Montage #13 - Cowboy Classics

En français: http://itywltmt.blogspot.com/2011/08/le-mythe-du-cowboy-solitaire.html

Every year, the second Friday of July is “Stampede Parade” day in Calgary, the official kick-off for the Calgary Stampede.

For 10 days, every Calgarian is a cowboy, and nobody pays for breakfast as there are more pancake breakfasts per capita during that time than anywhere else on Earth – of that, I am convinced.

(UPDATE 2011-07-08)

Yahoo! The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge arrive atop a replica vintage stagecoach to the Calgary Stampede grounds yesterday.

Read more: http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/royal-visit/shall+return+promises+William/5069017/story.html#ixzz1RVOJrbi1

The lure of the open prairie, and the cowboy mystique has inspired many composers – and this is what we will be exploring this week in our podcast.

This montage is no longer be available on Pod-O-Matic. It can be heard or downloaded from the Internet Archive at the following address:

http://archive.org/details/CowboyClassics

pcast013 Playlist


The cowboy genre is well-engrained in North American cinema and television, and it’s pretty easy to find fine examples of this by the likes of John Williams, Elmer Bernstein and other well-travelled film and TV score composers. I also sprinkled in some Ennio Morricone, who scored most (if not all) of Sergio Leone’s string of made-in-Italy “Spaghetti” westerns.

Aaron Copland, who is as well-known for his film work as he is for his concert and stage work, wrote many pieces that fall within this genre. His music for The Red Pony (1949) and The Tender Land (1954) come to mind, but most notably two ballets: Billy the Kid (1938) for Eugene Loring and for Agnes De Mille, the one I chose - Rodeo (1942).


Calixa Lavallée, featured on our Canada Day montage, provides a cute "indian march", set for wind band by John Beckwith.

A love triangle between the Sheriff, the outlaw and the lovely saloon keeper – that seems to be the common plot of every B-western coming out of Hollywood. But it’s also the plot of a play written in 1905 by David Belasco, who also penned Madame Butterfly in 1900. Same as for Butterly, the play, The Girl of the Golden West, was also adapted into an opera by Giacomo Puccini and was premiered at the Metropolitan Opera in 1910 under its Italian name La fanciulla del West.

The work is a very strong example of the verissimo style of the late 19^th-early 20^th century Italian opera, though it doesn’t have a lot of stand-out “hit arias” like other Puccini operas. The one exception is a two-minute aria mid-way into the third act. The entire final act from a 1958 recording featuring Mario del Monaco and Renata Tebaldi is featured in the podcast. The synopsis of the third act (from the Metropolitan Opera website) is as follows:

Again on the run from [Sheriff] Rance and his men, [Dick Johnson] is eventually captured in the forest. As the miners prepare to hang him, Johnson asks for one last mercy—that Minnie believe him free and far away (“Ch'ella mì creda [libero e lontano]” [Let her believe I’m far away and free]). Rance is enraged, but the men hesitate. At that moment, Minnie rides in, wielding a pistol. When her pleas to spare Johnson prove fruitless, she reminds the men how much they owe her. The miners finally give in and release Johnson. He and Minnie ride away to start a new life together.

If you want to follow along, the libretto in Italian is available at this location (Act III starts at page 42):
http://www.dicoseunpo.it/dicoseunpo/P_files/Fanciulla_West.pdf

The last selection on our podcast is taken from the Blues Brothers soundtrack, the unforgettable rendition of the theme from Rawhide at Bob's Country Bunker, the inside joke that the composer is a Ukrainian-born Jew being lost on the crowd at the cowboy bar. The scene is "classic"

Giddy up!

I think you will love this music too.