William Tans’ur

TANS’UR, William. b. Dunchurch, near Rugby (baptised 6 November 1706); d. St Neots, Huntingdonshire, 7 October 1783. He was the son of a Warwickshire labourer named Edward Tanzer; he seems to have invented the curious spelling of his surname. He was a typical figure in Anglican country psalmody, travelling to many parts of the country, where he set up temporary singing schools to teach the local choirs, using the books that he himself compiled, printed and published. The sale of these books was probably his chief source of income, but he also wrote and published on other subjects, and in later life settled in St Neots as a stationer and bookseller.

Through his successful publications Tans’ur achieved a dominance of country psalmody that lasted for 100 years and extended to North America. His first book, A Compleat Melody, or The Harmony of Sion (1735), consisted of metrical psalms, hymns, and anthems, chiefly of his own composition. The music is essentially in two parts, tenor and bass, reflecting the normal composition of country choirs, but most of the pieces have optional alto and treble parts as well. There is no accompaniment, but many choirs would have used a cello or bassoon doubling the bass, to maintain pitch and rhythm. The words of the metrical psalms are from the Old Version; a companion volume, The Melody of the Heart (1735), used the New Version. Tans’ur brought out several more collections. The most important was The Royal Melody Compleat (1754–5), containing both revised versions of earlier pieces and some new compositions. It was later reprinted in revised form as part of Daniel Bayley*’s The American Harmony (Boston, Massachusetts, 1767).

Tans’ur was one of the most successful exponents of the elaborate hymn tune, with repeating sections, solos, and elaborately ornamented melodies. From 1755 he cautiously embraced the fuging tune*, invented some ten years earlier, in which the voices overlapped in ways that often obscured the text and shut out the congregation. Clerical criticism of the form probably induced him to restrict the fuging portions of his tunes to optional sections that could be omitted. His tunes were reprinted hundreds of times during the next few decades on both sides of the Atlantic, but the only ones that lasted into the 20th century were of the simple, plain type in which all could join: BANGOR, COLCHESTER, and ST ANDREW.

The last-named is found in Scottish books (CH3, CH4) and in BBCHB and WOV set to the paraphrase, ‘The Saviour died, but rose again’. The minor-mode BANGOR, from his first collection, has an energetic melodic line and a strong, uncompromising character, especially as reharmonized for A&M. One feature that has no doubt commended it to modern editors is the climax on a high E flat in the third line, followed by a dramatic descent to the final low C (the original key was D minor, however). The tune, named after the Welsh cathedral city, was reprinted more than 400 times by 1820 and became in turn the source of the name of an American town (Bangor, Maine), because it was a favourite of the town’s founder.

On the whole the long popularity of Tans’ur’s music seems to have owed more to effective marketing, including criticism of his rivals, than to its intrinsic merit. Nearly 200 hymns and psalm tunes appeared under his name, but it must be said that some of these were arrangements of pieces by earlier composers, so that it is difficult to be sure how many of them were truly original. Tans’ur also published a treatise, A New Musical Grammar (1746), revised as The Elements of Musick Display’d (1772). Despite the author’s complete lack of professional training, it is based on sound principles and owes much to John Playford*’s Brief Introduction to Music. Like his music it remained influential well into the 19th century.

Nicholas Temperley

Further Reading

1. Nicholas Temperley, ‘Tans’ur, William’, NGII.
2. F.G. Edwards, revised by K.D. Reynolds, ‘Tans’ur, William (bap. 1706-1783)’, ODNB.