"Perhaps Elmer Bernstein's greatest contribution to the western genre is the best example of how the era's younger composers brought a relatively fresh, thoroughly American approach to a genre previously dominated by European-born composers. More than any other American western score of the Silver Age, The Magnificent Seven captures the best aspects of the genre's golden past, as well as the compositional trends of the 20th century. The marvelously rousing main theme is exuberantly heroic, and serves the score well through a variety of moods and orchestral treatments... What makes Magnificent different from Golden Age westerns, which tend to have 'Hungarian' operatic scores, is its obvious debt to American folk music, particularly the influence of Aaron Copland."– from Chapter 4: Staccato Six-Guns of Kristopher Spencer’s Film and Television Scores, 1950-1979
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