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The Power of Pop
By T.M. Moore
May 24, 2002
The Prophetic Music of William Billings
The name of William Billings will not mean much to contemporary Americans, but in his day, he was all the rage among pop music aficionados. Scorned by critics and ignored by serious musicians, Billings scored high in the churches and among the masses of late eighteenth-century America. The success of Billings's music in his day presents a challenge to contemporary Christian pop musicians to consider new ways of using their music in the cause of Christ and His Kingdom. According to University of Houston Professor John Lienhard, "To know Billings, one should do more than just hear him; one should sing him; four-square, almost-medieval harmonies, elaborate fugues, experiments with dissonance that foreshadow Charles Ives. He plays musical jokes, praises God, and dances into the erotic wonder of the Song of Solomon.... The essential genius of America, and of Billings, was recognizing that full independence of Europe would eventually be gained only after we'd formed our own cultural roots."[1]
Unhappily, information on Billings is in short supply. We know he was a tanner by trade, handicapped by a less than appealing appearance, and a self-taught composer who worked in the shape-note and fuguing style that characterized much of late colonial and early American popular music. Yet standard texts on Western and American music have little to say about the man who published the first completely American book of songs, The New-England Psalm-Singer (1771). CD liners may well be one of the best sources of information about this largely forgotten composer. Billings felt no obligation to follow existing classical lines of composition. He wanted a music that was fresh, inspired by nature, rooted in a biblical worldview, relevant to his times, and easy for unschooled singers to learn. He wrote mainly hymns, employing a wide range of Old and New Testament images and themes. One example is "Who is this that cometh from Edom?" In this passionate hymn Billings presents a catalogue of the various names and titles of Christ, drawing principally from Isaiah and the Psalms, and focusing on the suffering of Christ, the New Adam, who "has made atonement and freed us from Sin." The hymn begins with an air of triumph as the titles of Christ are recited, only to settle quickly into a pensive, tragic mood as it relates the death and suffering of our Lord. The air of triumph returns in the climatic declaration of Christ's victory and Satan's defeat, culminating in a powerful call for praise to Christ: Now is the Hour of Darkness past,
Christ has assum'd his reigning Pow'r;
Behold the great Accuser cast
Down from the Skies to rise no more . . . O that Men would praise the Lord,
Praise him for creating Pow'r.
Praise him for redeeming Love.
Praise the Lord. Hallelujah, praise ye the Lord! This hymn is typical of many of Billings' worship songs: infused with passion; employing rich harmonies, mixed moods, and varying tempos; and grounded in profound theological truths celebrating the redemptive work of the Lord. These easily accessible hymns made Billings a household name among pre-Revolutionary churchgoers. But Billings's greatest success was in his popular music, which consisted mainly of songs composed to inspire the American masses in their struggle for freedom. His "Lamentation over Boston" commemorates the fall of Massachusetts's largest city to the British after the battle of Bunker Hill. The song begins with the words of Psalm 137, "By the river . . . we wept," yet not the river of Babylon, but of Watertown, a cue-word for Boston. The song intertwines biblical texts and familiar local references, expressing deep sorrow at Boston's occupation and invoking the curse of God against those who "have sucked Bostonian Breasts" and " thirst for American blood!" Billings laments the loss of Boston's freedom, resolving never to forget the great city, and calling down judgment on himself as a musician should he do so: If I forget thee, if I forget thee,
Yea, if I do not remember thee,
Then let my numbers cease to flow,
Then be my muse unkind;
Then let my tongue forget to move
And ever be confin'd. Let horrid Jargon split the Air
And rive my nerves asunder;
Let hateful Discord greet my Ear,
As terrible as Thunder. Let Harmony be banish'd hence
And Consonance depart;
Let Dissonance erect her Throne
And reign within my heart. Here is a musician so passionate about the cause for which he is composing that he devotes his "muse" to the task of motivating his compatriots to persevere in the struggle for freedom. His music became a rallying cry to freedom-seeking Americans and helped to sustain them during the eight years of the War for Independence. The best-known of these popular "rallying" songs is "Chester," in which Billings flaunts the courage and gumption of outmanned and outgunned patriots in standing up to the invading tyrants. This brash melody bursts out like an exuberant army onto the field: Let tyrants shake their iron rod,
And Slav'ry clank her galling chains,
We fear them not, we trust in God,
New England's God for ever reigns. Subsequent stanzas mock the sophisticated cunning and plots of British generals and their futility against God-inspired patriots. England's legendary redcoats are no match for freedom-loving Americans persuaded that God fights for them: When God inspir'd us for the fight,
Their ranks were broke, their lines were forc'd,
Their Ships were Shatter'd in our sight,
Or swiftly driven from our Coast. The Foe comes on with haughty Stride;
Our troops advance with martial noise,
Their Vet'rans flee before our Youth,
And Gen'rals yield to beardless Boys. Victory can only be certain with God on their side, and Billings calls all Americans to join in songs of praise to Him who directs their just cause and ensures their freedom: What grateful Off'ring shall we bring?
What shall we render to the Lord?
Loud Halleluiahs let us Sing,
And praise his name on ev'ry Chord. Here was popular music written in a form every churchgoing American could readily enter into, speaking boldly about the major social issue of the day and calling patriots to hope in the Lord and fight confidently against their foe. The music is bright and forceful, filled with confidence, even arrogance, and focused ultimately on the glory of God. Not long ago I attended a performance of this thrilling song by the Chapel Choir of Alderson-Broaddus College in Philippi, West Virginia. From the third stanza, cited above, to the end, the members of the choir stamped their right feet on the first and third beats of each measure, thus heightening the effect of an army marching into battle and bringing even more exuberance and power into their rendition of this popular song. The audience leapt to its feet at the end in thunderous applause. It was not hard to imagine how such music might have inspired many a brave patriot to press on in the cause of freedom. Billings reminds me of the biblical prophet Haggai, who, in a time when Israel was beginning to languish after the return from exile, rallied the people to finish the task of rebuilding the temple with powerful words of exhortation, promising the blessings of God for faithfulness in the task at hand. His words inspired a generation, against impossible odds, to trust in God and sacrifice everything for the cause to which He had inspired them. So also the music of William Billings. While the "Black-robed Regiment" of the clergy, as the British called them, upheld the cause of liberty from the pulpits of New England, and beleaguered politicians struggled to hold the under-resourced colonies together as a nation, Billings gave patriot farm boys and merchants inspiring music to lead them onto the battlefields of the American Revolution. We can only wonder what the effect might be on young Christians today should contemporary Christian musicians begin to catch a vision of how their music might inspire the church to greater sacrifice and undertakings in the cause of Christ. Instead of the endless pietistic meditations on the sweetness of salvation, the typical fare of contemporary Christian music, might we begin to hear bold words and powerful music challenging young people to take up the cause of the poor and oppressed? Or to make bold stands for moral purity, cultural innovation, or uncompromising involvement in causes such as the right to life? Or fired with a resolute determination to stand for Christ in classrooms all over the land? Or sacrificing their materialistic aspirations for the cause of Christian mission? Popular music, as Billings reminds us, has potential to stir the souls of ordinary people to heroic endeavor in the cause of Christ. Such music may not have much market value-at least, not at first-but it may be just what an increasingly complacent generation needs to help it recover a greater sense of a Kingdom vision and a biblical worldview. Cuts of the music of William Billings are available on the following CDs: Joel Cohen, The Boston Camerata, New Britain: The Roots of American Folksong (Erato, 1990). Paul Hillier, His Majestie's Clerkes, Goostly Psalms: Anglo-American Psalmody 1550-1800 (Harmonia Mundi, 1996). Michael Jaffe, The Waverly Consort, An American Journey: Bound for the Promised Land (Angel Records, 1996). Seth McCoy, Sherril Milnes, et al., Music of the American Revolution: The Birth of Liberty (New World Records, 1976).
T.M. Moore is a fellow of the Wilberforce Forum and pastor of teaching ministries at Cedar Springs Church in Knoxville, Tenn. His book Ecclesiastes (InterVarsity Press, 2001), recently won an Award of Merit from Christianity Today. Baker Books will release his The Psalms for Prayer, and P&R will publish his I Will Be Your God, in October 2002. T.M. lives with his wife, Susie, in Concord, Tenn.
Articles on the BreakPoint website are the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the opinions of Chuck Colson or Prison Fellowship Ministries.
[1] John Lienhard, "Engines of Our Ingenuity," |
