Western movie fans: Can anyone identify this track?

[James Y]

i'm posting this strictly to see if anybody can identify the music during the opening credits of this Kung fu movie. As most fans of old-school Kung fu films are aware, back in the '60s, '70s and '80s, many Kung fu movies used soundtracks and musical cues taken from original soundtracks in American, Japanese, Italian, French, British, Greek, etc., movies, as well as library music. I and others have identified literally hundreds of individual tracks that were 'borrowed' in old-school Kung fu films. But this is one of the tracks that's been a real mystery. At one point, I thought it could be an instrumental version of Gunfight at the OK Corral, but no. IMO, it's from an American western, probably from between 1955 - 1966(?). I've also heard this same track in at least 5 other Kung fu films.

The track in question starts at 0:17 and goes to 1:17:

I'm hoping this is the appropriate forum for this. Any help will be much appreciated.

Jim

 

[Piso Mojado]

IMDb credits it to Fu Liang Chou, who wrote the music for 230 kung fu movies under 20 alternate names; they call it his version of a traditional Chinese folk tune. His most quoted piece is the theme from Drunken Master (1978), also folk inspired. This is the Drunken Master theme played on a guzheng (ancient zither), Chinese ancestor of the koto. You can clearly hear the guzheng's rolled chords played by the orchestra in your film tune.

 

[James Y]

Greetings, Piso Mojado, and many thanks for your reply!

Actually, Fu-Liang Chou (AKA, Chou Fu-Liang) was mostly a compiler, selecting various pre-existing soundtracks and other music (Chinese, Western, etc.) from a music library for kung fu films, as opposed to being an actual composer. He did this, as mentioned, for hundreds of kung fu films. The music used in Thundering Mantis (1979), also credited to Chou Fu-Liang, is but one example of this. In fact, most of the tracks heard in Thundering Mantis are actually from the 1977 Italian documentary movie Brutes and Savages, composed by Riz Ortolani:

Music begins at 0:11

Even Bruce Lee's Hong Kong movies, such as Fist of Fury and Way of the Dragon, contained borrowed soundtracks. On those films, the main themes were indeed composed by Joseph Koo, but Fist of Fury also contained tracks borrowed from Flight of the Doves (1971), The Robbery (1967), and Stiletto (1969). Way of the Dragon contains borrowed tracks from Once Upon a Time in the West (1968), Billy Jack (1971), The Happening (1967), and The Andromeda Strain (1971).

Jim

 

[Piso Mojado]

Thank you, Jim! I should have guessed that, because 230 is a huge output. Nino Rota wrote 178 by looting himself. He had an office full of his own classical music, all unpublishable then because it was tonal and romantic and not serialism. Film producers would show him the daily rushes, and he'd sit down at a piano and "improvise" all sorts of interesting things. In his prime he cranked out ten film scores a year by looting his own music. Imagine what he could have done with a big studio's music and film libraries and no copyright enforcement.

Your movie theme still sounds Chinese to me, and the orchestra plays big "guzheng" arpeggiated chords at .21, .37, .59, 1.08 and 1.13.

 

[James Y]

Greetings, Piso Mojado.

I do feel there is a difference between the 'Drunken Master' theme and my 'mystery track'. Actually, the Drunken Master theme is, as you know, a variant of an ancient song. The song is Jiang Jun Ling (General's Mandate, or General's Order). The reason a variant of Jiang Jun Ling was used in Drunken Master is because the main character, portrayed by Jackie Chan, is the legendary historical master of Hung Gar Kung Fu, Wong Fei-Hung (Mandarin: Huang Feihong).

Wong Fei-Hung was originally portrayed in a series of movies by legendary actor Kwan Tak-Hing, who played Wong Fei-Hung from 1949-1970, as well as portraying him in later movies outside of the series, likely more than any other actor has reprised any role. Kwan's Wong Fei-Hung was always extremely strait-laced. Jackie's Wong Fei-Hung was an irreverent spoof of the character.

In the original Wong Fei-Hung movies, Jiang Jun Ling was the main theme, albeit a much slower version than the later Drunken Master version. The newer, faster-paced version was used in Drunken Master because the song had become associated with Wong Fei-Hung, but it wasn't originally associated with Drunken style. There are literally countless renditions and variants of this old song.

There is also what I consider an 'in-between' rendition, which has been used in the following movies:
Challenge of the Masters (1976)
The Magnificent Kick (1980)
New Kids in Town (1990)
And many others, possibly including later films from Kwan Tak-Hing's original series as well. Here is that version:

The reason I strongly believe my mystery track is from an American western, besides the sound of it, is that in at least 2 or 3 different kung fu films, it's been used together with another track, which leads me to believe they are from the same original soundtrack. In Super Power, the 'mystery track' is heard at 15:40 and again at 43:25. The other, associated track is heard at 17:20 and again at 47:39, and it also sounds like it's from a 1950s or 1960s-era American western. I once thought it migt be an instrumental variant of 'Happy Trails', but it's different from that. Chou Fu-Liang also compiled the music used in Super Power; the main theme he used is taken from The Ten Commandments (1956), by Elmer Bernstein:

Jim