Jacob French, a student of William Billings, was one of the most talented postrevolutionary composers of Protestant sacred music in New England. He compiled most of his music in three printed tunebooks, comprising choral pieces of great rhythmic and contrapuntal variety. He felt many excellently crafted, expressive compositions that should find interest among today's choral directors and singers.

First Published in 1998. This series presents the music of early American composers of sacred music—psalmody, as it was called—in collected critical editions. Each volume has been prepared by a scholar who has studied the musical history of the period and the stylistic qualities of the composer. The purpose of the series is to present the music of important early American composers in accurate editions for both performance and study. This volume presents selected music by one of the best known and most prolific composers of New England psalmody during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Oliver Holden was a native and life-long resident of Massachusetts.

Samuel Babcock was an active Boston-area composer who made a significant contribution to the repertory of American psalmody. Best known for his tunebook, Middlesex Harmony, Babcock composed extended and plain psalm tunes, set pieces, fuging tunes, and anthems, and frequently used three-part vocal textures. He uniquely combined elements of both traditional and newer Methodist styles of psalmody. This edition includes 75 works known to be by Babcock, plus six of unknown attribution.

This volume brings together 79 sacred tunes by two Connecticut composers: Eliakim Doolittle, who wrote psalm and fuging tunes in an unpretentious, familiar idiom, and Timothy Olmsted, who wrote psalm tunes in a more sophisticated, florid musical style. This final edition in the Music of the New American Nation series includes a comprehensive index of tune names and first lines for all fifteen volumes.