The William Appling

We present two new previously unreleased recordings from our October 7, 1996, concert celebrating 250th anniversary of William Billings's birth: "Rutland" and "Pembroke." https://www.williamappling.org/unreleased-tracks The original recording (not including these unreleased tracks) is available from New World Records: https://www.newworldrecords.org

Today’s previously unreleased recordings by William Appling Singers & Orchestra, https://www.williamappling.org/unreleased-tracks, are two great spirituals arranged by two of the most important African American musicians of the 20th century: J. Rosamond Johnson and R. Nathaniel Dett. The first, Same Train, was arranged by Johnson and comes from The Book of American Negro Spirituals, published by Johnson and his brother, James Weldon Johnson. The second, I Heard from Heaven Today, is Dett’s arrangement of this spiritual which he published in 1936 in The Dett Collection of Negro Spirituals.

Two new unreleased recordings by WASO may now be heard at https://www.williamappling.org/unreleased-tracks: "Lamentation Over Boston" was included in William Billings's 1778 collection, "The Singing Master's Assistant," his second published volume. One of the composer's masterpieces, the text was adapted by Billings from Psalm 137 and other biblical texts and describes his sorrow and anger at the occupation of Boston by the British in 1775-76. Sweet By and By, published in 1868, was one of the most popular gospel hymns of the 19th century and remains widely performed and recorded to this day.

John W. Work III was an acclaimed composer, educator and ethnomusicologist, and in 1940 he published American Negro Songs and Spirituals, a landmark collection of African American folk music. WASO’s version of the great spiritual Calvary is from this volume. While almost all of William Billings’s music was written for a cappella chorus, it is believed he often included instruments in performances. In our 1996 concert, several pieces were played by instruments alone, including I Charge You, O Ye Daughters performed here by a string quartet. Listen here: https://www.williamappling.org/unreleased-tracks

Two more selections from WASO's "Hymns & Spirituals" and "William Billings" concerts are now on our page of Unreleased Recordings: https://www.williamappling.org/unreleased-tracks One is the beautiful devotional song, "Qué Preciosas Mañanitas," from a Southwest Spanish colonial Mission, and the other is a canon from William Billings's first collection, "The New-England Psalm-Singer," entitled "Thus Saith the High and Lofty One."

We invite you to enjoy two new selections which have been added to our page of unreleased music from WASO's concerts in 1996 and 1999, William Billings's "I Am Come into My Garden," and a composition from the Sacred Harp entitled "Bellevue." https://www.williamappling.org/unreleased-tracks