Houston Bright - Life

Life

Houston 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 West Texas 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 1935-1936 school year; the band played locally and also toured Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado during the following summer. While a student he also became known as a classical vocalist, singing baritone; a brother, Weldon, sang tenor.

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 WTS. Through summer study and a leave of absence, he completed his work for a Ph.D. degree in musicology in 1952 at the University of Southern California. There he studied conducting under Dr. Charles C. Hirt and composition under Halsey Stevens. His dissertation was titled The Early Tudor Part-song from Newarke to Cornyshe.

Bright held the rank of Professor; he taught composition and music theory, and directed the college's A Cappella Choir, which he founded in 1941. The various West Texas choirs (which included a larger Chorale and a women's choir, along with other, smaller ensembles) frequently toured the Texas Panhandle and premiered many of Bright's works. His earliest published compositions are the choral pieces "Weep You No More, Sad Fountains" and "Evening Song of the Weary," both dating from 1949. In 1965 college president James Cornette, honoring Bright's twenty-five years of service to the college, would grant him the additional title of Composer-in-Residence.

Throughout his career at West Texas, 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, chosen by the Texas Bandmasters Association as 1987's "Bandmaster of the Year"; and Hugh Sanders, who served as assistant director of the choral program at West Texas, subsequently succeeded Bright as the college's director of choral activities, and ultimately gained great acclaim as choral director at Baylor University. He also mentored the young choral teacher Alfred R. Skoog, who went on to serve as director of choral activities at Arkansas State University for over three decades.

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.

Houston Bright continued composing until his death, of cancer, on December 8, 1970 in Canyon. He donated his original works to the West Texas State Music Library. In 1974, Shawnee Press published his "We'll Sing a Glory" as a concluding opus posthumous.