William Billings: American Patriot

1172 Words5 Pages
William Billings: American Patriot Quintessential American figure William Billings was born in 1746, (Huff) and was a first-generation American living in colonial Boston. Known as the Father of American Choral Music, (Deibel) Billings was a tanner by trade and was often described as a man “with a short leg, one eye, a withered arm, a stentorian voice, a habit of taking enormous amounts of snuff.” (Armenta) Billings had a very conservative upbringing in the colonial congregational churches. Although history is silent about his musical education, most believe he was self-taught, other than the little training he received in the Bostonian Singing Schools, utilizing mostly hymn tunes as curriculum. Billings limited his composing to mostly sacred choral music in the form of hymns. (Armenta) Billings was known for writing his own texts and broke from colonial New England tradition and used the psalms verses for many of the lyrics of his hymns. He also introduced the use of pitch pipes and cello as tools to help with the intonation of church choirs. Billings also organized a singing class in 1774 which evolved in 1986 into the Stoughton Musical Society. (Columbia University Press) Two of his most popular sacred compositions include When Jesus Wept and the anthem David's Lamentation. (Deibel) In addition to the hymns, he also composed 51 fuging tunes, 4 canons and 52 anthems and set-pieces, and patriotic tunes. (Armenta) Sadly, despite his success, Billings was never able to make an adequate living off of his composing, and at the age of 53 died in utter poverty, (John Boman) leaving behind a widow and six children. (Hans) Unfortunately, Billings’ success was disadvantaged by the archaic copyright law in America. By the time copyright legislation had been defined and was passed, it was too late for Billings. His tunes had been re-printed in many hymnals

More about William Billings: American Patriot

Open Document