Turner, William (1651–1740)

English tenor and composer. Most of his works were church music, but he also wrote songs and music for plays.

He was a chorister at Christ Church, Oxford, and later in the Chapel Royal in London, where he joined John Blow and Pelham Humfrey in composing the so-called ‘club anthem’. He later became a singer successively at Lincoln Cathedral, St Paul's Cathedral, and Westminster Abbey. He received a PhD in music from Cambridge University in 1696. His youngest daughter, Ann Turner (died 1741), was a singer, and married the organist and composer John Robinson in 1716.

Works Sacred and secular music services, anthems (one for Queen Anne's coronation), and other church music.

Stage masque Presumptuous Love; songs for Durfey's A Fond Husband (1677) and Madam Fickle (1676), Shadwell's The Libertine (1675), Settle's Pastor fido (1676), and other plays.

Other catches, songs.