Search - Gela Sawall Ashcroft, City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra :: "The Long Ride Home" Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

The 70-minute score for the Western, 'The Long Ride Home,' was a delight to compose. In addition to writing Western themes, I needed to write a variety of other music to complement the drama of this Romantic/Mystery/Adventure. The vast array of emotions in the story allowed me to establish seven recurring themes that interweave throughout the film. The 'Main Title' begins with Jack Fowler's theme in a minor mode that sweeps into the Pa Lucas funeral theme. Jack's theme comes back throughout the score both in minor and romantic major keys ('Jack & Laura- House') usually with the English Horn or the Illean Pipes, Irish bagpipes, which are native to Laura's homeland ('Flashbacks'). Laura and Hank's theme, characterized by the duet between the flute and oboe heard in the 'Proposals' in a major key, comes back in a minor key as she becomes emotionally confused, caught in a love triangle between Jack and Hank ('Hank & Laura'). Daniel, Laura's son, usually voiced by the clarinet, has both the 'Homestead theme' (fourths/fifths) and his playful childlike theme ('Garden/Jack'). Of all the themes in the soundtrack, the revenge theme of Pa Lucas incorporates the most characteristics of Western music, a sound achieved by the brass playing fourths/fifths in motives throughout the score as well as in the 'Riding' Sequences. And finally, the theme that adds the mystery to the adventure is the fifths/tri-tone theme of Abel Hart that adds the suspense throughout the second half of the film as the plot unravels.