John Adams on HBO - William Billings' song sung in movie

[Nie...@aol.com]

The movie's creator was taking liberties, but in the movie on HBO last
night, on John Adams, in a scene set in 1775, in the Old North Church,
they had the congregation sing "Let Tyrants Shake Their Iron Rod", by
William Billings. (We know it as "Chester 479". It was to become the
"Battle Hymn of the American Revolution".)

   And for about 20 seconds before they started singing the words, I
heard them singing Something in the background. Could they have been
Singing the Notes?
      
      Here's the lines" 
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.
            
           I'm enough of a Blue Stater to sing these lines whenever we do Chester
instead of the hymn in Sacred Harp. I hope the part about "New England's God"
doesn't offend the Southerners at the singings:)


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[Slattery, Tim - BLS]

> The movie's creator was taking liberties, but in the movie on HBO
> last night, on John Adams, in a scene set in 1775, in the Old North
> Church, they had the congregation sing "Let Tyrants Shake Their
> Iron Rod", by William Billings.

As I posted a little while ago, Billings first published Chester in
1770, then revised it and published an updated version in 1778. It's
reasonable to assume that the first verse "Let tyrants shake..." was in
the first version. So the moviemakers were not perpetrating an
anachronism. And IMHO, that scene would have been in the Old South
Meeting House, where many revolution era meetings took place in Boston.

> And for about 20 seconds before they started singing the words, I
> heard them singing Something in the background. Could they have been
> Singing the Notes?

Shaped notes didn't debut until 1800 (Little & Smith). I think they were
singing the same words, but the level was low so that we could hear the
dialogue.
--
Tim Slattery
Slatt...@bls.gov

[Noren, Christopher]

Well I for one am pretty disappointed in the score for the miniseries so far. Apart from the two verses from Chester (that’s the “Let tyrants shake” verse sung under the dialog, not the notes), sung in unison no less (we know what Billings would have to say about that!), the composer missed a great opportunity to weave early American melodies into the score, a la Virgil Thompson’s score to “The River”. Instead we’re presented with a main theme with a Celtic flavor (!) in an orchestration more suitable for “The Magnificent Seven” (!!). There was one scene in particular (injured soldiers trudging past the Adams farmhouse) that practically cried out for Billings’ “Lamentation over Boston”, but no luck.

Amazing how the filmmakers’ otherwise thorough research stopped just short of the music.

Chris Noren
Boxford, MA

[Richard Hulan]

One could sing the notes without their having been printed in shapes.
And the notes would have been faw, sol, law (however pronounced -- I
mean, these were Yankees). But the solmization taught in the
Rudiments, or introductory section, of tunebooks of that era (printed
in round notes) was nevertheless fasola solmization -- not doremi.

The fact that one "could" does not, of course, suggest that one "did"
sing through the diatonic scale intervals first, and the hymn text
later... I really doubt if that happened. (Oh, and Chris Noren has
just informed us they weren't doing so. I don't get HBO, and wouldn't
actually know.)

Dick Hulan
Spfld VA

[Robert Vaughn]

--- Nie...@aol.com wrote:
> Here's the lines"
> 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.
>
> I'm enough of a Blue Stater to sing these
> lines whenever we do
> Chester
> instead of the hymn in Sacred Harp. I hope the part
> about "New England's God"
> doesn't offend the Southerners at the singings:)
>

Not offended. You'll have to work harder than that!
;-)

I would suspect that in the period New England was
juxtaposed over against Old England; IOW, the 13
colonies, some of which were in the South as well as
the North.

Robert Vaughn
Mount Enterprise, TX
http://baptistsearch.blogspot.com/
"Ask for the old paths, where is the good way."
http://mtcarmelbaptist.blogspot.com/
"For ask now of the days that are past..."

[Gaylon L Powell]

I don't know if anyone has noticed, but after looking in the list of cast
members and there roles I found that they have listed an actor playing the
part of William Billings. I don't know if he was on last night, or if his
part will air in an upcoming episode.

The actor playing William Billings is Bruce Williamson. Ironically, his
second movie roll (uncredited) was that of a wounded soldier in Cold
Mountain.

(Reference: Internet Movie Database; www.imdb.com)

Gaylon L Powell
gay...@flash.net
Austin, Texas

[Claire Outten]

** Did you all know that South Carolina is the ONLY former British
colony to preserve its original mace from King George III! Today it is
on display at the beautiful State House in Columbia - somehow it
survived the depredations of the Civil War along with the original
plates of the Southern Harmony.
Claire Outten

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[John Martin]

The singing Adams was Samuel -- cousin John said that Sam had "an
exquisite ear for music and a charming voice, when he pleased to use
it." A nice summary of Sam's singing activities is here

http://boston1775.blogspot.com/2006/08/samuel-adams-psalm-singer.html

One quibble: The author of the blog entry seems to regard psalm-
singing and tavern-drinking as mutually exclusive, which was hardly
the attitude of 18th century Boston. A 1766 letter from "Clarissa" to
the Boston Gazette reported that she, a newcomer to Boston, had
attended a singing school after being impressed by the singing at New
South Church, but was "dumb, shocked, greatly offended" to find that
the singers were lighthearted, joking, and drinking wine, even though
a minister was among the group.

There is an old story, of unknown veracity but going back to
contemporaries of Adams and Billings, that Sam Adams wrote, or at
least had a hand in writing, the added wartime verses of Chester
published in 1778.

--John Martin

[Claire Outten]

** "Light-hearted, joking, drinking wine" and singing religious songs
and also secular or even moderately bawdy songs. If they were doing
all that, they must have been Southerners at heart.
Claire Outten

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