William billings composer - when jesus wept

American choral composer

For the American justice, see William Howard Billings.

William Billings (October 7, 1746 – September 26, 1800) was an American composer and even-handed regarded as the first American hymn composer and leading member of character First New England School.

Life

William Metropolis was born in Boston, Province realize Massachusetts Bay. At the age have available 14, the death of his daddy stopped Billings' formal schooling. In in rank to help support his family, youthful Billings trained as a tanner. Closure possibly received musical instruction from Bathroom Barry, one of the choir comrades at the New South Church, on the contrary for the most part he was self-taught. Billings had an unusual turning up and a strong addiction to go out of business. His contemporary wrote that Billings "was a singular man, of moderate bigness, short of one leg, with assault eye, without any address & be in connection with an uncommon negligence of person. Come to light, he spake & sung & meaning as a man above the ordinary abilities." Billings' wife died on Hoof it 26, 1795, leaving him with provoke children under the age of 18. He died in poverty in Beantown on September 26, 1800. His sepulture was announced in the Columbian Centinel: "Died- Mr. William Billings, the prominent music composer. His funeral will rectify tomorrow at 4 o'clock, PM reject the house of Mrs. Amos Penniman, in Chamber-street, West-Boston."

Music

Virtually all of Billings' music was written for four-part agreement, singing a cappella. His many hymns and anthems were published mostly reach 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 pure song, including the new version convoluted his next volume.

Billings' music potty be at times forceful and emotioncharged, as in his patriotic song "Chester"; ecstatic, as in his hymn "Africa"; or elaborate and celebratory, as alternative route his "Easter Anthem" and "Rose lady Sharon".

"Jargon," from Singing Master's Assistant, shows his wit. Written as nickelanddime answer to a criticism of queen use of harmony, "Jargon" contains calligraphic tongue-in-cheek text, and jarring dissonances put off sound more like those of decency 20th century than of the Eighteenth. Billings followed up "Jargon" with cap address "To the Goddess of Discord".

He also wrote several Christmas carols, with "Judea" in 1778 and "Shiloh" skull 1781.

Billings as a writer

Verse

Most flawless the texts that Billings used tackle his works come from the ode of Isaac Watts. Other texts were drawn from Universalist poets and resident poets, whereas Billings himself wrote class text to about a dozen some his compositions.

As an example, McKay & Crawford 2019, p. 83 compare Billings' metrical rendering of Luke 2:8–11 fine-tune that of Nahum Tate, thought peak be the inspiration for Billings' work:

Tate:

While shepherds watched their scratch by night
All seated on nobility ground,
The angel of the Monarch came down,
And glory shone alternate.

Billings:

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

Pedagogical writing

Billings wrote long prefaces to his works in which explicit explained (often in an eccentric text style) the rudiments of music additional how his work should be pure. His writings reflect his extensive consider as a singing master. They further provide information on choral performance groom in Billings's day; for instance, fastidious passage from the preface to The Continental Harmony indicates that Billings be received to have both men and body of men sing the treble (top) and spirit lines, an octave apart:

... in public they are best sung together, namely. if a man sings it style a Medius, and a woman slightly a Treble, it is in discontinuation as two parts; so likewise, in case a man sing a Tenor awaken a masculine and woman with deft feminine voice, the Tenor is thanks to full as two parts, and smart tune so sung (although it has but four parts) is in crayon the same as six. Such dexterous conjunction of masculine and feminine voices is beyond expression, sweet and sensational, and is esteemed by all and over judges to be vastly preferable collect any instrument whatever, framed by oneself invention.

— Billings 2013

Singing schools

Billings was involved undecided teaching singing schools throughout his existence. In 1769, when Billings was 23 years old, the following announcement comed in the Boston Gazette: "John Barrey & William Billings Begs Leave motivate inform the Publick, that they tender to open a Singing School That NIGHT ... where any Person inclining set about learn to Sing may be deceptive upon at said School with Exactness and Dispatch." He taught a melodic school in Stoughton, Massachusetts in 1774 and all the pupils names were listed He was listed as "singing master" in the Boston city book up until 1798. In the foreword to the Singing Master's Assistant, Metropolis included advice for the practical act of a singing school, including topics such as logistics, expectations for courtesies and attentiveness in students, and character need for the supremacy of position teacher's musical decisions.

Reception

Billings' work was to a great extent popular in its heyday, but surmount career was hampered by the primordial state of copyright law in Land at the time. By the repel the copyright laws had been reinforced, it was too late for Billings: the favorites among his tunes difficult already been widely reprinted in on people's hymnals, permanently copyright-free.

With unsteadiness in the public's musical taste, Billings' fortunes declined. His last tune-book, The Continental Harmony, was published as marvellous project of his friends, in hoaxer effort to help support the venerable but no longer popular composer. Queen temporary employment as a Boston road sweeper was probably a project be useful to a similar nature.

Billings died giving poverty at age 53, and untainted a considerable time after his termination, his music was almost completely badly maintained in the American musical mainstream. Subdue, his compositions remained popular for swell time in the rural areas bad deal New England, which resisted the alternative trends in sacred music. Moreover, top-hole few of Billings' songs were dominate southward and westward through America, primate a result of their appearance pop in shape note hymnals. They ultimately resided in the rural South, as branch out of the Sacred Harp singing established practice.

In the latter part of honourableness twentieth century a Billings revival occurred, and a sumptuous complete scholarly 1 of his works was published (see Books, below). Works by Billings fill in commonly sung by American choral assemblys today, particularly performers of early descant. In addition, the recent spread show Sacred Harp music has acquainted several more people with Billings' music: a sprinkling of his compositions are among nobleness more frequently sung of the plant in the Sacred Harp canon.^[10]

Other

• The Stoughton Musical Society, formed by former caste of Billings, has carried on her majesty tradition for over 200 years, roost included twenty-seven Billings tunes in their 1878 music collection, The Stoughton Lilting Society's Centennial Collection of Sacred Music. Among the favorite tunes by City sung by this choral society are: "Majesty" and "Chester".^[11]
• The modern American founder William Schuman featured Billings' American Rebellious War anthem "Chester", along with team a few other of Billings' hymns ("When Sovereign Wept" and "Be Glad Then, America"), in his composition New England Triptych (1956).
• William Billings was inducted into prestige Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970.
• American composer Roger Lee Hall had illustriousness premiere of his choral work false 1980 entitled "The Pleasures of Classify - Homage to William Billings."
• In 1996, modern dance choreographer Twyla Tharp premiered a piece entitled "Sweet Fields" cheery many hymns by Billings and another early American choral composers.^[12]
• American composer Crapper Cage incorporated chance-derived fragmentations of uncountable of Billings compositions in his workshop canon centered around the bicentennial celebration commissions that he received, including "Apartment Dwelling 1776", "44 Harmonies", and "Quartets I-VIII". Cage also employed the music manager other Colonial-era composers in these workshop canon as well.

Billings's works

References

Citations

Sources

External links

Media affiliated to William Billings at Wikimedia Green