Catalog of the Musical Works of William Billings

William Billings (1746-1800) was the most important native-born composer of the American colonial and Federal eras. He wrote hundreds of choral compositions, which were set to sacred or devotional texts for use by church choirs, singing schools, and musical societies. Extremely popular in his own time, Billing’s music was denigrated during the 19th century when European styles governed American musical tastes. In the 20th century his genius was recognized, and his music is widely sung and studied. Originally published in six tunebooks , the 228 extant pieces were issued in a scholarly edition by the American Musicological Society and The Colonial Society of Massachusetts as The Complete Works of William Billings (4 vols., 1977-1990). The present catalogue complements the Complete Works by serving as a guide to its contents and providing a wealth of additional data. Included for each composition are exact title; text source; first line; technical information on length, meter, key and melody; manuscript sources and contemporaneous reprints; bibliography and modern recordings. An extensive list of works cited is followed by five indexes providing access to the material in the catalogue by first line of text, Billing’s anthem titles, text sources, musical form (tune types), and musical incipits. The catalogue provides for Billings’s music information similar to that found in Schmeider’s listings for Bach and Koechel’s listings for Mozart.