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