Although it's not my personal number one Barry score (I'm more of a 60s Barry man), I definitely think Dances is the greatest achievement of his post-UK years, and one of the ten greatest achievements of all his years.
I can only echo what Dave has said, a magnificent score, and I'm also grateful to Neil and the folks at La-La-Land for putting this together properly.
John Barry’s Dances With Wolves, is in my Top Ten Best Scores! John Barry captured The West, without any of the massive Western Cliches…A Beautiful Wide Open Score. LLL got it all right. John Barry’s Dances With Wolves was Excellent and Beautiful in 1990 and 32 Years later, Dances still holds up today.
I think it is one of the great scores--period. There is a special quality to the music that stands on its own. In the context of the picture, the music does everything it was meant to do. As townerbarry said, no western cliches. A monumental score.