Familiar figures such as George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin are receiving renewed attention as the United States approaches the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, when the American Colonies declared their independence from Great Britain.

According to Michigan State University Professor David W. Stowe, another figure deserves a place in the story: William Billings. Through his music, Billings inspired patriotism, supported independence, and helped shape a distinctly American identity during the Revolutionary era.

Stowe researches the connections between music, religion, and history as part of the MSU Department of Religious Studies. Through his Billings research, he’s published several articles and a historical novel through Substack. Stowe is also working with a composer and choral director from Tulane University to bring a new musical program on the life of Billings to MSU in October 2026.

Here, Stowe explores how Billings’ “liberty songs” became part of the soundtrack of the American Revolution.

Who was William Billings and why is he important to America’s history?

William Billings lived in Boston at the time of the Revolution and is widely considered America’s first notable composer. He was certainly prolific, publishing six tune books and writing some 340 choral works — some of which are still sung today. And music wasn’t even his day job.

Apprenticed at 14 as a leather tanner, he learned music in his spare time and became a renowned teacher of singing schools. These singing teachers traveled around teaching basic elements of music so people could sing hymns more confidently. He also became a staunch supporter of American independence, one of the Boston “Whigs” who spearheaded the Revolution of 1776.

During this period, the late 1770s and 1780s, Billings published four tune books, including arguably his most important, “The Singing Master’s Assistant.”

How did Billings support the Revolutionary cause?

For starters, Billings was a friend of Samuel Adams, the Revolution’s great agent provocateur, and sang regularly with him. Apparently singing hymns was the main form of relaxation for the single-minded Adams.

Billings likely knew Paul Revere, who is credited with engraving the frontispiece to Billings’ first tune book, “The New-England Psalm-Singer,” published in 1770. That was the year of the Boston Massacre, when British soldiers fatally shot five civilians. It was one of several incidents that eventually triggered the conflict later known as the Revolutionary War.

Billings did not serve in the military, probably because of his disabilities. His contribution to the independence movement was his music.

What were “liberty songs” and how were they used in the early American Colonies?

We should keep in mind that Billings’ musical pieces were only a handful of the hundreds of what John Adams called “liberty songs” circulating in the Colonies. Most of them were less pious than what Billings composed.

A tune from Billings’ first collection, “Chester,” is one of his best known songs, for which he also penned the words: “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.”

And that was not the only Billings song with a Revolutionary message. He also wrote the words and music to “Lamentation Over Boston” adapted from a Hebrew psalm about the Judeans’ exile in Babylon, and “Independence: The States, O Lord” with the words: “And all the Continent shall sing: Down with this earthly King, No King but God.”

While there’s not a lot to go on, there’s some evidence these songs had national reach sung by choirs at home and by soldiers in military camps.

Why isn’t William Billings better known today?

Well, he is very well remembered, revered in fact, by fans of early American music and also by shape-note singers, who continue to sing his pieces pretty much every weekend of the year. But his work dropped out sight for a while.

The peak of his career was during the decade after the Declaration of Independence. Then as American musical tastes changed, Billings’ rough-hewn “fuguing” songs, a style with vigorous counterpoint between the different voice parts, were no longer in fashion. The people who shaped American musical taste wanted something more refined and European sounding.  

And this is important: Billings was unable to secure copyright for his compositions. Before the Revolution, he succeeded in having a bill to protect his first tune book passed by the Massachusetts legislature. The Tory governor refused to sign it, however, perhaps due to his associations with patriots like Samuel Adams. In any event, several of Billings’ pieces were reprinted in other collections. He was paid nothing.

Billings died in 1800, leaving six children behind (his wife Lucy died in 1795), and he was buried on Boston Common in an unmarked grave. But his music was kept alive by the shape-note (or Fasola) singers, a style of musical notation that caught on in the 1800s and helped preserve older, sacred songs.

But in this summer when we are remembering the historic events of 1776, Billings’ music played at least a small part in uniting American Colonists well enough to defeat the powerful British military.

This Ask the Expert was repurposed and added onto from an article that originally appeared in The Conversation.