The Music
Virtually all of Billings' music was written for four-part chorus, singing a cappella. His many hymns and anthems were published mostly in 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 a song, including the new version in his next volume.
Billings' music can be at times forceful and stirring, as in his patriotic song "Chester"; ecstatic, as in his hymn "Africa"; or elaborate and celebratory, as in his "Easter Anthem." The latter sounds rather like a miniature Handelian chorus, sung a cappella. As might be expected from a composer who was very close to his roots in folk music, Billings' music shows a striking purity.
His "Jargon," written to a tongue-in-cheek text, contains jarring dissonances that sound more like those of the 20th century than of the 18th.
He also wrote several Christmas carols, including "Judea" in 1778 and "Shiloh" in 1781.
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—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
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