var s_account="msnportalencartauk"; Search View Billings, William Article View To find a specific word, name, or topic in this article, select the option in your Web browser for finding within the page. In Internet Explorer, this option is under the Edit menu.
The search seeks the exact word or phrase that you type, so if you donât find your choice, try searching for a keyword in your topic or recheck the spelling of a word or name. Billings, William Billings, William (1746-1800), American composer of choral music, the foremost representative of early American music in the European tradition. Billings was born in Boston, Massachusetts, on October 7, 1746. Largely self-trained in music, he was a tanner by trade and a friend of such figures of the American War of Independence as Samuel Adams and Paul Revere. Billings's New England Psalm-Singer (1770), engraved by Revere, was the first published collection of music entirely by an American, and contained the first American fuguing tunes (a provincial English and American choral genre, in which an initial chordal section is followed by lively melodic imitation). As an itinerant singing master for local singing schools, Billings was part of an American folk tradition. Many of his hymns, anthems, psalm settings, and fuguing tunes remain in print in southern US shape-note hymnals (folk hymnals in which the degree of the scale is shown by the note shape). Especially known among his compositions are his canon (round) âWhen Jesus Weptâ, the anthem | |
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