Swan, Timothy

1758-1842

 

American teacher and composer of Scotch descent. His career as a teacher began when he was only seventeen years old. He made his home successively in several towns of Massachusetts and Vermont, finally settling in Northfield, Mass., where he died. As a composer he is best known by the psalm-tunes Ocean, China, Pownal, and Poland. He published two books of psalms, The New England Harmony at Northampton, Mass., in 1801, and Songster's Museum in 1803, and helped to edit Federal Harmony, which appeared in 1785. The year before his death he presented the Harvard Musical Society with a copy of his New England Harmony.