🎵 🎄 HOLIDAY MUSIC MONTH: Christmas with William Billings

William Billings (1746–1800) was one of America’s first musical composers. Although he earned a living mainly as a leather tanner, he also taught “singing schools” and wrote and published some of the best-known hymns and patriotic songs of the American Revolution. And he also wrote a few Christmas carols. The Tudor Choir, a modern professional singing group from Seattle, gives us a grand rendering of one of them, “Shiloh,” and a taste of what Christmas sounded like in the 1780s.

December is Homeschool Holiday Music Month in the River Houses, and throughout the month we’re sharing an assortment of seasonal favorites in a great variety of styles and genres — classical and modern, sacred and secular, serious and silly — along with a collection of easy educational notes that will let you teach little musical lessons all along the way.

Many people who hear Billings’ tunes today think of them as examples of southern “shape note” music — but that’s only partly true. In early America, this a cappella style of choral singing actually began in the northeast and then spread to the southern states, where it came to be called Sacred Harp singing, after a popular early anthology of that name. In the nineteenth century the style became less popular in the northeast but retained its appeal in the south, and in modern times it has undergone a great revival across the country and even around the world.

Like all of Billings’ tunes, “Shiloh” is wonderfully vigorous music, meant to be sung by groups of people together. The words tell the New Testament story of the annunciation to the shepherds, a scene that has appeared widely in art, literature, and music for centuries.

Shiloh (“Methinks I see an heavenly Host”)

1. First Shepherd
Methinks I see an heavenly Host
Of angels on the wing;
Methinks I hear their cheerful notes,
So merrily they sing.

2. First Angel
Let all your fears be banished hence,
Glad tidings I proclaim;
For there’s a Savior born today
And Jesus is his name.

3.
Lay down your crooks and quit your flocks,
To Bethlehem repair;
And let your wandering steps be squared
By yonder shining star.

4.
Seek not in courts or palaces;
Nor royal curtains draw;
But search the stable,
See your God extended on the straw.

5. Narrative
Then learn from hence, ye rural swains,
The meekness of your God,
Who left the boundless realms of joy,
To ransom you with blood.

6.
The master of the inn refused
A more commodious place;
Ungenerous soul of savage mold
And destitute of grace.

7. First Angel
Exult ye oxen, low for joy,
Ye tenants of the stall;
Pay your obeisance; on your knees
Unanimously fall.

8.
The royal Guest you entertain
Is not of common birth,
But second in the great I Am,
The God of heaven and earth.

9. Narrative
Then suddenly a heavenly Host
Around the shepherds throng,
Exulting in the three-fold God,
And thus addressed their song.

10. Grand Chorus
To God the Father, Christ the Son,
And Holy Ghost accord
The first and last, the last and first
Eternal praise afford.

Perhaps some homeschool choir someday will challenge this fine group of students from Lincoln Park High School in Chicago to a William Billings Christmas carol singing contest.

What marvelous musical discoveries have you and your students been making in your homeschool during this delightful Holiday Music Month? 🎄 🎵

❡ Musical memories: If you’d like to fill your homeschool with some beautiful background sounds during the holidays, why not tune in to the 24-hour Holiday Channel from WQXR, the famous classical music radio station in New York City. “Enjoy the sounds of orchestras, choirs, brass ensembles and more as we celebrate the sacred and secular sounds of the season.” I have it on as background music almost every day at this time of year. Won’t you join me? 📻

❡ Olden times and ancient rhymes: What did the Christmas season sound like a hundred years ago and more? Find out from this wonderful collection of historic recordings of American Christmas music, brought together by the Library of Congress. 🎵

❡ Lift every voice: This is one of our occasional posts on Homeschool Arts & Music. Add your name to our weekly mailing list and get great homeschool teaching ideas delivered right to your mailbox all through the year. 📫

❡ Homeschool calendars: We have a whole collection of free, printable, educational homeschool calendars and planners available on our main River Houses calendar page. They will help you create a light and easy structure for your homeschool year. Give them a try today! 🗓

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❡ Join us! The aim of the River Houses project is to create a network of friendly local homeschool support groups — local chapters that we call “Houses.” Our first at-large chapter, Headwaters House, is now forming and is open to homeschoolers everywhere. Find out how to become one of our founding members on the Headwaters House membership page. 🏡