This edition was prepared by Barry Johnston — free to download, print, rehearse and perform.
Hampshire (1779)
Staff Notation • Sacred, Hymns
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2 editions of this piece
Different typesettings and voicings of the same work. This page shows the main edition; the others are below.
SATB · Barry Johnston
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Hampshire (1779) by William Billings — Lyrics
Oratio Moysi, hominis Dei. Domine, refugium factus es nobis a generatione in generationem.
Priusquam montes fierent, aut formaretur terra et orbis,
a saeculo et usque in saeculum tu es, Deus.
Ne avertas hominem in humilitatem: et dixisti: Convertimini, filii hominum.
Quoniam mille anni ante oculos tuos tamquam dies hesterna quae praeteriit: et custodia in nocte
quae pro nihilo habentur, eorum anni erunt.
Mane sicut herba transeat;
mane floreat, et transeat; vespere decidat, induret, et arescat.
Quia defecimus in ira tua, et in furore tuo turbati sumus.
Posuisti iniquitates nostras in conspectu tuo; saeculum nostrum in illuminatione vultus tui.
Quoniam omnes dies nostri defecerunt, et in ira tua defecimus.
Anni nostri sicut aranea meditabuntur;
dies annorum nostrorum in ipsis septuaginta anni.
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About Hampshire (1779)
William Billings, a pioneering American composer, wrote this sacred work, Hampshire, in 1779. It is a setting for SATB choir of a text that draws from Psalm 90, which is attributed to Moses. The Latin lyrics speak of God's eternal nature and the transience of human life, reflecting on its brevity in the face of divine permanence. The music would have been composed for congregational use within the American tradition of sacred music, which often emphasized powerful and direct expression. The work's inclusion of both Latin and English text suggests a composer working within a period of evolving liturgical practices.
