Musicians - William Billings

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	Musicians - William Billings

William Billings (October 7, 1746 - September 26, 1800), American choral composer, is regarded as the father of American choral music and hymnody. Billings was born, died, and spent his life in Boston, during the exciting years of the American Revolution. Originally a tanner by trade, and lacking formal training in music, Billings created what is now recognized as a uniquely American style.

The music

Virtually all of Billings' music was written for four-part chorus, singing a cappella. His many hymns and anthems were published mostly in book-length collections, as follows:

The New-England Psalm-Singer (1770)
The Singing Master's Assistant (1778)
Music in Miniature (1779)
The Psalm-Singer's Amusement (1781)
The Suffolk Harmony (1786)
The Continental Harmony (1794)

Sometimes Billings would revise and improve a song, including the new version in his next volume.

Billings' music can be at times forceful and stirring, as in his patriotic song Chester; ecstatic, as in his hymn Africa; or elaborate and celebratory, as in his "Easter Anthem". The latter sounds rather like a miniature Handelian chorus, sung a cappella. As might be expected from a composer who was very close to his roots in folk music, Billings' music shows a striking purity.

Billings as writer

Billings often wrote the lyrics for his own compositions. Like the notes, the words are occasionally awkward but always forceful and vivid.

As an example, McKay and Crawford (see Books, below) compare Billings' metrical rendering of Luke 2:8-11 with that of Nahum Tate, thought to be the inspiration for Billings' work:

Tate:

:While shepherds watched their flocks by night :All seated on the ground, :The angel of the Lord came down, :And glory shown around.

Billings:

:As shepherds in Jewry were guarding their sheep, :Promiscusly seated estranged from sleep; :An Angel from heaven presented to view, :And thus he accosted the trembling few :Dispel all your sorrows, and banish your fears, :For Jesus our Saviour in Jewry appears.

Billings also wrote long prefaces to his works in which he explained (often in an endearingly eccentric prose style) the rudiments of music and how his work should be performed. His writings reflect his extensive experience as a singing master, and include advice that would wisely be heeded by choral singers today.

Reception

Billings' work was very popular in its heyday, but it failed to last out the composer's lifetime. The composer's career was hampered by the primitive state of copyright law in America at the time; and by the time the copyright laws had been strengthened, it was too late for Billings: the favorites among his tunes had already been widely reprinted in other people's hymnals, permanently copyright-free.

With changes in the public's musical taste, Billings' fortunes declined. His last tune-book, The Continental Harmony, was published as a project of his friends, in an effort to help support the revered but no longer popular composer. His temporary employment as a Boston street sweeper was probably a project of a similar nature.

Billings died in poverty at age 53, and for a considerable time after his death, his music was almost completely neglected in the American musical mainstream. However, his compositions remained popular for a time in the rural areas of New England, which resisted the newer trends in sacred music. Moreover, a few of Billings' songs were carried southward and westward through America, as a result of their appearance in shape note hymnals. They ultimately resided in the rural South, as part of the Sacred Harp singing tradition.

In the latter part of the twentieth century a Billings revival occurred, and a sumptuous complete scholarly edition of his works was published (see Books, below). Works by Billings are commonly sung by American choral groups today, particularly performers of early music. In addition, the recent spread of Sacred Harp music has acquainted many more people with Billings' music: several of his compositions are among the more frequently sung of the works in the Sacred Harp canon .

The Stoughton Musical Society, formed by former students of Billings, has carried on his tradition for over 200 years.

The modern American composer William Schuman featured Billings' American Revolutionary War anthem Chester in his composition New England Triptych.

Books

McKay, David P. and Richard Crawford (1975) William Billings of Boston. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0691091188.

Complete works of William Billings in four volumes, edited by Karl Kroeger:
*The New England psalm-singer. University Press of Virginia (1981).
*The Singing Masters Assistant, Music in Miniature. University Press of Virginia (1984). ISBN 0813908396.
*The Psalm-Singer's Amusement. University Press of Virginia (1987). ISBN 0813911303.
*The Continental Harmony. University Press of Virginia (1990). ISBN 1878528017.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for William Billings ]

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