Uri Keeler Hill (1780 - 1844)

Born 24 Apr 1780 in Stockbridge, Berkshire, Massachusetts

Ancestors

Descendants

Died 9 Nov 1844 at age 64 in Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Jillaine Smith [send private message]

Biography

Uri Keeler Hill was born 24 September 1780, in Stockbridge, Berkshire, Massachusetts.^[1] A birth on this date in Stockbridge is recorded as belonging to LEVI Keeler Hill, correct parents; this could be an indexing or data entry error, especially given the rareness of "Uri" as a given name.^[2]

He had two siblings born in Rutland, Vermont, but in the mid 1790s.

One source claims Uri K. Hill was a descendant of Anthony Hill, but I have found no evidence of that.^[3]

Census

• There is a Uri Hill in the 1800 census, Hawrinton, Litchfield Co., Connecticut
• There is a Uri K. Hill in the 1830 census, NYC, ward 5.

Military Service?

There is a Uri K. Hill who served as Private in NY Battalion Artillery during the War of 1812 that might be him.^[4]

Musical Career

Appears to have had a broad musical career that included keyboard, singing, composition and teaching.

• Hill, Uri K., (b. ?Rutland, VT, 1780; d. Philadelphia, 9 Nov 1844). American music teacher and composer, father of Ureli Corelli Hill. From about 1800 to 1805 he lived in Northampton, MA, where he compiled his first collections of sacred pieces, The Vermont Harmony (1801) and of secular songs, a number of Original Airs, Duetto's and Trio's (1803). At Boston in 1805-10 he was organist at the Brattle Street Church and compiled another tunebook, The Sacred Minstrel (1806). In 1810 he moved to New York, where he founded a Handelian Academy in 1814 (renamed the American Conservatoria,1820) and compiled The Handelian Repostiory (1814) and Solfeggio Americano... with a Wide Variety of Psalmody (1820) for the pupils there. In the letter he called himself a convert to Italian seven-syllable solemization after studying with Filippo Traetta (who contributed some exercises to it).From about 1815 he engraved light music for the publisher Adam Geib, and from 1822 until his death, taught in Philadelphia.^[5]
• Hill was most significant as a composer and arranger of tune books. Throughout his career, however, he advertised himself as an expert in subjects he never mastered. In Boston (Gazette, 13 March 1806), he described himself as a vocal and instrumental teacher of a 'stile perfectly novel' and as a piano tuner 'in a new method'; he opened a studio there in Joy's Buildings (April 1806), offering to teach the violin, viola, cello, the German flute and other instruments. In New York he advertised himself (18 October 1810) as the 'first performer on violin in America'. His preface to The Vermont Harmony asks the user's indulgence fo 'deviations from the grammatical rules of composition' in his seven original pieces of the 46 in the book.^[6]
• Organist of the Brattle Street Church in Boston (citation needed)
• Composed music with Joel Harmon, Jr.^[7]
• On July 4, 1814: "Uri K. Hill sings an "Ode" written especially for the occasion in New York while Commodore Stephen Decatur, an honorary member of the State Society of the Cincinnati, dines with that association in Tontine Coffee House there; the Declaration of Independence is printed in the 4 July edition of the Philadelphia Aurora General Advertiser; in Ashburton, England, American prisoners there celebrate the Fourth of July and drink 18 toasts."^[8]
• There is reference to him being involved in the Vermont Choral Union, dir James G. Chapman^[9] that references: J Morgan, E Doolittle, UK Hill, E West, E Child, H Moors, J Harmon, J Ingalls. See also: Uri K Hill, The Vermont Harmony. Vol. I: containing a collection of sacred vocal music, part of which is original, paper back, 22 Feb 2012

Sources

1. ↑ Research of George P. Hill (dec. 2005), as communicated to Jillaine Smith. This birth date (but without the place) appears in various bios of him, but without source.
2. ↑ "Massachusetts Births and Christenings, 1639-1915," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FZ2Y-NLT : 4 December 2014), Levi [sic] Keeler Hill, 24 Apr 1783; citing STOCKBRIDGE,BERKSHIRE,MASSACHUSETTS, ; FHL microfilm 234,575.
3. ↑ Encyclopedia of Massachusetts, Biographical -- Genealogical, volume 10, p 24
4. ↑ United States War of 1812 Index to Service Records, 1812-1815, database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:Q29K-C6PX : 11 March 2016), Uri K Hill, 1812-1815; citing NARA microfilm publication M602 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.); roll 99; FHL microfilm 882,617.
5. ↑ Stanley Sadie, ed., The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians,
6. ↑ Stanley Sadie, ed., The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians,
7. ↑ James G. Chapman, Vermont Harmony Vol. 4: The Music of Joel Harmon, Jr. and Uri K. Hill, Chapman Associates (Year); ISBN: 0-937243-04-3 / 0937243043; see Music of Joel Harmon Jr & Uri K Hill. (A cassette version may be available here
8. ↑ "Uri K. Hill premiers an 'Ode' in New York," in New-York Evening Post, 2 July 1814, pp 2-3 formerly at http://www.american.edu/heintze/music.htm
9. ↑ Vermont Harmony 1 (Revised Edition) – A Collection of Fuging Tunes, Anthems and Secular Pieces by Vermont Composers 1790-1810 Including Justin Morgan’s Complete works, (material filed; cassette; Philo UVCU 250)

See also:

• Bibliography: F.L. Ritter, Music in American (New York, 1890/R1970), 186
• G.C.D. Odell: Annals of the New York Stage, ii (NY, 1927) 490, 602
• H.E. Johnson: Musicial Interludes in Boston 1795-1830 (NY 1942/R1967), 258, 287, 293
• R.J. Wolfe: Secular Music in America, 1801-1825: a Bibliography (NY 1964).
• Longworth's American Almanac, New-York Register and City Directory, page 247: Uri K. Hill, 1815: music master in New York City, New York.
• The Genealogical Research Library, 160-2 County Court Blvd., Suite 436, Brampton, Ontario, Canada L6W 4V1; Telephone: (416) 969-0160; Fax: 1 (416) 360-4348; Internet: http://www.grl.com/; Email: grl AT grl.com
• Charles Eugene Claghorn, Biographical Dictionary of American Music, West Nyack, NY: Parker Publishing Co., 1973.
• Philip D. Morehead (with Anne MacNeil), The New American Dictionary of Music, New York: Dutton, 1991.
• H. Wiley Hitchcock and Stanley Sadie, ed., The New Grove Dictionary of American Music, London: Macmillan Press, 1986
• Stanley Sadie, ed., The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 20 volumes; London: Macmillan Publishers, 1980.