(b Wareham, Dorset, 1698–9; d Poole, Dorset, bur. 26 Sept 1768). English psalmodist. He was a glover by trade, and bought several properties at Poole, thus becoming one of its 60-odd burgesses. He was parish clerk of St James's, Poole, for nearly 40 years, and trained the choirs in several Dorset churches. He was a difficult personality, to judge from lines written by Henry Price (a land-waiter in Poole Quay) and quoted in Grove's Dictionary (5th edn) and also by Frost and Daniel.
Knapp compiled two collections of parish church music, both of which became widely popular: A Sett of New Psalm-Tunes and Anthems (eight edns, 1738–70) and New Church Melody (five edns, c1752–64). They contain didactic introductions, psalm tunes, hymns and parochial anthems, in four parts with the tenor leading. As well as music taken from earlier collections, they contain a good deal of Knapp's own composition. One of his psalm tunes, ‘Wareham’, is a classic of its period and is still well known; another, ‘Spetisbury’, survived at least until the second supplement to Hymns Ancient and Modern (1915). Many of the tunes in New Church Melody are of the ornate ‘fuging’ variety. Knapp's tunes and anthems reappeared in countless printed and manuscript collections, not only in many parts of England but also in the American colonies. Smith recalls that his tune for While shepherds watched was still being sung in Leicestershire late in the 19th century and it was also reprinted many times in America. One of his anthems, from the 1738 collection, is reprinted in Daniel. Knapp had an undoubted flair for effective melody, but was a little out of his depth in four-part counterpoint.
H.P. Smith: ‘William Knapp, the Dorset Composer’, Proceedings of the Dorset Natural History and Antiquities Field Club, xlvii (1926), 159–67
M. Frost, ed.: Historical Companion to Hymns Ancient and Modern (London, 1962), 679
R. Daniel: The Anthem in New England before 1800 (Evanston, IL, 1966/R)
P.M. Young: A History of British Music (London, 1967), 286–7
N. Temperley: The Music of the English Parish Church (Cambridge, 1979/R), i, 159, 180–81
NICHOLAS TEMPERLEY