Editing The Plow That Broke the Plains (section)

==Soundtrack==
===Virgil Thomson and composition===
Lorentz interviewed twelve composers and only Virgil Thomson agreed to work on the film following an offer of no more than $500 to write a music score.<ref name=":8" /> Thomson and Lorentz agreed that the film should be rendered through the folk music of the Plains people and produced 25 minutes of music in less than a week.<ref name=":8" /> After viewing the rough cut of the film, Thomson composed a score that was divided into six movements: Prelude, Pastorale (Grass), Cattle, Blues (Speculation), Drought, and Devastation.<ref name=":6" /> The soundtrack was a patchwork of dances, hymns, neo-medieval counterpoint, and chorale-like passages with wide-spaced harmonies, with interludes of familiar folk tunes like "[[Streets of Laredo (song)|Streets of Laredo]]" and "[[Git Along, Little Dogies]]".<ref name=":8" /> During the war sequence, Thomson accompanied the scene of the phalanx of tractors coming over a hill like a battalion of tanks on a battlefield with American troops marching to the song, "[[Mademoiselle from Armentieres]]."<ref name=":8" /> The final scene sequence's music is a tango which accompanies the narrator's call to action directed at the audience.<ref name=":8" />

===Recording===
The [[New York Philharmonic]] recorded the musical score under the direction of conductor [[Alexander Smallens]], while [[Metropolitan Opera]] baritone Thomas Chalmers recorded the narration.<ref name=":8" /><ref name=":6" /> Thomson scored his accompaniment for a standard orchestra, plus saxophones, guitar, banjo, and harmonium. Because Lorentz had so little money left in his budget, on the day that the score was recorded he forced the session to stop at midnight because he could not afford to pay the New York Philharmonic members overtime. The musicians decided to complete the recording session for free.<ref name=":6" /> Following the completion of the final score, Lorentz re-cut sections of the film to accommodate the music.<ref name=":7" />