Son of a laborer, his name is given in the par­ish re­gis­ter as “Tan­zer.” Around 30 years of age he made Ew­ell, near Ep­som, his home, pub­lish­ing his Mel­o­dy of the Heart there. He taught psalmody in a num­ber of plac­es, in­clud­ing Barnes, Cam­bridge, Stam­ford, Bos­ton (Eng­land) and Lei­ces­ter. He sub­se­quent­ly set­tled down and be­came a book­sell­er at St. Ne­ots.

Tans’ur wrote some 100 psalm and hymn tunes, an­thems, a Te Deum, and other ma­ter­i­al. His works in­clude:

• A Compleat Mel­o­dy: or, The Har­mo­ny of Si­on, 1734
• The Melody of the Heart, 1735
• 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
• The Roy­al Mel­o­dy Com­pleat, 1754
• 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

Sources

Music

1. Angel’s Hymn
2. Bangor
3. Rothwell
4. St. Andrew
5. St. Martin’s