Timothy Swan

Timothy Swan born in Worcester, Massachusetts in 1758 and died in 1842 in Northfield, Massachusetts. Timothy Swan was the son of William Swan of Worcester, a well-known goldsmith and silversmith. [ [http://books.google.com/books?id=ghcfAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA575&lpg=PA575&dq=%22lavinia+swan%22&source=web&ots=Ojkmz5Vb9R&sig=4cNb4YDCrX3gnPKrP-V2wOTN2DU&hl=en#PPA576,M1 The History of the Descendants of John Dwight, of Dedham, Mass., Benjamin Woodbridge Dwight, New York, 1874] ] One of the first American composers who wrote both secular and sacred music was also a poet and taught singing. [http://www.amaranthpublishing.com/billings.htm Amaranth Publishing] [http://www.voxnovus.com/resources/American_Composer_Timeline.htm American Composer Timeline] In 1776 he became a fifer in the Continental Army. While apprenticed to become a hat maker, Timothy composed his first song, Montague, at the age of 16. He came to be known as the "Hatter-Composer." "Timothy Swan... was undoubtedly very eccentric. One of his musical compositions was written in the presence of a dying child at night. It is said that the well known 'China', one of the most lugubrious of tunes, but a great favorite in old times, was composed while he was recovering from a fit of intoxication, and was written with his finger in sand on Beers Plain." [ Fair Northfield; The Home of the Evangelist Moody - The New England magazine. / Volume 5, Issue 28, February 1887 ] Timothy Swan moved to Suffield in 1782. [http://www.suffield-library.org/localhistory/swan.htm Suffield library] and lived there until 1807 when he moved to Northfield.

List of works

*Montague (1774)
*Florence - [http://www.amaranthpublishing.com/Florence.mid MIDI]
*Rainbow - [http://www.amaranthpublishing.com/Rainbow.mid MIDI]
*China -(1790) [http://www.amaranthpublishing.com/China-swan.mid MIDI]
*Ocean - [http://www.amaranthpublishing.com/Ocean.mid MIDI]
*Orange - [http://www.amaranthpublishing.com/Orange-SWan.mid MIDI]
*Portland - [http://www.amaranthpublishing.com/Portland-Swan.mid MIDI]
*Calvary - [http://www.amaranthpublishing.com/Calvary-Swan.mid MIDI]
*Poland (1783)- [http://www.amaranthpublishing.com/Poland-swan.mid MIDI]
*Greenland - [http://www.amaranthpublishing.com/Greenland-swan.mid MIDI]
*Dover - [http://www.amaranthpublishing.com/Dover-SWan.mid MIDI]
*Golgotha - [http://www.amaranthpublishing.com/Golgotha-Swan.mid MIDI]

References