Biography
David Buttolph, a performer, arranger, and composer equally versed in jazz and classical idioms, received his early training in New York during the 1910s before continuing his studies in Germany and Austria throughout the 1920s. From the final years of that decade into the early 1930s he served first as an arranger and conductor in radio, then as music director for a station in Schenectady, New York. He subsequently relocated to Hollywood, where he joined the music department at Fox—later known as 20th Century Fox—as an arranger, composer, and conductor, while also supplying scores for Paramount and eventually working on a freelance basis for MGM, Warner Bros., and Columbia.
Although fully capable of original composition, Buttolph distinguished himself particularly through his arranging skills; one notable example is the vigorous score he fashioned for John Ford’s The Horse Soldiers (1959), built entirely from his settings of Civil War-era anthems and marching songs. His most enduring mark on popular culture, however, arrived roughly two years earlier when he was asked to compose for Maverick, the unconventional comedy-Western series created by Roy Huggins and starring James Garner. The resulting theme, distinguished by its buoyant melody and lively orchestration, perfectly matched the program’s playful, ironic, and frequently humorous spirit, becoming one of the earliest widely recognized songs tied to a television Western and influencing the style of subsequent Warner Bros. Western themes, including the one written for Bronco. The Maverick theme retained its appeal for decades and was later revived for the series’ first television return in the 1970s.
Although fully capable of original composition, Buttolph distinguished himself particularly through his arranging skills; one notable example is the vigorous score he fashioned for John Ford’s The Horse Soldiers (1959), built entirely from his settings of Civil War-era anthems and marching songs. His most enduring mark on popular culture, however, arrived roughly two years earlier when he was asked to compose for Maverick, the unconventional comedy-Western series created by Roy Huggins and starring James Garner. The resulting theme, distinguished by its buoyant melody and lively orchestration, perfectly matched the program’s playful, ironic, and frequently humorous spirit, becoming one of the earliest widely recognized songs tied to a television Western and influencing the style of subsequent Warner Bros. Western themes, including the one written for Bronco. The Maverick theme retained its appeal for decades and was later revived for the series’ first television return in the 1970s.