Book Description

Thomas Hastings (1784–1872) was one of the foremost advocates of “reform psalmody,” which sought to replace the “crudities” of the Billings-Read-Holden school of American sacred music with a more graceful melodic style and the common practice harmonic idiom characteristic of European music. The present edition makes available for modern study and performance a selection of Hastings’s choral music, chosen from a single genre—the anthem—to facilitate comparative study, both within his corpus and with similar pieces by others. Hastings’s anthems are typically for four-part mixed choir, with the melody given to the treble (unlike early American psalmody). Many of the works include a keyboard part, either fully notated or in the form of a figured bass.