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| Williams |
The Cowboys: (John Williams) in the wake of
True
Grit, legendary actor John Wayne sought films in which he could
convey paternal traits, even if it meant playing characters that died.
Essentially a Western coming of age story, 1972's
The Cowboys
offers Wayne as a veteran Montana cattle rancher in need of driving his
herd to the Dakotas but, having lost his regular ranch hands to another
gold rush, turns to a group of local adolescent boys to accomplish the
task. He trains the group to be competent cowboys while becoming a de
facto father for them. Their journey is upended when a villain's posse
harasses the group and eventually kills Wayne's character, forcing the
boys to complete the drive while taking the law into their own hands.
The movie was met with considerable criticism for its willingness to
show the boys murdering the antagonists without remorse, betraying the
PG rating of the film. The bigger problem with director Mark Rydell's
product is the completely disparate personalities of the two halves of
the film. Prior to its intermission,
The Cowboys is a buoyant and
sometimes comedic tale of familial development for the boys and Wayne's
lead. The second half of the movie, however, dwells in suspense,
assault, and death, the violence pointless except to harden the young
cowboys into men at a far too early age. For composer John Williams, the
same exact dilemma had just happened with
Fiddler on the Roof,
the first half of that soundtrack glowing with energy and the second
burdened with despair. The disparity isn't quite as depressing in
The
Cowboys for Williams, however. Between
The Reivers and
The
Cowboys, Mark Rydell can be credited with the substantial launch of
Williams from his jazzy 1960's reputation to a full-fledged orchestral
composer for a breadth of genres, and it was these early Western-styled
scores that caught the attention of the directors that would become
Williams' steady collaborators over the rest of his career. At the time,
The Cowboys didn't net the composer the same amount of attention
and awards consideration that his other 1972 scores did, but it
impressed the right people and remains his most impressive score of the
year.
Not only did
The Cowboys allow Williams to channel
his inner Aaron Copland that would guide him through much of his later
concert life, but it afforded him the opportunity to touch upon genre
conventions also established by Dimitri Tiomkin and Elmer Bernstein. In
many ways, the rambunctious portions of this score owe to Copland and
those Hollywood veterans, but the work is also saturated with Williams'
own mannerisms that were just developing at the time. To hear the
conventions of the genre from the prior twenty years mingle with
Williams' splendid dramatic tendencies makes
The Cowboys a
standout that was eventually surpassed by
Far and Away but rarely
touched upon with the same enthusiasm. The ensemble utilized by Williams
maxed out at an economical 69 players but sounds more lushly balanced
than one might expect for an early 1970's score. In fact, this Los
Angeles studio recording is far more dynamic than the maestro's other
early 1970's scores, avoiding the pitfalls of archival sound that often
restrain his larger works from that time and sounding more akin to an
early digital age recording. The metallic percussion is particularly
well placed in the mix. Unlike the composer's next collaboration with
Rydell,
Cinderella Liberty, this one stays largely faithful to
the base orchestral sound with the expected Western percussion and brass
layering. The only specialty instruments of the score include a bluesy
harmonica and acoustic guitar, these main accents joined by synthetic
harpsichord, a regular Williams tool at the time, during suspense parts.
The employment of the harmonica was a common occurrence for Williams in
the early 1970's and marks a warmly folksy sense of yesteryear in his
scores. The use of trombone as an element of comedy for the silliness of
the boys is also a nice tool in the first half of the score. The
composer isn't afraid, however, to express melodrama with full strings
and horn solos in
The Cowboys, countering the sometimes funny and
quirky Western elements with the weight of magnificence listeners would
later come to love from him. These ingredients are combined with
frenzied brilliance at moments in the work, Williams countering his
sometimes sparse character and suspense cues with immensely satisfying
action passages that smartly layer his many themes on top of each
other.
Williams supplies
The Cowboys with more themes than
really necessary, but their interplay is certainly welcome. He conjures
four primary identities and three secondary ones, leaving only a small
handful of cues without at least a passing reference to one or two of
these ideas. The core four are performed together in the concert-like
arrangements of the score, the main theme for the group of boys leading
the way with its spritely, optimistic march. Heard first at 0:29 into
"Overture," the enthusiastic main theme also exists at 0:15 into "Main
Title - The Cowboys," directly over the training theme in the background
and continues its spirited interplay with the training theme in the
cue's latter half. Thin on harmonica and twinkling guitar in "The Boys,"
the theme takes a comedic tilt with the ensemble and opens "The Kids and
Crazy Alice" in similar comedy, swapping with the training theme
liberally. It continues the upbeat charge of silliness early in "Anybody
That Tall" and "Training Montage," the latter mingling the theme in
between training theme renditions. The idea contributes to the vivacious
middle portion of "Long Hair and the Roundup" and again alternates with
the training theme at the start of "To Belle Fourche." It anchors at
0:29 into "Entr'acte" but is far less prevalent in Act II. The main
theme turns agitated with suspense in the snare-aided "Drums of Manhood
and the Execution" but then bursts back into full form, later
punctuating the turbulent action in "Into the Trap" and "The Battle." At
the conclusion of the film, it's shortchanged by Williams, however,
awkwardly muted on snare and winds at 1:31 into "End Title and End Cast"
as it fades out of existence. Frequently mingled with this identity is
Williams' most overtly "western" idea: the training theme. Blasting the
score into full gear at the start of "Overture," it reprises that duty
for "Main Title - The Cowboys" in similar fashion and recurs later in
the cue. The theme is playful early in "The Kids and Crazy Alice,"
alternating deftly with the main theme, and explodes with full force at
0:24 into "Training Montage" among more main theme references. It serves
the same role at the openings of "To Belle Fourche" and "Entr'acte" but,
like the main theme, diminishes from there on. The training theme
provides a short moment of inspiration early in "Drums of Manhood and
the Execution" and returns at 0:36 into "End Title and End Cast" as a
brief interlude to the softer material, but it otherwise
disappears.
The other two primary themes in
The Cowboys also
mingle extensively with each other, typically sharing common dramatic
cores. The family theme for the boys and Wayne's lead is the most
traditionally dramatic Williams identity, a clear preview of Kent family
theme in
Superman later in the decade. Introduced at 1:05 into
"Overture," this pastoral idea closes "The Hands Quit" after the Wil and
Ann theme, following that same strategy in "Wil and Ann." A noble horn
and later harmonica performance of the family theme graces throughout
the brief "Graveyard" and is juxtaposed against Long Hair's theme in
"Long Hair and the Roundup" before bursting into a robust performance
akin to the training theme's style. A heroic version for brass follows
at 0:26 into "To Belle Fourche," and an electronic harpsichord slightly
expresses it early in "The First Night" amongst comedy prior to shifting
to harmonica and electric bass at the cue's end. The family theme
provides another bold brass announcement near the beginning of "Burning
Daylight" and returns at 1:04 into "Entr'acte." It manages to survive in
Act II in more restrained forms, infusing some warmth into the latter
half of the unused "Afraid of the Dark," sadly conveyed by harmonica at
the beginning of "Charlie's Burial," and subdued and abbreviated in the
second half of "Long Hair Trails." A stunted fragment is repeated on
horns in "Summer's Over" while the idea provides remembrance at the
outset of "End Title and End Cast" on solo guitar, transitioning to a
mature string rendition of grandeur at 0:47 to complete the boys'
honoring of their father figure. Perhaps unnecessary but still musically
welcome is Williams' trail theme, which extends out of the family
theme's personality for the vista shots. Alternating with the family
theme at 1:26 into "Overture," it returns at 0:54 into "Main Title - The
Cowboys" with the snazzy mischief theme as an interlude. The trail theme
then builds out of the family theme for a robust presence late in "Wil
and Ann" and shines bright hope from strings at 0:53 into "To Belle
Fourche," followed by harmonica, trumpet, and others taking the lead. It
inspires wholesome, harmonica-led contemplation at 0:38 into "The First
Night," hints at the start of "Burning Daylight," and assumes its
position at 1:26 into "Entr'acte," this time going into the Long Hair
motif instead of a family reprise, as the "Overture" had. It's
fragmented on harmonica in the haze of "Afraid of the Dark," extends
softly out of the family theme in "Charlie's Burial," and whimsically
follows that theme in "End Title and End Cast" for closure.
The secondary themes in
The Cowboys are no less
effective. The theme for the villain, Long Hair, is a series of
ascending pairs of notes in the surprising major key with a sinister,
trailing end. It's often conveyed by what sounds like a bass harmonica
in most performances, starting with lighter tones in "Long Hair and the
Roundup" but opening "Long Hair's Threat" darkly and leading to a
frightening crescendo to end Act I. It interjects at 1:47 into
"Entr'acte" and contributes frequently to Act II. The theme opens
"Charlie's Demise," develops a beefier presence along with shakers and
rattling percussion in "Long Hair Trails," and better explores its
secondary phrasing in the quietly morbid "Long Hair and Dan." It finally
closes "Into the Trap" with an eerily distant mix. A Wil and Ann theme
for the old couple at the beginning is a subtle compliment to the family
theme, tentatively developed in the middle of "The Hands Quit" and
expressed on clarinet early in "Wil and Ann" before yielding again to
the family theme. The funkiest theme in the score is a great, descending
phrase for harmonica for the concept of mischief. Nicely tucked at 1:04
into "Main Title - The Cowboys," this mischief theme also offers a
humorous, plucky sideshow at 1:54 into "Long Hair and the Roundup" and
is lazy and disorganized for harmonica and trombone in "Mrs.
Collingwood's Girls." Among the unique cues in
The Cowboys is the
restrained mystery of "Nightlinger's Tale," the adaptation of Antonio
Vivaldi's "Concerto in D" for "Learning the Ropes" for acoustic guitar,
and honky-tonk piano amusement with trombone in "Sour Mash." Later, the
generic suspense of "Afraid of the Dark" is unused in the film while the
timpani, snare, and piano thuds in the second half of "Drums of Manhood
and the Execution" are distinctive. Overall,
The Cowboys is
really strong Western score with a tight narrative, but its extremely
disparate two halves will leave most listeners seeking the bright
optimism and humor of the first half only. The presence of an "Overture"
and "Entr'acte" is a luxury usually reserved for Williams' musical
adaptations, allowing his thematic interplay ample time to thrive in
concert form. The score was amazingly never officially released on LP
record, represented for decades by a bootleg record instead. The
Varèse Sarabande label has given the score its only two official
physical releases in the 50 years since the score's recording, both on
CD. The 1994 product was limited to 30 minutes, accidentally contained
the theme for the related television spin-off show, and was badly out of
order. A 2018 expansion offered upwards of an hour of music from the
film and a slew of alternates, and the sound quality is excellent. The
longer album is an easy recommendation for any serious Williams
enthusiast.
**** @Amazon.com: CD or
Download
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For John Williams reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.67
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The inserts of both Varèse Sarabande albums include detailed
information about the score and film.
