Customer Reviews

Western Film Themes

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

 

 

If you like the scores for western films or TV shows, you will love this collection. They sound just the way you remember them, and the City of Prague Philharmonic do a terrific job. It's a large collection, and you may not necessarily like each of the cuts. Beware, though: There are many great ones, and some of them will get stuck roaming around in your brain!

Back in the 1950s and 1960s when most westerns were made, movies were just movies. They weren't released with simultaneous sound tracks, fast food meal deals, and action figures as movies are today. Thus, much of the original music was never released as a soundtrack, and was simply not available for purchase.

The City of Prague Philharmonic does a very good job of capturing the original sound from the films. Trumpets, French Horns, and soaring strings are what make for the classic Western genre sound (when we're not down in Old Mexico along the Rio Grande with the Mariachis). You find all of that here, along with the Indian drums, chants, and occasional electric guitars.

Least like the original is The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly theme. Who knows how the original wah-wahs and crow calls were made, and they just don't quite ring true to my ears in this recording. Still, this is a quibble to the overall excellent rendition in the other 39 songs.

If you love western music themes, you can't go wrong with these 40 pieces at under 50-cents each.

This is a very good album. I picked it up last weekend. There are 2 CDs in this album. I really liked some of the performances even better than previous releases. The Comancheros, The Scalphunters, For A Few Dollars More, Hang 'em High and Duck,You Sucker all sound fantastic. The Big Country, Villa Rides and High Caparral ara also very good. For the price you get a lot of good Western music from movies and TV.

I really enjoy listening to this cd. I have my favorites that I play over and over and some that I skip but all in all a very good compilation. The sound quality is perfect.


I do wish that certain songs would have been featured (like the Maverick theme) but all in all a nice compilation of songs. I also like being able to make a quick trip to get milk while listening to the Lone Ranger; it makes the trip exciting and fun.

Most of these 2cds collections have just about the same tunes with a few exceptions.I would have included the theme from THE VIRGINIAN tv series.Nevertheless, what we have here is a superb collection of western themes that displays different moods.The MORRICONE tunes are so well known that we take them for granted.I had forgotten that STAGECOACH had such a good score.Among my favorites are THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN,HOW THE WEST WAS WON and the wonderful JOHN DUNBAR THEME from DANCES WITH WOLVES.So get back in the saddle again and get this one.You'll want to see at least THE BIG VALLEY and BONANZA again.There is a mistake among the titles represented here on the AMAZON site.This is not a good reason enough for you to miss your rendez-vous with past heroes.After all,even AMAZON needs a sheriff to lead their staff of reviewers.The one mistake is that MCBAIN is not here,it's THE COMANCHEROS.Did i heard you say that they are both JOHN WAYNE films?

This double cd is a selection of tunes from other cds on western film themes by the ubiquitous City of Prague Philharmonic. The existing collections ("The Wild West"-the essential western film music collection and "Way Out West"-the essential western film music collection 2) available in the past in 2 separate box cd set (2 each with a total of 76 themes 19/cd)are now available in on 4 cd box set. This present one is a condensed version of the latter with 2 cds and 40 themes (20/cd). Good music but having the old one no point looking at this one. The issue is that the name of the City of Prague Philharmonic is skilfully not mentioned on the cover to fool people as in my case. Not a fraud perhaps but quite close I think. At any rate the music is excellent.

I love the amount of music on this CD. Some of the songs were not quite what I was looking for, but overall, it is a great CD of western movie themes.

The music on this CD is done very well.There is an old saying, "Less is More;" I think I would have enjoyed this CD more if the were fewer songs because after so many Western themes, it becomes monotonous.