Reinventing the Western Film Score

Buoyed by the wave of popularity for his score to The Big Country (1958), Jerome Moross claimed that he invented the archetypal western theme. In an interview from 1978, he boasted, “This is the way to do a western now; the way I did it in [The] Big Country … a western with American rhythms, American tunes and a boldness and brashness about it.” ¹ For a composer who, in 1958, had limited experience with scoring films, and had only scored one other western, to make such a pronouncement was brashness itself. The western film score absorbed a variety of sources and influences as it evolved in the decades after the introduction of sound, including American folk and popular songs of the nineteenth century, American concert hall music, and the well-known musical clichés that accompanied silent films. While Copland’s role in the formation of an American sound is significant in the development of the western film score, ² Moross can certainly take credit for introducing a fresh new approach in The Big Country, and in a style that is appreciated and imitated to this day.