Colonial New England was largely literate for its time. Besides a Bible, many families might have owned a copy of the Psalms set to poetic verse by Isaac Watts. The region, being poor, lacked the musical instruments available to European audiences, and so, singing was the primary form of music-making. Everybody sang, and singing-masters made their living travelling from town to town, teaching people to read music, sing, and selling their scores.

William Billings is one of my favorite composers; you might even call him the first great American composer. His music and life perfectly embody the revolutionary American spirit. He was a tanner by trade, but found his passion in composing and singing. He had only one eye, one of his legs was shorter than the other, was unkempt, and probably stunk. His music is rough and angular, lacking any grace that might be found in late 18th century European music.

There is a tradition of giving hymn tunes names; very often, the name of a city – for example, there are hymn tunes named London, Cranham, Richmond. This is why one of Billings’ best loved tunes is called Africa, a place to which I’m sure he never traveled. Its bold melody (found in the tenor voice – not the top note) skyrockets into the high range, capturing the spirit of Watts’ emotional outpouring.

This style of music-writing and singing is today known as Sacred Harp. It is an uniquely American invention, a sort of degenerate grandson of English choral music. And it’s fun to sing, so much so that Sacred Harp singings now occur all over the world. This video comes from a singing in Ireland.

Yesterday I wrote briefly about the challenges of being a film composer – trying to write memorably good music without overshadowing the screen action.

Today marks the 30th anniversary of the Challenger Disaster. I searched around, trying to find a piece of music that might appropriately capture the mood of the tragedy. I did much better than I expected.

American composer Jasha Klebe is currently working in Hollywood, scoring music for TV and movies. This is his theme music for a National Geographic documentary on the Challenger explosion, which aired only a few days ago. It’s perfect music for its purpose – it paints the emotional response of a country who has watched their heroes perish on live TV. The music is also good enough to stand alone, with no video images to accompany it – perhaps as a slow movement theme in a symphony.

Conan the Barbarian‘s answer to this question is, well, questionable. And the movie itself … well, either it’s so bad it’s good, or it’s so bad that it goes past good and back to bad again.

Basil Poledouris wrote the film score to many movies. Film composers have an interesting and difficult job – yes, they have to write good music, but they also have to be careful not to outdo the action on the screen. They can make a mundane scene come to life, or make stupid dialogue sound intelligent. But, all the while, their music has to remain in the background.

long live airbrushed movie posters of nearly-naked people!