William Tans'ur

English Psalmist William Tans'ur was entered into the register at Dunchurch under the name "Tanzer" in 1706; it is believed he was born in the years 1699-1700. Born to a common laborer, Tans'ur directed his life's work at rural, English-speaking people who needed good music for use in worship. As a producer of hymn tunes, psalm settings, and anthems in English, Tans'ur had no serious rival in his era. Although Tans'ur never set foot in the American Colonies, few composers of any stripe had as much impact on musical life in early America as he.

Tans'ur's first two volumes of hymn tunes both appeared in 1735, A Compleat Melody or The Harmony of Sion and The Melody of the Heart. These books, particularly the latter of the two, immediately became popular and copies sold in healthy numbers throughout England and the Colonies. In 1743 the two were combined into a single volume entitled The Works of Mr. William Tans'ur with renewed success, but this did not preclude him from creating other collections, such as Heaven on Earth, or The Beauty of Holiness (1738) or Sacred Mirth, or The Pious Soul's Daily Delight (1739). With The Royal Melody Compleat, or The New Harmony of Zion in 1755, Tans'ur introduced the form of fuguing-tune, a style that caught on in the American colonies and, once adopted by <a href="spotify:artist:2wqMB8bWGc53kP74XLbQX1">William Billings</a>, became the first free form of musical composition practiced in America.

Tans'ur also produced several books on elementary musical theory, likewise in wide use through about 1830. Tans'ur preceded all of his publications with long-winded prefaces written in high-flown verbiage. Some of his compositions, also, are in a rather grand and opulent style, and the harmonic practices utilized therein indicate that Tans'ur did not feel the need to be constrained by the rules put forth in his own theory books. Although it is difficult to extract his work from others that he published, by the time he died at nearly the age of 90, Tans'ur had composed nearly 200 hymn tunes and close to 50 anthems, in addition to a small amount of Latin service music. Hymn tunes by Tans'ur still in use more than two centuries on include Bangor (O Zion Open Wide They Gates), St. Andrew (Like Zion's Steadfast Mount Are They), and his best-known work, St. Martin's (Thy Servant, Blessed by Thee).