Houston Bright

[Robert] Houston Bright (1916–1970) was a composer of American music, known primarily for his choral works. The best-known of these is the original spiritual "I Hear a Voice A-Prayin'," but he wrote dozens of highly regarded pieces over the course of his career, including a number of instrumental compositions. Bright was, among his peers, well known and respected as a composer, choral director, and professor. He spent his entire academic career in the Music Department of West Texas State College (now West Texas A&M University).

Houston Bright was born January 21, 1916, in Midland, Texas. He was the son of a Methodist minister, the Rev. John R. Bright. Houston learned to read music and play the piano while still a small boy; he composed his first piece of music at the age of ten. In his teens the young Houston went on to study voice, clarinet, and cornet, as well as piano. He attended high school in Shamrock, in the Texas Panhandle (although the 1938 West Texas yearbook, Le Mirage, shows 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 college student Houston also became known as a classical vocalist, singing baritone in solo recitals and as a soloist in college oratorio concerts; his brother, Weldon, sang tenor. (Weldon Bright, also musically gifted, went on to become a jazz pianist and organist, the leader of a regionally popular dance band, and music director of Amarillo's KGNC radio station during the 1950s; after leaving radio, he, too, turned to music education.)

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. On June 5, 1941, he was wed to Frances May Usery, a West Texas State piano instructor whom he had met while he was still a student. "Music brought us together," he later said. "She was my accompanist."

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