Hello,
Western scores are one of my favorite styles in film score music, I own about 100 western scores and here is some suggestions I can offer you. First of all I'm not a big fan of the spaghetti western scores so someone else will have to help you with those scores. My favorite composer of western scores has to be Elmer Bernstein, He has done many in the 60's and 70's and he has done many of the John Wayne movies. Here is a list of some of my favorite Elmer Bernstein scores as well as other composers.

Son's of Katie Elder
Big Jake
The comancheros
The Magnificent Seven
The Cowboys - John Williams
Rio Conchos - Jerry Goldsmith
Bandolero! - J. Goldsmith
Rio Lobo - J. Goldsmith
Wild Rovers - J. Goldsmith
Wild Bunch - Jerry Fielding
The Undefeated - Hugo Montenegro
The Bravados - Alfred Newman
El Dorado - Nelson riddle

The western scores from the 80's till today I think for the most part have more of a full grand orchestrated sound to them if you like that style here are some of my picks.

Open Range
Wyatt Earp
Tombstone
Lonesome Dove
Gone to Texas
Silverado
Billy the kid
Last stand at Saber River
Crossfire trail
Unforgiven

In closing I know I have left off a bunch of scores , But off the top of my head this is what I have come up with for now, If you would like to email me I would be happy to email you back with some more thoughts. By the way the western score I have really been listening to alot lately is "All the Pretty Horses" it is excellent and very underated.

Hope this helps you- Best Regards,
David
Phoenix, AZ.


deg63iami, November 21, 2004; 9:34 AM

There's some excellent western scores already mentioned but I'd like to add some favourites of my own that haven't been mentioned. All are what I would call "good listens":

Broken Arrow (1948, Hugo Friedhofer)
The Big Sky (1952, Dimitri Tiomkin)
Garden of Evil (1954, Bernard Herrmann)
The Big Country (1958, Jerome Moross)
How The West Was Won (1962, Alfred Newman)
A Fistful of Dollars (1964, Ennio Morricone)
For A Few Dollars More (1965, Ennio Morricone)
La Resa dei Conti (1966, Ennio Morricone)
The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (1966, Ennio Morricone)
100 Rifles (1969, Jerry Goldsmith)
The Stalking Moon (1969, Fred Karlin)
Take A Hard Ride (1975, Jerry Goldsmith)

They may not all be "got to have" western scores but I think that they are all good examples of the genre and show the diversity that this genre has.

alan, November 21, 2004; 7:44 PM

Don't forget these one:
"The Return of a man called Horse" Laurence Rosenthal (Varese club CD).
"Once upon atime in West" "Duck you Sucker" by Ennio Morricone. Great !

laurentsoyer, November 22, 2004; 6:34 AM

I think the Italian westerns of the 60's and early 70's had some of the best music out there. A lot of them had great vocal tracks as well as regular orchestral score. I like American westerns too, but these are a few of my favorite Italian western scores:

A Pistol for Ringo / Return of Ringo (Morricone)
Texas Addio (Abril)
I Quattro dell'Ave Maria (Rustichelli)
7 Dollari sul Rosso / Quella Sporca Storia nel West (De Masi)
Tre Colpi di Winchester per Ringo (Sciascia)

Don't pass up the Italian ones 'cause there's lots of good music there. Most of the movies are mediocre, but the music is what stands out.

piano632, November 22, 2004; 6:37 AM

Just few more great western scores ...

Maurice Jarre - SOLEIL ROUGE
Alfred Newman - HOW THE WEST WAS WON
Alex North - THE WONDERFUL COUNTRY

42zaphod, November 22, 2004; 7:31 PM