A Century of Choral Singing in 
New England 
Bv Henry C. Lahee 
T HE cause of music in New 
England lias always re¬ 
ceived its greatest impulse 
from the enthusiasm of men 
who, while possessed of comparatively 
small technical ability or musical edu¬ 
cation, put the whole force of their 
souls into the work of helping the 
masses of people to a higher enjoy¬ 
ment of music than that in which they 
found them. Their accomplishments 
to this end must always be regarded 
with respect, for he who does the most 
for the cause of music in a nation is the 
man who inspires the greatest number 
with a love for the art and a desire for 
some knowledge of it, and as choral 
singing affords the surest foundation, 
we naturally look to those men who 
have been foremost in its cultivation. 
Until the latter part of the eigh¬ 
teenth century there was practically no 
choral singing except in the church, 
but an enthusiast arose who not only 
initiated important reforms in church 
choirs, but also established that pecul¬ 
iar institution of olden times generally 
known as the “singing skewl,” and 
who is said to have originated, in New 
England, the concert. 
This enthusiast was William Bil¬ 
lings, born in Charlestown. Massachu¬ 
setts, a tanner by trade, who has been 
described as a mixture of the ludi¬ 
crous, eccentric, commonplace, active, 
patriotic, and religious elements, with 
a slight touch of musical and poetic 
talent. He was deformed,—one arm 
somewhat withered, one leg shorter 
than the other, and blind of one eye, 
and he was given to the habit of con- 
tinually taking snuff. He had a sten¬ 
torian voice, drowning that of every 
singer near him. He was an advocate 
of the “fuguing tunes” then being in¬ 
troduced into the country from Eng¬ 
land, and he wrote many such tunes 
himself, using the sides of leather in 
his tannery on which to work out his 
musical ideas with a piece of chalk. 
With the compositions of Billings, 
crude as they were and amusing, we 
have nothing to do. Let a single sam¬ 
ple, and that a poem (?) stand for all. 
This verse was written as a dedication 
ode to his “New England Psalm 
Singer,” published in 1770:— 
O, praise the Lord with one consent, 
And in this grand design 
Let Britain and the Colonies 
Unanimously join. 
Billings introduced the bass viol into 
the church and thus broke down the 
ancient Puritanical prejudice against 
musical instruments. He also was the 
first to use the pitch pipe in order to 
ensure some degree of certainty in 
“striking up the tune” in church. Bil¬ 
lings gradually drifted away from tan¬ 
ning and became a singing teacher. 
As early as 1774 he began to teach a 
class at Stoughton, and as a result of 
I 0 2 
