William Tans'ur (or Tansur, Tanzer, Letansur) (6 November 1706,

Dunchurch Dunchurch is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Rugby, approximately south-west of central Rugby, Warwickshire, Rugby in Warwickshire, England. The civil parish, which also includes the nearby hamlet of Toft, Warwickshire, Toft, had ...

– 7 October 1783, St. Neots) was an English

hymn A hymn is a type of song, and partially synonymous with devotional song, specifically written for the purpose of adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification. The word ''hymn'' d ...

-writer, composer of

West gallery music West gallery music, also known as Georgian psalmody, refers to the sacred music ( metrical psalms, with a few hymns and anthems) sung and played in Church of England parish churches, as well as nonconformist chapels, from 1700 to around 1850. I ...

, and teacher of music. His output includes approximately a hundred

hymn tune A hymn tune is the melody of a musical composition to which a hymn text is sung. Musically speaking, a hymn is generally understood to have four-part (or more) harmony, a fast harmonic rhythm (chords change frequently), with or without refrain ...

s and

psalm The Book of Psalms ( , ; ; ; ; , in Islam also called Zabur, ), also known as the Psalter, is the first book of the third section of the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) called ('Writings'), and a book of the Old Testament. The book is an anthology of H ...

settings and a ''

Te Deum The ( or , ; from its incipit, ) is a Latin Christian hymn traditionally ascribed to a date before AD 500, but perhaps with antecedents that place it much earlier. It is central to the Ambrosian hymnal, which spread throughout the Latin ...

''. His manual ''A New Musical Grammar'' (1746) was still popular in the nineteenth century.

Life

Tans'ur was born in

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the West Midlands (region), West Midlands of England. It is bordered by Staffordshire and Leicestershire to the north, Northamptonshire to the east, Ox ...

to Edward Tanzer, a labourer, and Joan Alibone. In 1730 he married Elizabeth Butler and moved to Ewell, near

Epsom Epsom is a town in the borough of Epsom and Ewell in Surrey, England, about south of central London. The town is first recorded as ''Ebesham'' in the 10th century and its name probably derives from that of a Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain ...

. They had at least two sons. He taught

psalmody The Book of Psalms ( , ; ; ; ; , in Islam also called Zabur, ), also known as the Psalter, is the first book of the third section of the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) called ('Writings'), and a book of the Old Testament. The book is an anthology of B ...

in various places in the south-east of England, before moving to

St Neots St NeotsPronunciation of the town name: Most commonly, but variations that ''saint'' is said as in most English non-georeferencing speech, the ''t'' is by a small minority of the British pronounced and higher traces of in the final syllable ...

Cambridgeshire Cambridgeshire (abbreviated Cambs.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the East of England and East Anglia. It is bordered by Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the north-east, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfor ...

, where he worked as a bookseller and music teacher, and spent the last forty years of his life. One of his sons was a chorister at

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any ...

and as an adult was also a bookseller and music teacher.

Works

* ''A Compleat Melody, or The Harmony of Sion'', 1734 in which is found the tune 'Bangor' set in the New English Hymnal (#270) to the hymn 'According to thy gracious word' or in Hymns Ancient & Modern New Stanmdard (#469) to the hymn 'God, you have giv'n us power to sound'. * ''The Melody of the Heart'', 1737 * ''Heaven on earth, or the Beauty of Holiness'', 1738 * ''Sacred Mirth, or the Pious Soul's Daily Delight'', 1739 * ''Poetical Meditations'', 1740 * ''The Universal Harmony, containing the Whole Book of Psalms'', 1743 *''A New Musical Grammar'', 1746 * ''The Royal Melody Compleat'', 1754–5 (8 editions, revised as ''The American Harmony'', 1771) * ''The Psalm Singer's Jewel, or Useful Companion to the Book of Psalms'', 1760 * ''Melodia Sacra, or the Devout Psalmist's Musical Companion'', 1771 * ''The Elements of Music Displayed'', 1772

Influence on early American sacred music

The unorthodox harmonic idiom of the

Yankee tunesmiths Yankee tunesmiths (also called the First New England School) were self-taught composers active in New England from 1770 until about 1810. Their music was largely forgotten when the Better Music Movement turned musical tastes towards Europe, as in ...

("First New England School") of choral composers shows the influence of English composers such as Tans'ur and Aaron Williams:

For the most part the Yankee composer's source of information about harmonic practices derived from the music and writings on music of such comparatively unskilled English composers as William Tans'ur (1706-1783) and Aaron Williams (1731-1776), who were themselves somewhat outside the mainstream of European sacred music. Many of the traits that may be thought unique to American psalmodists in fact characterize the compositions of their British cousins too.

In particular, "it is clear that /nowiki>William Billings">William_Billings.html" ;"title="/nowiki>William Billings">/nowiki>William Billings/nowiki> had studied the works of English psalmodists such as William Tansur and Aaron Williams."D. W. Steel, ''The Makers of the Sacred Harp'', University of Illinois Press, 2010, pp. 42f.

References

External links

Biography
at the Cyber Hymnal * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Tansur, William English Christian hymnwriters 1706 births 1783 deaths English hymnwriters People from the Borough of Rugby People from St Neots People from Ewell English classical composers of church music English music theorists Musicians from Cambridgeshire English male classical composers 18th-century classical composers 18th-century English male musicians