Filmtracks: The Cowboys (John Williams)

•	2018 Album

•	1994 Album

•	2018 Album

•	1994 Album

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Composed, Conducted, and Produced by:

John Williams

Track Listings

1994 Varèse Album Tracks ▼

2018 Varèse Album Tracks ▼

Album Cover Art

1994 Varèse
2018 Varèse

Labels & Release Dates

Varèse Sarabande
(1994)

Varèse Sarabande
(June 18th, 2018)

Album Availability

The 1994 Varèse Sarabande album was a regular U.S. release. The label's expanded 2018 album is limited to 3,000 copies and retailed only through soundtrack specialty outlets. It was also made available digitally in 2021 for $15.

Also See

•	Far and Away
•	Cinderella Liberty
•	Superman

Notes & Quotes

The inserts of both Varèse Sarabande albums include detailed information about the score and film.

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Filmtracks Traffic Rank: #2,301
Written 6/3/24

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Buy it... on the far superior 2018 album presentation to hear John Williams channel Aaron Copland and famous Western-genre film composers in a rambunctious orchestral romp.

Avoid it... if you have little tolerance for Williams' Americana writing, this work representing some of his earliest, vivacious and heartfelt tones with distinctive harmonica and acoustic guitar.

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.

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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

Bias Check:

For John Williams reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.68 (in 91 reviews) and the average viewer rating is 3.54 (in 363,716 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.

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