A little about this website.

Over the years I have done many presentations, published many articles, and written books on the music of Westerns, and I am excited about sharing what I have learned. Under “Films & Topics” you will find presentations, as well as summaries from my articles and books, enhanced by audio and video clips. Some of these clips include the synchronization of music that may have been cut from the final edit of a film or the actual application of music to a silent Western. The “Blog” section includes current research and other excerpts that may be of interest to those who appreciate Westerns and their music.

You will notice that some of my entries contain similar or overlapping content. This is because these are taken from presentations that were adapted for different audiences and perspectives. I apologize for the duplication and hope you will understand.

There is some disagreement about the use of the term “Native American.” Like early Hollywood directors/producers, I have normally used “Indian” to describe the First People or Indigenous populations portrayed in the Western. However, I was recently asked to change this to “Native American” (or a tribal name when known) by a publisher, so that is what I have used throughout many of these pages. I don’t mean to be disrespectful or insensitive, but I’m really not sure which is best. Guided by this helpful video, I am going to use the term “Indian” going forward (unless I have a tribal name) just to be consistent, but also because this is how they were referred to in the films that I discuss.

Finally, I have not been consistent about adding footnotes or citations. If you would like to know the source of a quote or statement, please send me an email. I’m happy to provide that information.

A little about me.

I hold a doctorate from the University of Chicago in historical musicology, and while my dissertation was on Anton Bruckner’s compositional process for the first movement of his Ninth Symphony, I am now passionate about film music; specifically, the music that accompanies the classic Hollywood Western. It seems like a huge leap, but Western action music can be just as dramatic as a Romantic symphony. My primary focus is on films dating from the 1930s (think Dodge City) to the early 1960s (think The Magnificent Seven), although I am currently researching the music that accompanied silent Westerns and I have written about Ennio Morricone’s music for Sergio Leone’s so-called Spaghetti Westerns. In addition to research and writing, I also enjoy teaching general film music courses part-time.

Mariana Whitmer

Feel free to contact me:

marianawhitmer[at]gmail.com

Here are some of my relevant publications:

  • “Exploiting the Frontier: Advertising and the Western Soundtrack” in The Handbook of Music and Advertising, edited by James Deaville and Ron Rodman (Oxford University Press, 2020)

  • “Jerome Moross: The Concert Hall and Stage Works,” in Double Lives: Film Composers in the Concert Hall, edited by James Wierzbicki (Routledge, 2019).

  • Re-locating the Sounds of the Western, co-edited with Kendra Preston Leonard.  (Ashgate, 2018).

  • “Hugo Riesenfeld’s Compiled Score for The Covered Wagon (1923),” American Music 36:1 (Spring 2018)

  • “Notes on Ballet Ballads,” Introduction to Jerome Moross, Ballet Ballads (score, 2017)

  • Elmer Bernstein’s The Magnificent Seven: A Film Score Guide (Scarecrow Press, 2017)

  • “Recreating the 1950s in Far From Heaven” in Anxiety Muted: American Film Music in a Suburban Age (edited by Stanley Pelkey and Anthony Bushard, Oxford University Press, 2014). 

  • “Melodramatic Music in the Western” Journal of Film Music 5:1/2 (2012)

  • Jerome Moross’s The Big Country: A Film Score Guide (Scarecrow Press, 2012)

  • “Reinventing the Western Film Score: Jerome Moross and The Big Country” in Music in the Western, edited by Kathryn Kalinak (Routledge Press, 2011).  

Reviews:

  • Review of Making Music in Selznick’s Hollywood by Nathan Platte in Journal of the Society for American Music 13:3 (Summer, 2019).

  • Review of Frontier Figures: American Music and the Mythology of the American West by Beth Levy. in Journal of the Society for American Music 8:3 (Fall, 2014).