For Good Measure

William Billings, William Selby, and Early American Organs

Organ History with Dr. Robert M. Thompson

Knowing that the anthem for this Sunday would be by William Billings, I was delighted to play one of his organ compositions for the prelude.

Then I planned a postlude by another early American, William Selby. These two compositions were included in an LP that I produced many years ago.

William Billings (1756-1800) is the best known of our native-born pioneer composers and the first full-time American composer. Billings’ life was not an easy one. His father died when William was only 14. William had to stop his formal education and become a tanner in order to support his mother and siblings. He later gave up tanning to spend full time in music, composing and publishing 4-voice unaccompanied choral works, but also a few organ works.. He was mostly self-taught and published six volumes of choral music. The first volume, The New-England Psalm-Singer of 1770, was engraved by Paul Revere.  He taught in many singing schools.

Contemporary accounts describe Billings as having one eye, a withered arm, legs of different lengths and being addicted to snuff, taking not small pinches of it, but entire hand-fulls at a time. One account describes him as having no address and “with an uncommon negligence of person. Still, he spake & sung & thought as a man above common abilities.”*

Billings’ wife died 5 years before him, leaving him with 6 children under the age of eighteen. He died in poverty in Boston on September 26, 1800. He is considered  the greatest of early American composers, his music appearing in modern editions, performances and recordings. One of his best known works is the round, “When Jesus Wept”, found in most mainline hymnals today, number 715 in our Hymnal 1982. We will likely sing this sometime during the coming Holy Week.

William Selby (1738-1798) was also a native-born American; organist, impresario and teacher. As organist at King’s Chapel in Boston, his tenure was interrupted by the Revolution during which the resourceful Selby turned store-keeper, resuming his organist position in 1783. He organized one of the first sacred concerts ever to be given in Boston, an ambitious program containing vocal, choral and instrumental works by Bach (d.1750), Handel (d.1756) and himself.

Early American Organs were mostly small in the English style of  the time with only one “manual” (the name of the keyboard on organs). However, the Moravians had larger organs in the German Baroque style along with orchestras and choirs. Some notable compositions were premiered by Moravians in America prior to their first hearing in Europe.  The most notable organ builder of the time was David Tannenberg (1729-1804), a Moravian who emigrated to Pennsylvania and built numerous notable organs, many still in use today. His lifetime precedes and extends past those of both Billings and Selby.

*Nathan, Hans, William Billings, Data and Documents,1976, Detroit, College Music Society.