Mountain View grad’s music is put on hold

A silent movie starring Buster Keaton is making a comeback of sorts, thanks to a Vancouver music composer born more than six decades after the film premiered.

Last year, as a music minor at the University of Portland, Dana Coppernoll-Houston, 22, composed a musical score for Keaton’s movie “The General” with the help of  her music composition teacher, David De Lyser.

The University of Portland orchestra performed Coppernoll-Houston’s score last spring while the movie was projected behind them. It received a standing ovation. The performance was so successful that an encore performance is scheduled for Jan. 23 at the University of Portland.

Now, Coppernoll-Houston’s score is reaching a wider audience. The spring performance was recorded, and a portion of the soundtrack is the new on-hold music for Evergreen Public Schools’ districtwide phone system.

The 2011 graduate of Mountain View High School lives down the street from Gail Spolar, spokeswoman for Evergreen Public Schools. Their families have known each other for years. After Spolar read a Columbian story about the composer’s new musical score, she contacted Coppernoll-Houston and asked for permission to use her music.

“Gail said the district was retiring its on-hold music and they like to profile local composers,” said Coppernoll-Houston.

The student composer spent 10 months writing the score. It was a learning process.

“I was definitely a better composer at the end than the beginning,” she said.

Coppernoll-Houston says she is “proudest of the ending, which didn’t make it onto the on-hold music for Evergreen schools because people were laughing so hard. It’s a really funny movie.”

Critics agree. “The General” is considered to be one of the most revered comedies of the silent era.

Coppernoll-Houston began playing percussion in fifth grade at Riverview Elementary School and continued playing at Wy’east Middle School and Mountain View High School.

During the Jan. 23 University of Portland orchestra performance, she will be playing the triangle and the crash cymbals. She didn’t feel right about giving the small part to another musician.

“Am I really going to give another musician a piece with 85 rests?” she asked. “Besides, it will give me something to do. I’d be a nervous wreck sitting in the audience.”

In May, Coppernoll-Houston graduated from the University of Portland, where she majored in environmental science.

She is earning her master’s degree in teaching at the university and plans to teach environmental science and biology.