If performers like Quantz failed to embrace the possibilities the pendulum had to offer the musical world, many others regarded it as the long-awaited answer. Still, the question remained: how best to put the bob and line to use? Among those convinced of the efficacy of the pendulum as a musical tool was England’s William Tansur (1706–83), or Tans’ur, a figure largely forgotten yet whose influence was felt as far away as America, on account of his success as a composer of hymn tunes and anthems. In 1746 Tansur published A New Musical Grammar, a conservative didactic tutor fashioned as a dialogue between “Master” and “Scholar” that strongly reflected its author’s undeniable attraction for the pendulum. Revised and reprinted as The Elements of Musick Display’d, Tansur’s treatise remained in demand well into the nineteenth century, most likely on account of its appeal to church musicians.

Despite acknowledging the existence of house clocks, Tansur continued to champion the pendulum, “one of the nicest Pieces of Art that late Times have discovered … from which, those excellent Machines called Clocks and Clock-Work are made and regulated.” He dedicated no less than an entire chapter (five pages) to the topic. As we shall see, Tansur was drawn to the pendulum at least in part because its lengths were so easily divisible. The farsightedness of his approach rested in his reliance upon one second of time as the unit and as such, his design was as fully conceived as any of the period.

Tansur advocated for a pendulum measuring 39 and 2/10 inches from the “Point of Suspension to the Center of the Ball,” which then “vibrated 60 times in one Minute,” what he referred to as The Royal Standard. Concurrently, Tansur took into consideration the pulse rate of the human heart, that is, “the 60th part of a minute, or nearly the space between the beat of the Pulse and Heart; the Systole or Contraction answering to the elevation or lifting up of the hand, and its Diastole or Dilation, to the letting it down, & etc.”