We have all heard of William Billings, Daniel Read, or Supply Belcher (that's his real name!), but why not William Tuckey?
William Tuckey (1708-1781) was an early American composer. He was born in England, but his music exerted a great amount of influence on many other composers of the day, including the ones above. He emigrated to New York in 1753 and became the organist and choir director at Trinity Church, and apparently wrote boatloads of music.
Then why don't we know more about it? A lot of his music has disappeared over the years - I would guess because much of it wasn't published. There are several advertisements that Tuckey placed in various newspapers of the day announcing pieces that he wished to publish; it seems, though, he could not attract enough interested subscribers to carry through. The music that still exists today is mostly either in fragments, without texts, or published anonymously. Some of the anonymous pieces can be matched from the fragments that have his name attached, but this still leaves us with almost nothing; only a few Psalm settings.
Let's hope that the search continues!
Iterum Press 62: William Tuckey - Jehovah Reigns. Soloists, SATB and keyboard.
