How NatGeo’s ‘America the Beautiful’ Used Indigenous Musical Sounds to Enhance the Series’ Score

variety.com:

Jon Burlingame editorComposer Joseph Trapanese was determined to make the music for “America the Beautiful,” National Geographic’s six-part series launching July 4 on Disney+, different than that of any nature documentary to date.“Hollywood is so guilty of misappropriating culture,” Trapanese says, “tapping into a culture and throwing it around, willy-nilly.” So he determined to score the continent-spanning story of North American flora and fauna with authentic musical touches as well as a very modern mix of traditionally orchestral and more contemporary sounds.Series producer Dan Rees and executive producers Vanessa Berlowitz and Mark Linfield said they “didn’t want the typical nature documentary sound,” the composer explained.

Trapanese called an old friend, Sean Carey of indie folk band Bon Iver (they had previously joined forces for a song in 2017’s “Only the Brave”), and asked him to collaborate on an opening song.

In turn, Carey enlisted friends from the Native American population of Wisconsin and Minnesota to contribute vocals to the song and score.“Quilt of Life,” the main-title song, features lyrics and a vocal by Carey, augmented by the wordless vocals of Dylan Jennings of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe and Joe Rainey of the Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians.

Their voices provide a link to the sounds of ancient North America.“I played music for them, and asked them to be inspired by it but not to limit their creativity, and only do things that felt natural and authentic,” Trapanese says.Both Jennings and Rainey “sing along the Pow Wow Trail every year,” Jennings reports.