Western Film Tunes
Westerns are films set primarily in the latter half of the 19th century in the American Old West. Some of the most beautiful music scores had been inspired by these movies.
“Will, I think you’d better go while there’s still time. It’s better for you, and it’s better for us” (High Noon, 1952)
A town Marshall is personally compelled to face a returning deadly enemy, while his own town refuses to help him. Dimiti Tiomkin can probably be considered the father of western film score. His memorable score for this magnificent western adds to the suspense that builds up as Will Kane awaits Frank Miller, who is arriving on the noon train.
“We deal in lead, friend” (The Magnificent Seven, 1960)
Based on the Japanese legendary film The Seven Samurai, it tells the story of Mexican peasant villagers oppressed by bandits that decide to hire a group of seven gunfighters to defend them. The epic score composed by Elmer Bernstein gives me a sense of euphoric excitement, followed by a relaxing sense of inner peace. It is like riding a horse at full speed in a wide-open prairie, then going across a turbulent blue-white river, and finally reaching a nice green meadow.
“Every gun makes its own tune” (The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, 1966)
Ennio Morricone composed the score for the ultimate Spaghetti Western film. Three gunmen set out to find a hidden fortune during the American Civil War. The inimitable music is very thrilling, and the background of hallucinatory chanting voices is exhilarating. It makes me feel like an outlaw galloping in a western desert with dusty winds and rolling tumbleweeds, while being chased by vicious bounty hunters. The “man with no name” also rode to the tune of magnificent scores in the first two films of the Sergio Leone’s trilogy.
“I had never really known who John Dunbar was. Perhaps because the name itself had no meaning. But as I heard my Sioux name being called over and over, I knew for the first time who I really was” (Dances with Wolves, 1990)
The maestro John Barry wrote a melancholic, romantic, and incredibly beautiful score for the exiled military man who befriends wolves and Indians. The majestic and melodic “John Dunbar Theme” is an essential element in this transcendent, endearing, and breathtaking film.
“Should we distrust the man because his manners are not our manners, and that his skin is dark?” (The Last of the Mohicans, 1992)
Three trappers in the midst of the French and Indian War protect a British Colonel’s daughters. Trevor Jones composed a passionate orchestral composition that turned out to be one of the most popular and acclaimed scores of the nineties. Due to minor music cue contributions by Randy Edelman, the score was unfortunately not eligible for Oscar consideration.
From Stagecoach (1939) to True Grit (2010), we has been blessed with numerous western score masterpieces. I just have scratched the surface of this treasure trove. Get your shovels ready and dig deeper. You will not be disappointed.
Notable Western Scores
Stagecoach (1939) – Richard Hageman, Frank Harling, John Leipold, Leo Shuken, Louis Gruenberg, and Gerard Carbonara
The Treasure of Sierra Madre (1948) – Max Steiner
Fort Apache (1948)- Richard Hageman
She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1949) – Richard Hageman
Lone Ranger (TV Series 1949) – “William Tell Overture” by Gioachino Rossini
Rio Grande (1950) – Victor Young
High Noon (1952) – Dimitri Tiomkin “The Ballad of High Noon”
Shane (1953) – Victor Young
The Man from Laramie (1955) – George Duning
Friendly Persuation (1956) – Dimitri Tiomkin
Searchers (1956) – Danny Knight
3:10 to Yuma (1957) – George Duning
Cowboy (1958) – George Duning
The Big Country (1958)– Jerome Moross
Rifleman (TV Series 1958) – Herschel Burke Gilbert
Rawhide (TV Series 1959) – Dimitri Tiomkin
Bonanza (TV Series 1959) – David Rose
Rio Bravo (1959) – Dimitri Tiomkin
Horse Soldiers (1959) – David Buttolph
The Alamo (1960) – Dimitri Tiomkin
Magnificent Seven (1960) – Elmer Bernstein
How the West Was Won (1962) – Alfred Newman
A Fistful of Dollars (1964) – Ennio Morricone
For a Few Dollars More (1965) – Ennio Morricone
The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) – Ennio Morricone
Return of the Seven (1966) – Elmer Bernstein
Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) – Ennio Morricone
Hang ‘Em High (1968) – Dominic Frontiere
The Wild Bunch (1969) – Jerry Fielding
Two Mules for Sister Sarah (1970) – Ennio Morricone, Stanley Wilson
Duck You Sucker (1971) – Ennio Morricone
The Cowboys (1972) – John Williams
My Name is Nobody (1973) – Ennio Morricone
High Plains Drifter (1973) – Dee Barton
The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) – Jerry Fielding
Silverado (1985) – Bruce Broughton
Glory (1989) – James Horner
Lonesome Dove (TV Miniseries1989) – Basil Poledouris
Dances with Wolves (1990) – John Barry
The Last of the Mohicans (1992) – Trevor Jones
Unforgiven (1992) – Lennie Niehaus, Clint Eastwood
Gettysburg (1993) – Randy Edelman
Maverick (1994) – Randy Newman
Wyatt Earp (1994) – James Newton Howard
Legends of the Fall (1995) – James Horner
Deadwood (TV Series 2004) – David Schwartz
The Proposition (2005) – Nick Cave. Warren Ellis
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (2007) – Nick Cave. Warren Ellis
3:10 to Yuma (2007) – Marco Beltrami
True Grit (2010) – Carter Burwell
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