William Billings

William Billings ( born October 7, 1746 Boston, † September 26, 1800 ibid ) was an American composer of choral music.

Billings is one of the few composers of his time, who did not come from Europe, but were born in North America. He spent his whole life in Boston, during the exciting years of the American Revolution.

The self-taught artist devoted himself to the church singing renewal. It is therefore considered as the father of American choral music and the church singing. He wrote a number of church hymnals, including The New England Psalm Singer, The Singing Master 's Assistant and The Psalm Singer 's Amusement.

Billings had originally learned the craft of tanning, but received no formal training in music. Nevertheless, we succeeded to create him a musical style that can be seen as genuinely American. His most popular composition was Chester.

"He had [ only ] an eye, a deformed arm, and a harsh voice, he was lame in one leg, and he was addicted to snuff. " He was married, had six children and died in poverty. His funeral was announced in the Columbian Centinel follows: " Died Mr. William Billings, the music composer Celebrated His funeral will be tomorrow at 4 o'clock, PM from the house of Mrs. Amos Penniman, in Chamber - stree, West. - Boston. "

Reception

Billings music was quite popular in its time, but its popularity declined sharply after his death. His professional success was also due to the primitive state of copyright law in the United States (see: American copyright law) severely impaired in his time. When the laws were tightened later, this Billings did not help much, as the most popular of his songs had already been published in several hymnals and thus were already in the public domain.

As the musical taste of the public walked, walked Billings commercial success as a composer still further back. His last song book, The Continental Harmony was published as a project of his friends who thus supported the respected but no longer popular composer. His temporary job as a street sweeper in Boston probably served a similar purpose.

Billings died at age 53 in poverty and his music was then almost completely ignored for a considerable time from the American musical mainstream. His compositions, however, remained for a long time in rural New England popular, where the recent trends are not penetrated in sacred music. In addition, some of his songs popular in the south and west of the USA, where they were published in shapenote hymnals. This makes them rooted in the rural area of the southern states and went to the singing tradition of Sacred Harp on.

In the later 20th century a revival of Billings music took place, and a detailed scholarly edition of his complete works was published. Today his works of American choirs are again often sung, especially by groups that have specialized in early music. In addition, the resurgent popularity of Sacred Harp and more people are becoming familiar with Billings Music: Some of his compositions are among the most frequently sung works of the Sacred Harp canon.

The modern American composer William Schuman has processed Billings ' hymn of the American Revolution Chester, and two other hymns of Billings in his composition New England Triptych.

William Billings was incorporated into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970.