By: Dr. Andrew You, Honors Director
In the last century, screen compositions by John Williams, Leonard Bernstein, Bernard Herrmann, and others have become the most highly recognized forms of orchestral music. Williams’ compositions for Star Wars, E.T, Jaws and other films have reached an estimated billions of hearers. Moreover music can vitalize a film in such a way as to stir massive degrees of engagement. One thinks of the screeching violins in the shower-murder scene of Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, or the terrifying two-note motive of the shark in Jaws.
The yearly forays of Honors Northeast and the NTCC Webb Society into feature-length films have received remarkable help in the last two years from a composer whose works have been performed through much of the state, Kenny Goodson. Goodson, the former Director of Computer Services at NTCC, was also a band director in Mount Pleasant and Atlanta. He also has composed overtures and marches that have made the rounds to various university and high school bands in every section of Texas save the area south of the Nueces, where there remains a strong mariachi tradition.
Goodson was the product of a musical home in Morris County. His father, Bill Goodson, composed for choirs and bands. Bill Goodson had a regional impact in his mission to improve local ensembles. He served as band director at several schools in Northeast Texas, including Tyler Junior College, and ended his career at Greenville High School. Bill was inducted into the Texas Bandmasters Hall of Fame in 2003. Kenny Goodson began piano lessons at the age of five. By the time he turned a teenager, he had learned four instruments, and had composed the school song for Daingerfield Junior High. While taking music at Stephen F. Austin State University, Goodson was mentored by jazz-band composer, Darrell Holt, and wrote pieces that were performed by the Lumberjack Marching Band, and various other jazz fusion and swing jazz groups in the region.
Goodson consented to create the film score for last year’s De Zavala film, as he has “always been a fan of film music, and keenly aware of its importance.” It was something he wanted to try, and he could think of no better institution to perform a public service for than Northeast Texas Community College.
Honors Director, Dr. Andrew Yox notes, “last year, when Goodson began to contribute this broad, majestic music, with beguiling slow melodies, synced to the emotions of the film, I was ecstatic. Suddenly we had a powerful cultural backup. Though Goodson’s music might switch according to the context from Tex-Mex, to Southern Gospel and then to something akin to Ferde Grofé’s grand music for the American West, it was inspiriting and grand to have such a Texas flair for our Texas themes.”
Judges in Austin have appreciated the ability of the local NTCC Webb Society to connect with a regional composer for its film projects. The De Zavala film in 2020 captured a state Caldwell Award for the best historical project in Texas history undertaken by a college or university group. The coming film on Bo Pilgrim has already won a Webb Chapter Award for the best project among Webb societies among the community colleges of Texas.
As with last year’s scene compositions—called cues—Goodson has proved capable of coming up with over an hour of synced music in a matter of about eight weeks, very similar to a standard Hollywood composer. This is fortunate for the scholars of NTCC’s honors program, as the edited version of the entire film is normally not ready until December. Goodson’s other skills are also on display in these productions. As a singer from his youth, his booming voice was the choice of the NTCC directors for the part of narrator. As a computer and tech expert, he has been able to work back and forth with student unit production directors Jalyn English, and Brian Ramirez, solving a stream of issues relating to the transport of very large film files, noise scrubbing, and equalization.
Goodson’s original melodies will be heard publicly for the first time by all patrons who attend the Bo Pilgrim film premiere at NTCC’s Humanities building on the north side of the plaza, Friday, 26 March at 7 PM. Social distancing, the wearing of masks when attendants converge, and other CDC guidelines will all be followed. Those in attendance will first be directed to Humanities room 129. Other rooms will be filled as needed. Afterwards, there will be free desserts and coffee courtesy of the donors of Honors Northeast in Humanities 101, and a brief outdoor introduction of the actors afterwards, weather permitting.
