Posts from Gorch in thread „Elmer Bernstein“

While prowling around Sam's Club, I found a sampler of 15 episodes of the 1959 series "Riverboat". Darren McGavin and Burt Reynolds are the nominal stars, but the theme and incidental music were composed by Bernstein. This is the year before he wrote "The Magnificent Seven" and two years before "The Comancheros" and it appears he used that BIG WESTERN style of music here for the first time.
I haven't watched all of the episodes yet, but the music has been something else to hear. If there are any other die hard Elmer fans, this is worth picking up.

We deal in lead, friend.

Although it wasn't used in the movie, the soundtrack has Johnny Cash singing the title song to The Sons of Katie Elder to Elmer's music. Worth looking it up if you already haven't hear it.

We deal in lead, friend.

Elmer's first big break was DeMille's Ten Commandments. He composed a stately, respectful theme for the scene where the Hebrews leave Egypt - you know the one, with all the kids, goats, camels and old folk gearing up to stroll into the desert.
DeMille heard it and ordered Elmer to speed it up because it made the whole scene a crashing bore. Elmer did and later said he learned a huge lesson about movie scoring - that the music should propel the action on the screen, not just reflect it.
He remembered that when he scored Magnificent Seven and Comancheros.
I love the score for Big Jake. Duke is introduced late in the film and then you hear his theme for the first time. Good stuff.

We deal in lead, friend.