It would be difficult to find another single publication in the history of American music –in the history of western music, for that matter–whose priority in its tradition is more conspicuous than that of Billings’ collection [New England Psalm Singer]. . . . [It] was the first published compilation of entirely American music; moreover, it was the first tunebook produced by a single American composer.
– Richard Crawford and David McKay
from William Billings of Boston, Princeton University Press, 1975