Taras Bulba: Suite (for orchestra) (1962)

Movements
Overture - 3:30
Pastorale: The Birth of Andrei - 2:20
Sleigh Ride - 1:30
Torchlight Parade - 2:20
The Black Plague - 3:56
Finale: The Ride of the Cossacks (The Ride to Dubno) - 4:55

Note

“From the day I plunged you in the river to give you life, I loved you as I loved the steppes. You were my pride! I gave you life. It is on me to take it away from you.”

These are the words of the Cossack chief, Taras Bulba (Yul Brynner with a scalp lock), to his son, Andrei (Tony Curtis) in Taras Bulba (United Artists, 1962). The film is based on the story by author Nikolai Gogol and set on the steppes (flatlands) of 16th-century Russia. Bulbas has vowed to fight to the death to regain these lands from Polish invaders. However, another problem develops when the headstrong Andrei falls in love with a Polish noblewoman, (Christine Kaufmann). Directed by J. Lee Thompson, with Argentina doubling for the Russian steppes, the movie’s love story between Curtis and Kaufmann turned into a real one. (On February 8, 1963, she became his second wife, after his divorce from Janet Leigh.)

Waxman has provided a wide variety of moods for this story of treachery, revenge, victory, and death. He wrote for the soundtrack re-recording liner notes:

To compose the music for Taras Bulba was an unusually challenging assignment. Not only from the standpoint of composition, but also as far as orchestration and rhythmical invention is concerned. Here was a subject that demanded the flavor of the proud and unconquerable spirit of Ukrainian Cossacks of the sixteenth century combined with the harmonic and rhythmical palette of contemporary music. Fortunately, just before writing the Taras Bulba music, I was invited by the Soviet government to conduct the major orchestras of the U.S.S.R. in six symphony concerts. This took me to Kiev, one of the oldest Russian cities situated in the heart of the Ukraine. This gave me added opportunity to study the folk music of the Ukrainian people…