How the West Was Won (film score)

E82515

How the West Was Won is a sweeping orchestral film score for the 1962 epic Western, renowned for its grand, Americana-infused themes and expansive musical storytelling.


Statements (48)
Predicate Object
instanceOf film score
orchestral work
soundtrack
associatedGenre epic film
associatedPerformer Hollywood studio musicians
MGM Studio Orchestra
associatedWork How the West Was Won (soundtrack album)
award Academy Award for Best Original Score
awardFor Best Music, Scoring of Music, Adaptation or Treatment
awardYear 1963
basedOn American folk music traditions
composer Alfred Newman
Dimitri Tiomkin
Elmer Bernstein
Hugo Friedhofer
Ken Darby
countryOfOrigin United States
criticalReception widely acclaimed
genre Americana
Western film score
film score
orchestral music
hasTheme Civil War sequence music
How the West Was Won main theme
pioneer journey motif
railroad-building sequence music
includes end title music
main title theme
overture
influencedBy American frontier mythology
traditional American hymns and folk tunes
instrumentation symphony orchestra
language English
narrativeFunction musically unifies multiple story episodes
notableFeature Americana-infused melodies
expansive musical storytelling
sweeping orchestral themes
orchestrationBy Alfred Newman
originalReleaseYear 1962
partOf How the West Was Won (1962 film)
periodDepicted 19th-century United States
primaryComposer Alfred Newman
productionCompany Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
publisher Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer music department
recordLabel MGM Records
settingDepicted American West
style late-Romantic Hollywood orchestral style
usedFor underscoring the epic Western narrative

Referenced by (3)
Subject (surface form when different) Predicate
How the West Was Won (film score) ("How the West Was Won (soundtrack album)")
associatedWork
How the West Was Won (film score) ("How the West Was Won main theme")
hasTheme
Alfred Newman
notableWork

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