Unforgettable TV Music: Two Themes from The Rifleman, Composed by Herschel Burke Gilbert

 


Herschel Burke Gilbert, presumably sometime during the 1960s
 

By Nicholas Stix
 

Prior to November 13, I’d never heard of Herschel Burke Gilbert (1918-2003). On that day, he and The Rifleman forever enriched my life. I’d had a deprived childhood, in which excepting Annie Oakley (which doesn’t count!), I rarely got to watch TV Westerns, which were then both the greatest and dominant genre of the medium.

If you watch the first episode of the show (see the link below), you’ll see that for the first 5:11 minutes, there is an almost uninterrupted stream of beautiful music, even when people are speaking.

Gilbert composed all the music for each episode, but the show was (so far as I can see) dominated by two themes, the official theme which played for a few seconds at the beginning, and for about a minute at the end of each episode, and a second, unofficial theme. The official theme is catchier, more up-tempo, and easier to whistle. The unofficial theme is more languorous and moving. They both play in endless variations of tempo and instrumentation throughout each episode, along with other more occasional themes. You can do that with a great musical theme, and you’d better, since nobody is original enough to come up with endless new themes, not even the late Jerry Goldsmith or Elmer Bernstein.

In the video below, the musicians play the unofficial theme first, and then the official Rifleman theme. Unfortunately, they have not identified themselves, and I have not yet been able to determine their identities, but the young boy is surely “texasfiddleboy.”
 



Published on Jun 24, 2012 by texasfiddleboy

Two songs by the late great composer Herschel Burke Gilbert that he wrote as the theme song for Mark McCain and Lucas McCain in the 50's popular TV series "The Rifleman," starring Chuck Connors and Johnny Crawford. These were totally recalled from memory and may differ slightly from the exact composition of Mr. Gilbert.
 

Previously, at WEJB/NSU:

“The First Episode Ever of the Classic Western Series, The Rifleman, Starring Chuck Connors and Johnny Crawford: “The Sharpshooter” (1958) (Complete Video, Presented Without Commercial Interruption)”; and

“The Rifleman: ‘Home Ranch’; Season One, Episode 2 (Complete Video, Presented Without Commercial Interruption).”