material in one additional cue) on a pressing of 2,000 copies. Despite the remarkable skill it puts on display, though, any album offering for Magic won't sit among the better half of Goldsmith's works. It is a disturbing listening experience, as to be expected, and even the popular, heightened pronouncement of the love theme in "Appassionata" is presented with an agitated, suspenseful edge that will convince your gut that something is wrong. If you haven't seen the film, it would be a challenge to start listening to the score, read a synopsis detailing the gripping plot of the film, and feel comfortable stopping only halfway through. Such is the life that Goldsmith's unsettling score brings to this horrific tale.  ***   @Amazon.com: CD or Download