How The West Was Won (Alfred Newman & Ken Darby)
(1962)
I don’t know where to start here. Before I heard the score to How The West Was Won, I never really realized how much I loved film music. I knew about Star Wars, Harry Potter, Indiana Jones, and all the other works of John Williams that everybody would recognise, but it wasn’t until I heard this score to what is inarguably one of the greatest Western films ever made, that I actually about the effect that music for the cinema had on me.
I first came across this score in 2008 when I was reading John Williams’ Wikipedia page. On it, I read that he had a total of 45 Oscar nominations, a record for the most nominations of any composer, tied with some guy named Alfred Newman. I then went to YouTube, hoping that I’d be able to find some of Newman’s music to have a listen to. The first video I came across was called ‘Alfred Newman – Greatest Hits’. The first thing I heard was the 20th Century Fox Fanfare, which I’d heard numerous times before and always wondered who wrote it. And then, the second piece was How The West Was Won. The excerpt of the score was only about a minute long, but Newman’s rousing, unforgettable main theme immediately made me want to hear more of it. When I finally got hold of the soundtrack album, I played it through and through for what must have been over fifty times. As I write this, I’ve probably listened to it over two hundred times.
For me at least, the two best things about most of the classic Western films is the cinematography and the music. How The West Was Won is no exception, giving us truly magnificent representations of the American West, and features a cast of some of the greatest actors in cinema history, including John Wayne, Gregory Peck, Henry Fonda, and James Stewart.
All this is complimented by Alfred Newman’s masterpiece of a musical score. Of course, Newman was never associated with the Western Genre in the way that composers like Elmer Bernstein and Dimitri Tiomkin were. Indeed, Tiomkin was the first choice to provide the score, however, eye surgery made him unavailable, at which point Newman was hired as a replacement.
This was Newman’s third score after leaving 20th Century Fox, where he had spent over two decades of his career, writing music for films too numerous to mention produced by the Studio, and earning an astonishing forty Oscar nominations and winning the award on eight occasions (his final five nominations and ninth win were for films not produced by Fox, including one for this film).
The score is performed by the MGM Studio Orchestra, The Ken Darby Voices choir, and various other soloists. The Overture begins with a brief statement of the main theme, and the launches into ‘Promised Land’, a brilliant song performed by the orchestra and the Ken Darby Singers. From there, the muscular main theme of the film is heard at its best in the Main Title, and is a recurring theme in numerous other pieces in the score. Performed with a majestic feel by several horns, it’s one of those themes like Star Wars and Gone with the Wind that keeps you hooked from beginning to end, and in my opinion is one of the greatest themes ever written, and, with the possible exception of Elmer Bernstein’s theme for The Magnificent Seven, the best theme ever written for the Western genre.
I know that I usually review a score track by track, but I’m not going to do that here, simply because writing how good this score is cannot do it justice. I do however, strongly suggest that you purchase this score, on the Sony Classical 2-disc version, which contains over two hours of some of the best film music ever written, as well as some interesting liner notes about Newman, the score, and the film itself.
Whilst I don’t think How the West Was Won is quite the greatest musical score ever written, it is very high on my list. Following this film, Alfred Newman wrote just four more scores, winning his ninth Oscar for Camelot in 1969, and earning his forty fifth, and final Oscar nomination – setting a record which has yet to be surpassed to this day – for his final work – the dynamic and thrilling score to Airport which he completed soon before his death in 1970. Newman wrote many, many masterpieces of musical scores during his forty year career in Hollywood, but I don’t think any of them can be a better testament to the maestro’s legendary talent than this. It is, and will likely always remain, my single favourite film score.
Purchase from Amazon (UK)
Purchase from Amazon (USA)
Track Listing
Disc 1
1 – Overture
2 – Main Title
3 – This is the West
4 – The Erie Canal
5 – Two Hearts on a Tree
6 – Shenandoah
7 – First Meeting
8 – First Kiss
9 – The Morning After
10 – The River Pirates
11 – Godspeed Eve
12 – The Burial
13 – Wagon Train Forward
14 – Sit Down Sister
15 – Wandering’
16 – The Jump Off Point
17 – Cleve Van Valen
18 – Poor Wayfarin’ Stranger
19 – Raise a Ruckus Tonight
20 – Come Share My Life
21 – Cheyennes
22 – Careless Love
23 – Gold Glaim
24 – What Was Your Name in the States?
25 – He’s Gone Away
26 – A Home in the Meadow
27 – Marriage Proposal
Disc 2
1 – Entr’acte
2 – Mr. Lincoln
3 – He’s Linus’ Boy
4 – I’m Sad and I’m Lonely
5 – When Johnny Comes Marching Home
6 – Zeb’s Return
7 – The Pony Express
8 – A Railroader’s Bride I’ll Be
9 – Workin’
10 – The Jugglers
11 – No Goodbye
12 – Zeb and Jethro
13 – Buffalo Stampede
14 – Climb a Higher Hill
15 – The Van Valen Auction
16 – Gant
17 – No Goodbye
18 – Celebration
19 – Finale
20 – Finale Ultimo
21 – Exit Music
Supplemental Material
22 – Miss Bailey’s Ghost
23 – A Home in the Meadow
24 – When I Was Single
25 – Shenandoah
26 – Rock of Ages
27 – The Erie Canal
28 – Wait for the Hoedown
29 – First Meeting
30 – No Goodbye
31 – A Home in the Meadow
Credits
Composed & Conducted by Alfred Newman & Ken Darby
Orchestrated by Leo Shuken & Jack Hayes
Performed by the MGM Studio Orchestra & Ken Darby Voices
Album Produced by Didier C. Deutsch
Awards
Academy Award for Best Original Score (nominated)
AFI – 100 Years of Film Scores – #25
Insert Notes
Contains extensive information about the film, the score, and the composers. There is also a detailed list of each cue, including the date that it was recorded.
All artwork and images are Copyright © Turner Entertainment Co & Sony Music Entertainment.
