Just saw that the folks at Counterpoint have released Dimitri Tiomkin’s score for Last Train From Gun Hill (1959). A number of us here at 50 Westerns From The 50s, writer and readers alike, are really big on this picture, and the score’s a big part of what makes it work so well. The CD is limited to just 2,000 copies. Love that artwork.
Speaking of music that really makes a movie work, Jerome Moross’ The Big Country (1958) score is also available. La La Land Records only pressed 3,000 copies. One of the best, if not the best, Western scores ever. Well known, too — they used a piece of it on America’s Got Talent the other night. (By the way, Moross’ daughter, Susanna Moross Tarjan, has been extremely generous with research material for my book.)
While I’ve got you reaching for your wallets, there’s Alfred Newman and Hugo Friedhofer’s collaboration on The Bravados (1958).
Great films, great scores.
The score to The Big Country is fantastic. (I keep meaning to see the movie but haven’t mananged yet, mainly because it’s so long – I need to find a stretch of time to sit down and watch it uninterrupted.) Amazon has two different mp3 albums of the score – one a re-recording by the Philharmonia Orchestra and the other, I think, from the original soundtrack. I went with that one because the re-recording didn’t seem to have the same spirit and punch to it.
One piece of film music I wish somebody would re-record is Victor Young’s gorgeous main title theme from Rio Grande. I have the original soundtrack CD, but the sound quality isn’t the clearest.