{"id":53,"date":"2018-03-13T11:35:11","date_gmt":"2018-03-13T15:35:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/mus122-02\/?page_id=53"},"modified":"2018-04-23T09:53:35","modified_gmt":"2018-04-23T13:53:35","slug":"early-westerns","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/mus122-02\/the-western\/early-westerns\/","title":{"rendered":"Early Westerns & Western Sound"},"content":{"rendered":"

Movies set in and revolving around the American West hit the big screen as early as 1903, with silent pictures featuring train robberies, gun-slinging cowboys, and damsels in distress. (Aleph, 2014). Before films were synchronised with sound and music, these \u201csilent\u201d films were often accompanied by live musicians to provide a more theatrical experiences for audiences. As technology for sound synchronization became available, however, Westerns, like other kinds of films, began to produce movies with sound and music. (Cooke, 2008).<\/span><\/p>\n

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The Great Train Robbery, directed by Edwin S. Porter, a cameraman for Edison Studios, was the first motion picture to be set in the American West and features tropes that are still seen in Western films today.<\/p><\/div>\n

Janice Hocker Rushing, professor of Communication and film theorist at the University of Colorado, categories Western films made before the 1960s and the release of \u201cA Fistful of Dollars\u201d into two categories, one which emphasizes the role of community and one which reaffirms that role as important to the American West. She argues that Westerns of the sixties ushered in an era of individualism, clearly exemplified by \u201cFistful\u201d\u2019s protagonist, the \u201cMan with No Name.\u201d The brooding, tough-guy who rides from town to town in search of trouble or justice became a trope of the Western film during and after the 1960s. Previously, the hero of a film (almost never a heroine), worked with local law enforcement or a group of dedicated ranchers to catch the bad guys and bring justice to the community. (Rushing, 1983, 15-17).<\/span><\/p>\n

The first Western film with sound was <\/span>In Old Arizona <\/span><\/i>(1928), a year after the first \u201ctalkie\u201d film <\/span>The Jazz Singer <\/span><\/i>(1927). In the 1930s, \u201chorse operas,\u201d featuring singing cowboys like Gene Autry and Roy Rogers were popularized, and were produced at a rapid speed to entertain young children at matinee films. Talkie Westerns featured many Hollywood stars known for other genres, such as Barbara Stanwyck and Gary Cooper. Films in the 1940s were often characterized by dark, intense themes during and following World War Two. (Dirks, 1996). Films in the 1950s and 1960s began to characterize \u201cWestern film music\u201d as fully orchestrated soundscapes, often including percussion that imitated Native American tribal music. Some famous composers of the era included Dimitri Tiomkin, Elmer Bernstein, and Jerome Moross. Tiomkin\u2019s use of strings, loud volume, and fast tempos invoked images of cowboys and their trusty steeds galloping across a vast, natural landscape. His style of orchestration became very influential in characterizing Western film scores. (Schrems, 2010).<\/span><\/p>\n