THE ALAMO

COLUMBIA
CK66138
67'
In 1960 John Wayne premiered The Alamo, a movie he produced, directed and interpreted, and that had dreamt to accomplish from almost a decade. For its accomplishment he did not repair in expenses, and knowing the importance that was going to have the musical part of the movie he contracted Dimitri Tiomkin, a musician of great reputation and specialist in the western genre with whom Wayne had met in other productions, as Red River (1948), The High and The Mighty (1954), or the very same Rio Bravo (1959) on which, as curiosity, is made reference to the siege of the The Alamo, and where Tiomkin advances the theme of De Guella, a basic theme in the then future score of The Alamo. The successive cuts that suffered the film after its first performance, where from 199 minutes went to 161, impinged on the record issue, and thus if on a beginning it was projected to launch a double LP (with great part of the music), after these cuts the edition of the same was canceled, being finally published a simple LP in the one it was included two songs that they were not appearing in the movie, Ballad of The Alamo (sung by Marty Robbins) and the most famous version of The Green Leaves of Summer (sung by The Brothers Four); also it was included two cues narrated by John Wayne with Tiomkin's music in te back, and all this caused that the published LP would be insufficient. During many years there was some speculation on a possible edition of another LP by Columbia CBS with the unpublished music, though this regrettably never arrived to occur. In 1985, the record label Varése Sarabande edited for the first time in CD the score of the movie (VSD-5224), whose content was identical to the LP, while the one which now we comment was edited by CBS in 1995, announced as the definitive edition and with numerous unpublished cues.
Yet recognizing the effort that it has been made by recovering the score, this edition continues being insufficient since still lacks music as that of the Mexican nocturnal episode, or fragments of the final battle which, by space motives in the LP, was edited for and disappeared, among others, the deaths of Travis and Bowie; editing that is repeated in this edition. With respect to the unpublished themes, Tiomkin's music appears, for the most part, mixed with the sounds of the movie, therefore its interest is very relative. Nevertheless they have been recovered very interesting cues as Cantina Music, Entr'acte, and even an alternative end not used in the final cut; also it has been a great wisdom to include the themes of Tennessee Babe and Finale such and as appear in the movie, even though have been certain assignment mistakes that is better to clarify:

Even so the contents are very interesting, and permits us to make an approximation to the magnificent score that Tiomkin composed for the occasion, considerate by many (among those I include myself) as his best work for the cinema. The most recalled themes by the public, De Guella and The Green Leaves Of Summer, appear already in the Main Title and they are performed by trumpet and accordion, respectively, with an incessant Spanish guitar in the back, both in a very sad and somber tone that make us to predict a not very happy history. And though these will be the most famous themes, Tiomkin created a music torrent indeed incredible, where the most basic themes are: Ballad of the Alamo, that it does not appear as such in any cue, but whose melody is distributed along the film, as in the impressive final scene in the one which practically without music, some choirs put voice to such theme (Finale); Santa Anna, the military march of the Mexican troops, of overwhelming and martial pace, is going appearing relentlessly little by little in the movie while the troops advance; and Crockett And The Tennesseans, theme that contrasts with the previous, very happy and cunning, and that will accompany to Davy Crockett's men to along the film. There is also Tiomkin's typical incidental music, as Raid For Cattle or the impressive The Final Assault, an authentic symphonic poem and film music model in which the music, far from simply accompany the images stresses the epic and spectacular content of the film. Mention apart deserve the songs, all them with music by Tiomkin, whose lyrics are from the famous songwriter Paul Francis Webster; all appear in very accurate moments: the first, Here's To The Ladies, the most sluggish, serves to represent the most appeased scenes of Davy Crockett's men, while the rest appear in the final part of the movie, with the unforgettable The Green Leaves of Summer occupying the main part in a scene practically without dialogues the night prior to the last battle. With Tennessee Babe Tiomkin breaks molds composing a lullaby to illustrate the scene on which the only survivors abandon the Mission, joining thus the infantile tenderness of the cradle song to the sad final, obtaining a very dramatic effect. For the final scene Tiomkin uses the Ballad of the Alamo theme in its coral version (Finale), with lyrics that tell us what happened in the battle, putting thus final point to a unique soundtrack for a memorable movie.
Among the many nominations to the Oscar Awards that Dimitri Tiomkin received throughout his career, this work reported him two of them, one the best score and the other to the best song by the already mentioned The Green Leaves of Summer, but none procured him the award. A shame.


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