Introduction

WILLIAM BILLINGS was one of the best-known American musicians of the eighteenth century. He was born in Boston, October 7, 1746, and he died there September 26, 1800. Billings wrote more than three hundred compositions, virtually all of them settings of sacred texts, and he was active for three decades as a teacher of singing-schools. He also wrote vigorous prose and verse. The introductions to several of his tunebooks contain detailed pedagogical material as well as more fanciful, literary sections. He developed his music from British sources and, guided by the needs of the singing-school, attained an idiom of considerable individuality. His works were extremely popular in eighteenth-century America but were gradually overshadowed by European concepts of composition.

Almost all of Billings’s music was originally printed in six collections and seven brief, occasional publications that he brought out himself. A few pieces first appeared in tune-books compiled by others; a few more survive only in manuscript and presumably were not printed in the composer’s lifetime. The critical edition of Billings’s works takes Billings’s own publications as its main source. Its four volumes reflect the order in which the collections first appeared: Vol. I, The New-England Psalm-Singer (1770) [NEPS]; Vol. II, The Singing Master’s Assistant (1778) [SMA] and Music in Miniature (1779) [MM]; Vol. III, The Psalm-Singer’s Amusement (1781) [PSA], The Suffolk Harmony (1786) [SH], and the occasional publications; Vol. IV, The Continental Harmony (1794) [CH]. Collections with an introduction by Billings begin in this edition with the same introduction; the compositions in each collection follow in their original order. The sole exception is Music in Miniature. Music in Miniature is the only one of Billings’s publications to include music other than his own; moreover, it reprints pieces in both The New-England Psalm-Singer and The Singing Master’s Assistant. The pieces in Music in Miniature not by Billings are omitted from this edition, which is restricted to pieces by Billings that he published nowhere else and pieces printed in Music in Miniature in versions significantly different from versions in other Billings publications.

Each of Billings’s three major tunebook introductions describes precisely how performers are to derive the correct tempos from the time signatures. Billings’s time signatures are retained, except for 𝇎, which is replaced by 2/2. Table I reduces Billings’s instructions to their metronomic equivalents, which remain fairly consistent over the twenty-four years separating his earliest explanation (1770) from his last (1794).

Table I. Metronomic Equivalents of Billings’s Time Signatures

Time signature	Beat note	NEPSa	SMAb	CHc
𝇋	𝅘𝅥	60	60	60
𝇍	𝅘𝅥	60d, 80e	80	80
𝇎	𝅗𝅥	60	60	60
2/4	𝅘𝅥	120	120	120
3/2	𝅗𝅥	60	60	60
3/4	𝅘𝅥	80	80	80
3/8	𝅘𝅥𝅭	53	53	53
6/4	𝅗𝅥𝅭	…	60, 80f	80
6/8	𝅘𝅥𝅭	…	80	80

a. New-England Psalm-Singer, Introduction, Lesson VI.

b. Singing Master’s Assistant, Introduction, Lesson VI.

c. Continental Harmony, Introduction, Lesson VI.

d. In psalm tunes.

e. In anthems and “other brisk Pieces of Music.”

f. In the fourth edition [1786–89] only.

. . . denotes no information.

In this edition metronomic markings based on Billings’s instructions are given for each piece and for each tempo change. The metronomic markings are a reminder of the tempos that Billings wanted his time signatures to represent, but they are to be taken merely as suggestions, as they are in most other musical styles. Occasionally Billings adds a verbal tempo marking. These are to be taken as modifications of the basic pace,1 and the metronome markings supplied in the edition at such places derive from the composer’s directions.2

Slurs mark all melismas in the original printings of Billings’s music. Slurs are here removed, with melismas indicated by a combination of beaming and extended lines within the text.

Billings’s use of accidentals varies from work to work. The New-England Psalm-Singer lacks them almost entirely. The Singing Master’s Assistant and Music in Miniature introduce them, but most are valid only for the note with which they appear. In the present edition Billings’s accidentals are reproduced; consistent with modern practice, they are valid for the entire measure unless otherwise indicated. It is likely that some accidentals were freely applied by the singers in Billings’s time. For example, in The Singing Master’s Assistant the composer twice puts a natural sign in front of a potential leading-tone, perhaps a warning that performers not follow their inclination to raise it.

In Billings’s original publications anthems have the full text underlaid, and, except in The New-England Psalm-Singer and Music in Miniature, psalm and hymn tunes have a single stanza of text, usually printed between the counter (alto) and tenor parts. In The New-England Psalm-Singer the only psalm or hymn tunes with text are those set to words by local poets. The textless tunes were to be sung to the standard devotional poetry of Brady and Tate, Isaac Watts, and other British divines, printed in metrical psalters and hymnbooks and widely circulated in New England. Music in Miniature, a tune supplement designed to be bound at the end of such a psalter or hymn book, consists entirely of textless tunes. Like the psalm and hymn tunes in the rest of Billings’s collections, each is assigned a metrical indication; the performer is free to sing any appropriate tune to any devotional text in the same meter. Billings’s metrical indications and their meanings are as follows:

Metrical designation	Number of syllables in each line
CM. (Common Meter)	8.6.8.6.
S.M. (Short Meter)	6.6.8.6.
L.M. (Long Meter)	8.8.8.8.
H.M. (Hallelujah Meter)	6.6.6.6.4.4.4.4.
P.M. (Particular Meter)	Any pattern of syllables and lines different from the above schemes

In the present edition texts have been supplied for tunes left textless in The New-England Psalm-Singer and Music in Miniature. The following priorities have governed the editor’s choice of texts:

1. Where Billings printed the tune in one of his other publications, the text to which he set it is retained.
2. Where another compiler of Billings’s time printed the tune, the text to which he set it is retained.
3. Where no contemporaneous printings of the tune with text are known, the editor has chosen one according to his personal preference and Billings’s injunction that singers choose “chearful” words for music in major and “melancholy” words for music in minor.3

Billings himself wrote the texts for some of his compositions, and he took texts from local poets as well. He also wrote the text for at least one of his anthems; for others he borrowed passages from the Bible, often varied them and inserted into them prose and verse additions of his own. For all such texts the version in Billings’s publication is considered authoritative—they were not printed elsewhere—and in all the capitalization has been left intact, with punctuation restored, where necessary, according to eighteenth-century practice.

By far the majority of the texts come from standard British devotional poetry. As copied into Billings’s publications the texts are inconsistent in spelling, capitalization, and punctuation, and there would have been no virtue in preserving the inconsistencies here.4 Instead, contemporaneous New England printings of Billings’s text sources have been chosen whenever possible, and texts in this edition conform with them. The Commentary (pages 344–355, below) gives the text source for each piece; all text sources used in this edition are listed on page 342. Details of capitalization and punctuation in the text sources are followed here, except in rare cases where obvious mistakes have been tacitly corrected in conformity with other editions.

Like his contemporaries, Billings customarily printed only one stanza of text with a psalm tune or hymn tune. Yet more than once he supplied original texts in many stanzas for pieces in his collections. And the Singing Master’s Assistant carries text attributions with many pieces to show the singer where to find additional stanzas. Almost all of Billings’s psalm and hymn tunes are strophic pieces, with each of several stanzas sung to the same music. Hence, all stanzas of each text, with a few unavoidable exceptions explained in the Commentary, are reproduced here. The intent is not necessarily that the present-day performer sing every available stanza of each piece, but that he be supplied with all the text his eighteenth-century counterpart had at hand.

Billings makes frequent use of abbreviations (𝄈𝄁𝄈, &c) indicating text repetition. All such repetitions are here written out in full, and repeated words or groups of words are separated by commas. Certain archaic spellings that might confuse the modern performer are also modernized without mention in the Commentary. For example, “ye” when used as an article is replaced by “the.” Such spellings as “sav’our” or “glor’ous”—examples of the eighteenth-century practice of apostrophizing vowels—are here written out as they are pronounced, i.e., “saviour” and “glorious.” Beginnings of lines in poetic texts are here marked by a capital letter, even if they do not appear that way in the originals. Finally, all printing in italics is here eliminated. The significance of Billings’s printing of a few texts in italics is not known; their occurrence is noted in the Commentary.

Square brackets in Billings’s original are indicated in this edition as follows: 〈〉.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This volume is the result of a cooperative effort. Professor Richard Crawford helped to develop the editorial policy. He meticulously checked the music and the commentary, and his suggestions led to notable improvements. He also provided most of the Introduction as well as the checklist of Billings’s publications. Jael Nathan worked on the texts; Professor John A. Yunck answered many questions when the texts were edited; and Susan Eareckson prepared the basic manuscript of the music. Editorial assistance was offered by Lila and Gary Aamodt of A-R Editions, Inc.

The edition was begun by the editor as a private project. Through the efforts of Professors H. Wiley Hitchcock and Charles Hamm as well as those of Cynthia Adams Hoover it became an official project of the American Musicological Society in honor of the bicentennial.

Grateful acknowledgment is made to the National Endowment for the Humanities for a grant for work on the edition.

hans nathan

1 See The New-England Psalm-Singer, p. 15; The Continental Harmony, p. xx–xxi.

2 For more on tempo see David P. McKay and Richard Crawford, William Billings of Boston (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1975), p. 241–45.

3 See The Singing Master’s Assistant, Lesson X, p. 16.

4 The introductory matter in Billings’s publications, however, appears with original spelling and punctuation.

1 For the Notes, Rests, and other Characters, see page 103. [In the original the examples using musical notation are engraved on p. 103–04; in the present edition they are interpolated into the text.]

2 And here it may not be amiss to inform you, how the length of Pendulums are calculated; take this instance, suppose a Pendulum, of thirty-nine inches and two tenths, will vibrate in the time of a second, then divide 39²/₁₀ by 4, and it will give you the length of a Pendulum, that will vibrate twice as quick; and, multiply 39²/₁₀ by 4, and it will give the length of a Pendulum, that will vibrate twice as slow. Make a Pendulum of common thread well waxed and instead of a bullet take a piece of heavy wood turned perfectly round, about the bigness of a pullet’s egg, and rub them over, either with chalk, paint, or whitewash, so that they may be plainly seen by candle light.

3 [4th edition: “twenty-two inches and one twentieth.” In the later Continental Harmony (1794) Billings reiterates the measurement of 22 ¹/₂₀ inches, making the figure in the 4th edition appear to be his last thought.]

4 [4th edition: “almost out of use in Vocal Musick.”]

5 [4th edition: “by even Numbers.”]

6 [Billings seems to have meant: “could be perswaded to leave the practice of music to such as have.”]

7 In fuging Music you must be very distinct and emphatic, not only in the Tune, but in the pronounciation; for if there happens to be a Number of greater Voices in the Concert than your own, they will swallow you up; therefore in such a case, I would recommend to you the resolution (tho’ not the impudence) of a discarded Actor, who after he had been twice hissed off the Stage, mounted again, and with great Assurance he thundered out these words “I will be heard.”

8 I have heard it remarked that “Order was the first thing which took place in Heaven.”

9 It is recorded in sacred writ, that while I was in Embryo “The morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy.” And that Miriam and the children of Israel sang praises to God; but I suppose it was by immediate inspiration, or some supernatural assistance; for I frankly confess they had no assistance from me.

10 The wise man says, that “to every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the sun.” And the Royal Psalmist says, “I will sing of mercy and of judgment,” surely, this holy example is wortky [worthy] our imitation, and if we are authorised to sing both of mercy and of judgment, we may sing day and night without ceasing; for the prophet Jeremiah tells us, that his mercies are new every morning; and in another place, he says “righteous art thou O Lord, yet let me talk with thee of thy judgments.” It remains then, that we “Bless the Lord at all times, and let his praise be continually in our mouths.”

11 This Dominant Tone, is typical of a strong faith of which David seems to avail himself, and upon this strength he (in the language of a Christian hero) most emphatically expresses himself, in the following words, “The Lord is on my side, I will not fear what man can do unto me.” And again, “Though an host should encompass me about, yet I will not be affraid; for I will go on in the strength of the Lord my God.”

12 A Canon is a sort of musical composition variously composed and performed.

13 The Tone which was chosen by King Jehoshaphat’s army was this, viz. “Praise the Lord, for his mercy endureth forever.” It is worthy of notice, that the canon was pointed towards heaven, and not towards the enemy. And farther it has been observed, that whenever the Israelites were not furnished with this kind of artillery, they were easily vanquished by their enemies.

14 Philosophers agree, that there is a natural propensity in every sonorous body to reply (by way of echo) to any sounding body in unison with itself; and it is well known that the deeper the tone, the greater the tremor. Hence it is, that cannon[s] by reason of their extream depth, affect the air so sensibly.

15 Historians relate, that “Pythagoras, in passing by a Smith’s shop, found that the sounds proceeding from the hammers, were either more grave, or accute, according to the different weights of the hammers. The Philosopher, to improve this hint, suspends different weights by strings of the same bigness, and found in like manner, that the sounds answered to the weights. This being discovered, he found out those numbers which produced sounds, that were consonant: as that two strings of the same substance and tension, the one being double to the other in length gave that interval, which is called a Diapason. The same was also effected from two strings of the same length and size, the one having four times the tension of the other. By these steps from so mean a beginning did this great man reduce what was only noise before, to one of the most delightful sciences, by marrying it to the Mathematicks.” Note, that Pythagoras was born in Samos, 524 years before Christ.

16 Guido lived about 710 years ago. He was a great improver of the Musical Scale: He caused it to be called Gamut, that it might begin with the first letter of his name. Historians relate, that he was born in Tuscany.

17 The sharp Keys are ranked in the Masculine Gender; therefore, Dame Gamut calls them her sons.

18 By this, is understood the Fife and Drum, and other martial instruments of music.

19 The flat Keys (by way of contrast to the Sharp) are ranked in the Feminine Gender. N.B. These Genders admit no neuter.

20 I had almost forgot to inform you, that some of my sons are wholly employed in making pills, to purge melancholly; and as I have no desire to keep this salutary preparation a secret, I here present you with the receipt, verbatim. “Take of Bass, Tenor, Counter, and Treble, each an equal proportion; mix them in a Vehicle of Consonance, with as great a number of Vibrations, as will amount to a Coincidence. Let this be conveyed into the ears, through the medium of vociforation and articulation; and it will not fail of having the desired effect.” Approved.

21 By these remarks, the absurdity of adapting a sharp keyed tune, to a Psalm of Penitence and Prayer, and a flat keyed tune, to a Psalm of Praise and Thanksgiving, is strikingly set forth. Suppose a preacher, on a fast day morning, for his discourse, should speak from these words, viz. “Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise.” And for the afternoon, “Go your way, eat the fat, and drink the sweet, and send portions unto them for whom nothing is prepared; neither be ye sorry, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” We will carry this supposition yet farther, and suppose, that in his great wisdom, he should on a thanksgiving day morning, speak from these words, viz. “A day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness.” And in the afternoon, “Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock taste any thing; let them not feed nor drink water; but let man and beast be covered with sack cloth.” But says the impartial reader, “this is ridiculous, this would be intolerable; but is the simile just, is it not exaggerated”? “I answer, it is just, and without exaggeration.”

22 Note, that every piece of music is called an Air.

23 History informs us, that Dr. De Maris, a Frenchman, was the first that invented and ascertained the length of the notes, and their proportion from each other, viz. “That the Semibreve is twice as long as the Minim; the Minim twice as long as the Crotchet, &c.[”] N.B. He lived about the year 1330.

24 Alluding to Revelations, Chapter 6, “There shall be time no longer.”

25 As penitence and prayer, are not mentioned as the business of Heaven; but are supposed to be swallowed up in praise and thanksgiving; so Dame Gammut may with propriety say, that “her daughters will be extinct, and her sons rise and shine, &c.”

26 See page 102 [p. 263].

27 [After “To the goddess of discord” comes “An Alphabetical list of tunes and anthems, contained in this Book.” This is followed, in all except the fourth edition, by “An Encomium on Music” and, preceding the musical section, six stanzas of “A morning hymn. To be sung in the Tune called Aurora.”]

28 Job 38 chap, verse 7.

29 Exod. 15, verse 1.

30 2 Chron. 5 chap, verse 13.

31 2 Chron. 20 chap, verse 21–22.

32 Acts 16, verse 25–26.

33 Luke 2, verse 13–14.

34 Matth. 26–30.

35 i. Sam. 16 chap. verse 23.

36 To illustrate this I shall I [sic] take this opportunity to inform the reader, that I am intimately acquainted with several singers, who are not able to speak one short sentence in common conversation, without stuttering and stammering to such a degree, as to excite great pain in the audience, and are often-times so confused and abashed at their own unintelligable jargon, that they are obliged to leave the meaning of the half uttered sentence to the sagacity of the hearers: When to great admiration, these same people will perform n [a] lengthy piece of music, and they will not only sing musically and delightfully, but they will pronounce with the accuracy of a scholar, without the least hesitation whatever: Upon the strength of such conviction, who can forbear breaking out into the following exclamation “Great art thou O music, and with thee there is no Competitor—Thy powers are far beyond the powers of—utterance.”

1 [Footnote 2 below gives Billings’s characterization of this essay as a “burlesque.” It appears at the end of the introduction to The Singing Master’s Assistant, fourth edition, where it is preceded by a short version of the Introduction to the earlier editions. The item of which this is Billings’s parody is printed on p. 141–43 of The Heidelbergh Catechism, bound with The Psalms of David . . . for the use of the Reformed Protestant Dutch Church of the city of New York (New York: James Parker, 1767), Evans 10561, under the title: “The Creed, of Saint Athanasius, Bishop of Alexandria, Written in the Year of our Lord, 333.”]

2 ☞ I hope no pious Episcopalian will so far misconstrue my intention, as to suppose this is intended as a burlesque upon their form of Devotion: I was pleased with the stile, and wrote this by way of Imitation.

3 Composers of Musick say,

“Could you erect a thousand parts or more,

“They, in effect, will prove the same as four.”

*Titles with an asterisk (*) are not by Billings and are not included in this edition. Royalston is “by Wood.”