Customer Reviews

The Big Country: Music by Jerome Moross

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

As you can see from the other reviews, this is NOT the original soundtrack of the movie.....sadly, it is out of print....If you're absolutely desperate, yes, go ahead and buy this one...I'd much prefer all the fans of this wonderful score write to United Artists and beg to have this soundtrack re-released...Perhaps they might for the 50th aniversary of the movie???Must we wait until 2008?

This is without question one of the top ten movie scores ever....and I've still never figured out how it was beaten by The Old Man and the Sea for Best Film Score...who on earth remembers THAT soundtrack??????? The music is as much of a character in the movie as Gregory Peck's McKay...

Again, if you can't find the original non-Bremmer soundtrack, this is better than none...but beg UA to re-release the ORIGINAL on CD....if you can find the boxed set..it's worth every cent!

The opening theme and score of Jerome Moross "THE BIG COUNTRY"(1958), was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Score... has the carefree sound of horses running at a full gallup, trudging onward and keeping pace with each other, pulling a stagecoach from the East to the Wide-Open West!

Burl Ives won an Oscar and Golden Globe Award for "Best Supporting Actor" for his portrayal of Rufus Hannassey, a throw-back to the stone age...and Academy Award director William Wyler was at the helm...featuring Gregory Peck, Charlton Heston, Jean Simmons, Carroll Baker, Chuck Connors and Charles Bickford---blends action, romance and hard-riding with a picturesque background of early Americana---and to fill the boots of composer, they gave the assignment to Jerome Moross, proved to be an excellent choice.

Another excellent decision was The Philharmonia Orchestra under the direction of Tony Bremner(conductor)---this score in particular is Moross' major contribution to "film-score-buffs" collection from the 20th Century---whenever we hear that opening theme, we know our legendary composer gave us a "pure feeling of freedom" ~ JEROME MOROSS, we'll never forget you!

Total Time: 55:15 on 18 Tracks ~ Silva Screen Records SSD-1048 ~ (1988/1995)

This is one of my personal "10 Best Music Scores of All Time"... and arguably, the finest western film score ever composed.... with a close second being "Magnificent Seven" and "Silverado".... this score is probably the benchmark by which other western movie scores are measured. Perhaps inspired by Dvorak's "New World" Symphony, this score truly captures the essence and soul of the untamed west as few other scores do. This recording, although not the original recording, is a faithful replication, and it is in stereophonic high fidelity. If you love westerns, and if you love scores that capture the romance of the open plains, this music will steal your heart.

Without question, Jerome Morass' "The Big Country" is one of the greatest motion picture sound tracks of all time! However, this is NOT the original sound track. Tony Bremmer and the Philharmonia Orchestra deliver an excellent and credible performance, but it is still missing the "spark" of the original. I give it four stars because of the material and it's a must have for any serious film score collector. If I have to wait until the "original" becomes available, this rendition is a good way to pass the time!

It's hard to imagine Jerome Moross' famous soundtrack music for THE BIG COUNTRY, William Wyler's 1958 allstar Western, without having already seen the film. I wonder what it would be like! Well, for one thing this LP, newly recorded and in some important ways very different from the original film recording, wouldn't have to bear those comparisons of "It's too fast" or "Pick up the rhythm a bit" or "This doesn't sound like it used to." Listeners will still have a field day imagining the sights and storylines of Wyler's failed epic, and of course, like most movie music, Moross' titles for the individual tracks serve to give some rough idea of what happened in the long, long movie, with its many plots and subplots. The film suffers from its absurdly inflated length; like THE TEN COMMANDMENTS it seems like a 90 minute oater cooked up into roadshow attraction length, and the thing that saves the film is, oddly enough, this wonderful music.

Many of our subsequent ideas about "Western theme" music indeed date from this release. Moross may not be one of your top ten film composers, or even top twenty, but every once in a while he could really hit one out of the ballpark, and this stirring score is every bit a match for the other great scores of 1958, from Herrmann's VERTIGO to Bernstein's BUCCANEER or Newman's and Friedhofer's score for THE BRAVADOS (another 1958 Western with Gregory Peck). This one has a reach, a scope and ambition that mirrors the manic energy and manifest destiny of the characters in Wyler's film, his version of an America that had vanished long before he came to these shores.

This is not the original soundtrack recording that appeared on the United Artists LP.....but it is a good effort for a rerecording. The tempo of the famous opening cut is faster than the original recording as heard on the video & DVD. Probably historically accurate as specified by the composer's charts but sounds a little off compared to the one everyone knows from the movie. Stanley Black got it right in his London Symphony "Digital Hollywood" recording of movie hits for MCA. That aside, the rest of the performance is right on. The recording has a drier sound with little resonance as compared with the rather hollow sounding soundstage effect of the original soundtrack.....but with considerably more impact in the bass with mordern digital technology at work. Heard from start to finish, this classic movie score could almost serve a dual role in ballet form.....if anyone cared to try it. All in all, a much appreciated effort to preserve one of the truly outstanding scores in film history.

I have both the rerecorded and the original 42 track mono and I much prefer the original. That being said this is one of the most memorable soundtracks ever written. Not only does it have a few seperate memorable themes in addition to the instantly recognizable main theme but all the tracks are well scored and very listenable. If you like soundtracks this is a MUST own. I would rate it in the top 5 of all time.

I own the original soundtrack to "The Big Country" on LP, and transferred it to audiotape years ago. This has always been one of my favorite scores of all time, even better than the magnificent "Magnificent Seven" score (pun intended) because this one has many different themes, moods and melodies in one score.

As to the complaint that this CD is not the original score, actually it IS. It is not the original conductor, Moross, and a few minor changes were made when he did the movie, but this IS his original score. (See notes accompanying CD) This newer version contains the COMPLETE score. The original vinyl I have does not. Moross' own version of the soundtrack, which I assume was released in 1958, only has 12 tracks total. Two of the party themes, for example, are left out. The theme played when Terrill's men are all charging into Blanco Canyon for the big fight is also omitted, and other tracks are also left out. I would say this CD contains 50% more music than the original soundtrack on LP. So it's worth collecting.

I agree, it was a DISGRACE that Moross did not win the Oscar, and that Bernstein did not win for "The Magnificent Seven." But we all know how "political" and sometimes nonsensical the Oscars are......

I have been watching movies for more than 50 years and the music for the "Big Country" written by Jerome Moross is quite simply the best ever written for films. Especially after having seen this William Wyler film, anyone listening to the music is able to immediately place it in the story of the film. The music is beautiful and evocotive. I cannot believe that this score did not win the Academy Award for 1958.

No, not the original sound track, but very good. This may be the best movie score ever recorded, and I was overjoyed to find it The opening theme is a little week, but the remainder is as good as the original.