Sacred Nine Project: The Billings Pendulum
the mad wordsmith & the musical wrecking ball heard ‘round Revolutionary America
November 2025, American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting, Boston, MA

William Billings (1746-1800) is considered the Father of American Choral Music. Though a tanner and editor, his musical contribution is what rings down the ages. Many don’t know that this brash and original artist had quite the way with words. The aim is to take his commitment to text and build a concert experience around that. The concept for the concert is described below:

Proposed Program

Introductions

Billings wrote wildly interesting introductions to his tune books. For example, there is a beautiful dialogue between “Master” and “Scholar” in the introduction to Continental Harmony, about the order in which each voice part is conceived for a composition. Excerpts from this would be newly set to music and sung by the tenor and bass. Also, The Singing Master’s Assistant contains a scathing satire in response to criticism that Billing’s compositions were too consonant. Parts of “Goddess of Discord” will be set to music, paired with Billings’ own satirically dissonant JARGON.

The Prose

There are a few possibilities here, all of which that would lead to newly composed music. There was one critic by the pseudonym of “Ichabod Beetlehead”; parts of his article in defense of Billings’ music would make an interesting piece. Speaking of funny names, Billings published a ghastly story about one “Sawney Beane” in Boston Magazine that got him fired from that publication. Finally, Billings also wrote prose; I have my hands on the rare Porcupine, alias the Hedge-Hog; or Fox Turned Preacher.

The Verses

Here is where we celebrate his wonderfully unconventional and evocative texts. For example, Continental Harmony opens with “An Anthem, for Thanksgiving,” containing a line that refers to dragons praising their maker “with your forked tongues.” We would also explore his boldness (even hubris) regarding his fiddling with biblical texts and the texts of his contemporaries. This will be a longer, perhaps even two-part set where we also explore his genius with text-treatment, including the changing meters in CREATION, and even altering rhythms (in that same selection) to ensure that some of Isaac Watts’ oddly stressed syllables are emphasized properly. Other texts to consider here are “They that go down to the sea,” and “Who is this that cometh.”

The Documentation

Many do not know that Christmas was a controversial holiday in Continental and Revolutionary America. To justify the opening piece in Suffolk Harmony, “SHILOH for Christmas,” Billings offers his original text with dozens of biblical footnotes. It’s comical to see, and if the footnotes are incorporated to a novelty piece, also hilarious to hear! And while we are on the subject of Christmas, I would like to set the Watts Christmas text, “Shepherds Rejoice,” which Billings was supposed to set but apparently never did.

The Pledge

There is no question that Billings was very patriotic. There are many directions to go in here, from the patriotic CHESTER, LAMENTATION OVER BOSTON, and RETROSPECT, to excerpts from David Stowe’s book about Billings, to a piece that Billings supposedly wrote about George Washington. If this latter piece cannot be found, I would like to write it!