Thomas Hastings (composer)

He was a 3rd great-grandson of Thomas Hastings who came from the East Anglia region of England to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1634.

Hastings moved to Clinton, New York, as a youth and began his career as a singing teacher, being largely a self-taught musician.

Hastings was a prolific composer, writing some 1000 hymn tunes over his career, and what Mason calls the "simple, easy, and solemn" style of his music remains a major influence on the hymns of the Protestant churches to this day.

While Hastings' first compilation still showed strong evidence of adherence to the British tradition, later works would include many German songs, and what older hymns and other settings he did include had the harmonies completely rewritten to conform to German ideals of classical music.

In addition to his composition and compiling of tunebooks for use in the singing schools, Hastings founded Musical Magazine, a periodical he edited from 1835 to 1837; his early writings on church music for the Western Recorder, which he began editing in 1823, had given him the prior experience, as well as establishing his musical and professional credibility around its home base of Utica, New York and the surrounding areas.