Billings Anthems and Fuguing Tunes. His Majesties Clerkes / Paul Hillier.

Harmonia Mundi (Full price) (CD) HMU90 7048 (54 minutes: DDD). Texts inlcuded.

The New-England Psalm-Singer—Africa; Brookfield; As the hart panteth. The Singing Master's Assistant—Emmaus; David the King was grieved; Hear my prayer, O Lord; I am the rose of Sharon; Is any afflicted? The Psalm-Singer's Amusement—Rutland; They that go down to the sea. The Suffolk Harmony—Jordan; Shiloh; Samuel the priest. The Continental Harmony—Creation; O Praise the Lord of heaven. The Lord is ris'n indeed.

This is a bumper collection of William Billings, bringing America's first major original into the British record catalogue on an appropriate scale. Billings, who lived around Boston from 1746 to 1800, worked as a tanner, although he managed to compose some 340 choral works. In style these reflect the practices of the English Parish Church, as distinct from the more sophisticated Cathedral traditions. But the rugged open fifths and parallel fifths and octaves go back much further to habits of thought virtually unchanged since the Renaissance. So it is particularly suitable that an early-music conductor such as Paul Hillier should add Billings to his list—a long one, if his direction of groups such as the Hillier Ensemble, London Baroque and Western Wind is added to the less familiar His Majesties Clerkes. Hillier has also pioneered the work of Arvo Part, so the present fashion for spiritual minimalism could easily extend to the timeless amateur choralism of Billings. A local chronicler described him as: "a singular man, of moderate size, short of one leg, with one eye, without any address, and with an uncommon negligence of person. Still he spake and sung and thought as a man above the common abilities."

Like many American composers since—Cowell and Partch, for example in the twentieth century—Billings produced his own textbook of musical theory and practice. He fitted in with Parish Church traditions where the melody, in the tenor, was composed first; then a bass was added; then a soprano, followed by an alto. This practice is illustrated by the way Hillier presents Africa, for example, one of the simplest of the hymn-tune types. The first verse is for tenor and bass; the next doubles the two parts by adding women's voices; the third adds the soprano; and only in the fourth verse are all four parts heard for the first time. After that the four parts have various doublings with both male and female voices, so the texture is a crescendo in richness.

Brookfield, another hymn-tune, was one of Billings's most popular works, judging by the number of reprints in his lifetime. Paul Hillier doesn't avail himself of the sharpened-leading notes offered in Karl Kroeger's monumental, scholarly edition of Billings so the effect makes Brookfield sound even older. Without being told that these works were by an eighteenth-century American composer, it would be hard to guess dates within at least two centuries. And matters would be even more confused if Billings's part-song Jargon had been included—a hymn to the goddess of discord which could have come from neo-classical Stravinsky.

The ruggedness of Billings is appealing. For some tastes His Majesties Clerkes may be too suave, but the other extreme could have been worse. Hillier explains that there is no point in trying to create a replica of what Billings actually heard. That sort of quest for authenticity could bring excruciating results from eighteenth-century New England, or our own Parish Churches! All the same, this collection has plenty of variety. The Funeral Anthem Samuel the priest may not plumb the depths: its simplicity has to make the point. The rhythmic vigour of the Easter Anthem The Lord is ris'n indeed is infectious and the short hymn Emmaus, "When Jesus wept", is one of the most moving of all. The recording is straightforward and well balanced, and texts are provided.

PD