Houston Bright

Houston Bright (1916-1970) was an American music composer. While he never received wide public acclaim, Houston Bright was, among his peers, well known and respected as a composer, choral director, and professor. He spent essentially his entire career in the Music Department of West Texas State College (now West Texas A&M Univeristy).

Bright was born January 21, 1916, in Midland, Texas. He was the son of a Methodist minister. He attended high school in Shamrock, in the Texas Panhandle (although the 1938 WT yearbook showed his hometown to be Plainview). After graduating high school in 1932, he attended West Texas State. He organized a dance band, the “Kampus Katz,” in the 1935-6 school year; the band played locally and also toured Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado during the following summer.

Bright received his Bachelor of Science degree in music in 1938. Afterward he was the first student to be designated as a “graduate assistant.” He received his Master of Arts degree in music education in 1940 and took a full-time faculty appointment at that time. He served as an infantry officer in Europe 1942 – 1945 and then returned to WTSC. Through summer study and a leave of absence, he completed his work for a PhD degree in musicology in 1952 at the University of Southern California. His dissertation was titled, “The Early Tudor Part-song from Newarke to Cornyshe.”

Bright held the rank of Professor; he taught music composition and music theory. He also directed the University Chorale, with which he frequently toured the Texas Panhandle. In 1965 WTSC President James Cornette granted him the additional title of Composer-in-Residence, in honor of his twenty-five years of service to the college.

Throughout his time at WT, Bright was surrounded by musical genius. His colleagues included Royal Brantley (the original musical director and eventual artistic director of the musical drama, “Texas,” band director Gary Garner, the 1987 Texas “Bandmaster of the Year,” and Hugh Sanders, who ultimately gained great acclaim as choral director at Baylor University.

Bright’s professional memberships included the American Choral Directors Association, the Choral Conductors Guild of America, the Texas Composers Guild, and the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP). He also conducted numerous workshops, including two for the Texas Choral Directors Association.

Bright continued his work until his death in December, 1970. He donated his original works to the West Texas State Music Library.

Books

*Elementary counterpoint in two parts: A modified species method
**West Texas State College Press (1958)
*Modern tonal counterpoint in two points: Strict and linear styles : an elementary manual for music education majors
**West Texas State University (1965)

Musical Works

The works of Houston Bright comprise more than 100 original works, including pieces for band, vocal-choral, piano, and instrumental chamber ensembles. In addition to articles in professional journals, he published one textbook, “Modern Tonal Counterpoint in Two Parts,” published by WTSU in 1965.

Numerous and diverse groups have recorded his music. They include the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, the male chorus Chanson, and the Choir of the Kameralny Medical Academy of Warsaw.

Bright’s best-known piece, a spiritual, was “I Hear a Voice A-Prayin (1955).” Other well-known and widely performed compositions include “The Vision of Isaiah,” “Never Tell Thy Love,” “Three Quatrains from the Rubaiyat,” “Rainsong,” and “Prelude and Fugue in F Minor.” Several pieces were put to poems of Percy Shelley, including “Lament of the Enchantress” and “Clouds that Veil the Midnight Moon.” Most of his musical work was completely original, although he did some new arrangements of folk songs.

Bright was, as were others at the time, writing largely for younger singers and amateurs—numerous pieces were sung by high school choruses and All-State Choir groups in several states. But, according to Nick Strimple, Bright “created several little pieces that have stood the test of time—the musical content making them still appropriate for university and community choirs as well…”

Floyd Slotterback, the Marquette Choral Society’s director, said, “I really enjoyed those Houston Bright pieces; the pieces sing well; he treats the voice very nicely.” As further perspective, Forrest Daniel, director of the Sisters, Oregon, Community Chorus, stated, “Houston Bright didn’t really get his due. He lived in this little town in Texas and he had this magnificent talent.”

Wind Band

*Concerto Grosso Mvts 1,2,3
*Prelude and Fugue in F Minor

Piano

*Four for Piano: Notion, Invention on a Ground, Quick Dance and Finale
*Ironic Dance for Piano. 1949

Choral

*Antiphonal Gloria
*August Noon
*Benedictus and Hosanna
*Childs Garden of Verses
*Clouds That Veil the Midnight Moon
*Four Sacred Songs
*High Tide
*House That Jack Built
*I Hear A Voice A-Prayin'
*Jabberwocky
*Lament of the Enchantress
*Never Tell Thy Love
*Now Deck Thyself With Majest
*People That Walked in Darkne
*Premonition
*Rainsong
*Reflection
*Same Train
*Softly Flow the Midnight
*Soliloquy
*Song In the Wind
*Song of the Meadow Lark
*Stars Are With the Voyager
*Star Moon and Wind
*Sunrise Alleluia
*Te Deum Laudamus
*Tale Untold
*Thy Lovely Saints
*Thou Wilt Keep Him in Perfect
*Told My Captain
*Trilogy for Womens Vocies
*Walk With Peter and Paul
*Watchman What of the Night
*Wel'll Sing a Glory