William Wyler Collectors Guide: The Big Country (1958), Part 2

The Big Score

Music for this star-studded Western epic remains composer Jerome Moross’s best known work
After much musicological commentary, first complete physical and recorded history of his score
A tall story in a big country: rumour persists film was released in 70mm multi-track stereo
Score initially recorded in stereo but masters intentionally junked after mono mixdown
There are numerous releases of soundtrack highlights in both mono and ‘fake’ stereo
It’s been a perennial stereoised seller worldwide since the film’s theatrical première
More recent expanded and remastered releases include all existing music – in mono
Comprehensive 1988 re-recording only way to hear dynamic score in true stereo
The Big Covers: plethora of remakes in every instrument and genre imaginable
The Big Song: even a rare and underrated lyrical version by a showbiz legend

The Big Country: Making of a Masterpiece, Part 2 | Collectors Guide, Part 2

The Big Country aka Idegen a cowboyok között (1958, dir. William Wyler) 1970 Hungarian poster by Istvánfy János

1970 Hungarian poster by Istvánfy János aka IstvÃ¡nfy JÃ¡nos. The title, Idegen a cowboyok között, translates as “A stranger among cowboys”.

1958 soundtrack album
Complete 1958 recordings
1988 recording
Other recordings
Related articles

1958 soundtrack album

The Big Country (1958, dir. William Wyler) US United Artists Records LP of Jerome Moross score

1958 US LP with David Passalacqua artwork over Saul Bass’s blazing sun design (rear)

The grandeur and sweep of the great Western frontier—the epic quality of men’s passions in the days before the West was tamed—these ingredients of William Wyler’s Technirama-Technicolor Production The Big Country furnish the characteristics of the score Jerome Moross has composed for this tale of one of the last great frontier fights for water rights that meant survival.

Using a 60-piece symphonic orchestra incorporating some of Hollywood’s most outstanding performing talents, the composer develops a musical background which stands admirably on its own and is rendered with unusual virtuosity. Reflecting the contrasting moods of the story, it captures the diverse aspects of the period in themes of purest Americana. The composer drives home each of these in turn through magnificent use of the lusty brass, the haunting woodwinds, the folksy fiddles and sobbing violins of the full-bodied orchestra, which he adapts to each sequence, manipulating them with masterful dexterity.

Majestic in its major passages, tender in its romantic interludes, authentically earthy in its divertissements, his well-rounded score interprets in a modern idiom the untamed spirit of the frontiersmen and the threatening elements of the as-yet-unbridled America of a century ago—The Big Country.

LCSO 10, CCO 13, MWB 13, ICYOLA 13, SYSO 15, NCYO 19, LCPCO 20, MUCAOS 22, FHO 23

Some of the titles of the musical sequences suggest the Western flavour and fighting action projected in the themes. Against these stand other segments, now delicate and intimate, now eerie or gay, which round out the full human scope of the film and of its memorable score.

Jerome Moross proves here once more that he is one of the most impressive of America’s new composers. His music for The Big Country comes as a further step forward in his already distinguished career. Outstanding among his past accomplishments, of course, are those of such successful motion pictures as the Cinerama Seven Wonders of the World (1956) and Samuel Goldwyn Jr’s The Proud Rebel (1958). – UA/London vinyl (1958–1978)

The only official release of Seven Wonders of the World to date is Flicker Alley’s superb BD/2-DVD (2014) which is region 0 and playable anywhere. The Proud Rebel has many poor-to-average quality public domain releases on DVD and streaming but best stick to the gorgeous remastered HD transfer on Apple TV. However, note that US label ClassicFlix has their own restoration from an IB Tech print on the way. There’s also a soundtrack album of Moross’s stirring score on LP (197-) and expanded CD (2000).

Composer Jerome Moross (1913–1983) circa 1936

The composer as a young man: Jerome Moross in the mid-1930s, around the time he took a walk in the flatlands around Albuquerque, New Mexico, which he later said inspired the main theme of The Big Country. “I got to the edge of town and walked out on the flat land with a marvellous feeling of being alone in the vastness with the mountains cutting off the horizon.”

JM: An Introduction and Annotated Worklist (2005) – Charles Turner
JM: The Big Country and Beyond!/Part 2 (2014), trailer, interviews | JM site bio

Early in his career, Moross enjoyed the patronage and support of veteran composer-teacher Aaron Copland and his Young Composers Group, where Moross met and became lifelong friends with Bernard Herrmann. Moross went on to orchestrate and compose music for many renowned works in theatre, films and television, including The Golden Apple stage musical (1954), The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1960), The Cardinal (1963), The War Lord (1965) and The Valley of Gwangi (1969). But his Oscar nominated score for The Big Country remains his best known and most instantly recognisable achievement, and a strong contender for the greatest Western score ever. But it almost never came to pass, as director Wyler’s hatred of of the score compelled him to hire another composer to redo it. But preview audiences were so enthusiastic about the music, especially the opening theme, that star and co-producer Gregory Peck persuaded him to back down.

With Moross himself wielding the conductor’s baton, scoring sessions took place at the Samuel Goldwyn Studio sound stages on April 28, May 12 and 26, and June 9, 16, 23 and 25, 1958. As already stated, the original three-channel stereo masters were junked at an early stage and no stereo copies survive. The first soundtrack LPs, with a sleeve design by Saul Bass, appeared concurrently with the film in 1958 and consist of 12 cues totalling 29 minutes; the UK also had a four-cue 7″ EP. United Artists produced two iterations of the LP: one in mono, though not always clearly marked as such, and the other in now much-derided “electronically reprocessed stereo” but the sleeves and labels disingenuously tag it as “high fidelity stereo”, “stereophonic” or plain old “stereo”. Swizz.

The soundtrack album was issued with two different sleeve designs from 1958–1974. Though mono, this 1958 US LP does not say so anywhere on the sleeve or labels (rear). Conversely, the very similar stereo version is clearly indicated by its labels and stickered sleeve.

Not creating an actual stereo LP master directly from the original 35mm magnetic film recordings was a common practise at the time; even hugely budgeted spectacle The Ten Commandments (1956) had a mono-only LP. This was because “the original 35mm recordings, while captured in three-channel stereo, were not properly balanced for an LP stereo release, as the intent at the time had been to mix them to mono for the film soundtrack itself.”

In other words, though the masters were technically stereo, they were never intended to be heard by the public as such, so were not recorded in a fashion that would have facilitated high quality stereo film or album soundtracks. They’re not sadly lost to history but merely temporarily existed as a means to create the desired mono masters. Incidentally, as Commandments’ stereo masters were archived, advances in audio technology enabled them to be adequately remixed six decades later for inclusion in 6-CD The Ten Commandments: 60th Anniversary Soundtrack Collection from Intrada.

The Big Country’s primary mono soundtrack LP was therefore only released in “stereo” in order to satisfy growing demand among early hi-fi enthusiasts. And it worked: it was a huge seller for over two decades and reissued dozens of times in both formats in the US, UK, Australia, New Zealand and Japan. There have now been more than 50 releases from 1958 to the present day but most LPs (the last mono LP was in 1974) and all CD and streaming copies are in fake stereo, so caveat emptor. Be wary too of a common Spanish bootleg CD and MP3 from Calle Mayor/Vintage Music (rear/disc).

UA/London/HMV+ LP/CD/MP3 (1958)

By the way, the mono LP master isn’t simply an abbreviated version of the full score: it has noticeably more echo but not as much as the stereoised version.

Cast and crew of The Big Country (1958, dir. William Wyler)

The Big Men of The Big Country (alt) L-R: unknown x2, Charles Bickford, Burl Ives, Gregory Peck, unknown x5, Charlton Heston and Chuck Connors; comment if you can fill in any of the blanks!

The fact The Big Country’s score was initially recorded in rudimentary stereo and the film itself is a widescreen epic has led many to wrongly assert the soundtrack was mixed and impossibly premièred in stereo, and that some stereo 70mm blow-up prints were struck. Not only has this been flatly refuted by no less than Gregory Peck himself but neither is ever mentioned in any of the extensive contemporary studio documents, publicity materials or media reports.

The latter is unthinkable, as both stereo and 70mm were major selling points at the time. Remember, this was the era of cinema using every trick up its sleeve in the fight back against television, the great usurper. Said anomalous stereo prints then supposedly became mysteriously lost, save for a few unobtainable and unverifiable copies held by reclusive private collectors; a surprisingly common occurrence in the world of fabled films. Such claims should be greeted with nothing but scepticism and deserving sarcasm.

Incidentally, according to musicologist Mariana Whitmer, among Moross’s many TV credits was the score for “Stolen Horses” a standout episode of long-running Western series Gunsmoke (S6 E29, April 8, 1961). Many of the cues from that episode were reused in “Long Long Trail” (S7 E6, November 4, 1961) with one in particular sounds like “The Attempted Rape” cue from The Big Country.

Mariana Whitmer: JM’s The Big Country: A Film Score Guide (2012) analysis
- Reinventing the Western Film Score: JM and TBC in Music in the Western (2011) – ed. Kathryn Kalinak
- JM: Concert Hall and Stage Works in Double Lives: Film Composers in the Concert Hall (2019) – ed. James Wierzbicki

Complete 1958 recordings

The Big Country (1958, dir. William Wyler) Spanish Quartet Records CD of Jerome Moross's score

Quartet Records 2-CD (rear)

Great Scores: The Big Country – Craig Lysy/alt

In 1990, Screen Archives Entertainment released the entire 42-cue mono score on regular CD and in a 500-limited edition boxed version with a superlative 12″ x 12″ 66-page book that’s an absolute treasure trove of information. This collection was first reissued on CD by La-La Land Records with a somewhat more trebly sound not favoured by many, and again by Harkit Records with the sound reverted to that of the Screen Archives CD .

But, SAE’s book aside, by far the best release to date is a fully remastered double CD from Spain’s Quartet Records; the first disc has the expanded score recordings while the second has both entire “stereo” and mono 1958 albums. The first disc is also three whole minutes longer than the previous releases – 75:32 vs 72:35 – as every cue is extended by 3-5 seconds. Note that the first disc was faulty in a small number of initial pressings and Quartet issued replacements. As you’d expect, all four CDs have unique insert booklets packed with info.

SAE CD and box set w/66-page book (1990)
La-La Land CD (2007) review
Harkit CD (2013)
Quartet CD (2018) info

Even though The Big Country enjoyed prestigious roadshow engagements on initial release, there was no intermission, so no entr’acte either. However, some recorded cues still went unused but are also present on the film’s isolated score track.

1988 recording

The Big Country (1958, dir. William Wyler) Silva Screen CD of Jerome Moross's score

1995 CD reissue

Silva Screen LP/CD/alt (1988, reissued 1995)

Though it can’t quite match the original, this fully digital recording from October 1988 gives it a close run for its money and expectedly wins on sheer dynamism and fidelity. Tony Bremner conducts the Philharmonia Orchestra in a majestic performance featuring all the main cues and clocking in at 55 minutes.

Silva Screen MP3/CD (2000, reissued 2007) – re-recorded Main Title

For the Main Title, album producer Christopher Palmer opted to go with a version originally intended by Moross, rather than the cue actually heard in the film which incorporated his own (literally) last-minute revisions. But both Silva Screen Records co-founder James Fitzpatrick and Moross’s daughter Susanna were unsatisfied with it and wanted the film version reinstated. Hence, said cue has been replaced on both of its orange-sleeved reissues with a new recording of Nic Raine conducting the City of Prague Philharmonic; the rest of the CD is unaltered.

Silva Screen reissue CD/MP3

Other recordings

In line with the then burgeoning trend for film soundtrack albums and tie-in hit singles, to Moross’s disapproval the Main Title was given a set of lyrics by Jack Lewis and Morty Neff. It also gained a new subtitle (Another Day, Another Sunset), by which the original theme itself is sometimes mistakenly known. “The Big Song” was recorded by “UA’s Big Star” Diahann Carroll with Alvin Cohn and His Orchestra, and released on 7″ single in the same countries as the soundtrack LP, and as UK sheet music (variant). But it was far from a “Big Hit” and roundly flopped, much to Moross’s delight; he said it was “a terrible lyric… it sold two copies.” But I strongly disagree and think it rather sweet and affecting. Heaven knows why it’s never been reissued in any form, not even on any Carroll album. Why not listen for yourself and while you’re at it, check out this scrappy but fun live rendition.

Another day, another sunset
My love will soon be home once more
I’ll wait till then and start to live again
When I hear his footsteps at my door

I know he’s tired, I know he’s weary
I know he needs a place to rest
He needn’t roam for here he has a home
In the heart of one who loves him best

I hunger for his touch
I miss his kiss so much
Oh, how he used to look at me
Through every lonely night
I long to hold him tight
I’ve waited for him patiently

Another day, another sunset
Although my love is still away
The days go slow but very soon I know
He’ll be in my arms and home to stay
He’ll be in my arms and home to stay

Also rare and even more desirable is Moross’s Suite for Orchestra, adapted by the composer in 1965 and running at around 16 minutes. It features revised orchestrations of the five key cues: Main Title, Waltz (Waltz from Major Terrill’s Party), Ballad (Raid on Blanco Canyon), Scherzo (Old Thunder) and Finale (The Welcoming). Although it’s been performed live on many occasions, apart from one anonymous related bootleg, this excellent rendition is the only one available:

There are literally dozens of recordings of the perennially popular Main Title; naturally enough, as it’s a veritable three-minute symphony and among the most famous of all pieces of Western music. Most are reasonably faithful to the original but there are some interesting diversions from Moross’s template. Many home-made spins are on accordion, guitar, MuseScore, synth and just about every conceivable instrument imaginable in addition to many mostly obscure studio recordings; here are a bunch of my faves: