Maxwell (Anonymous)
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- (Posted 2023-09-30) CPDL #75887:
- Editor: Barry Johnston (submitted 2023-09-30). Score information: Letter, 1 page, 47 kB Copyright: CPDL
- Edition notes: Transcribed from The Waterhouse Manuscript, 1780-1781. One small editorial note change.
General Information
Title: Maxwell
First Line: Cause us to hear with joy
Composer: Anonymous
Lyricist: William Billings
Number of voices: 4vv Voicing: TrCTB
Genre: Sacred, Psalm-tune Meter: 66. 86 (S.M.)
Language: English
Instruments: A cappella
Manuscript 1780 – 1781 in The Waterhouse Manuscript, no. 13
Description: First appears in The Waterhouse Manuscript, 1780-1781, copied March 12, 1781. Crawford and McKay (1979) say, "Among the anonymous Waterhouse pieces are examples of American musical primitivism in unusually raw form. To cite just one example, MAXWELL is surely the strangest piece in the collection. MAXWELL contains many harmonic inconsistencies, some of them produced by moments of heterophony — two or more voices simultaneously performing different versions of essentially the same melody. Yet the most remarkable thing about MAXWELL is its florid character, and especially the vocal flourishes ending the first three phrases. Rather than a composed piece. MAXWELL seems a transcription of a standard psalm tune embellished by the performers. Students of American music will recall the controversy over singing that occurred in Boston around 1720, when reformers attacked the undisciplined improvisational style in which many congregations sang psalms, recommending that people be taught to read music so that they could sing together. MAXWELL sounds like the kind of music the Boston reformers were complaining about."
Words by William Billings, 1778, paraphrase of Psalm 51:8, part of his anthem Restrospect.
External websites:
Original text and translations
Original text and translations may be found at Retrospect (William Billings).