Content area
Full Text
Donald Hunt, "Samuel Sebastian Wesley: A bicentennial reflection," Journal of the Association of Anglican Musicians, vol. 19, no. 8 (October 2010):!, 5-9
The year 2010 marked the bicentennial of the birth of Samuel Sebastian Wesley, the nineteenth-century English cathedral musician and composer, and grandson of the Methodist hymnwriter, Charles Wesley Though S. S. Wesley composed thirty-eight cathedral anthems and over one hundred hymn tunes (many of which were published in the European psalmist m 1870)^ his tunes remain basically unknown today except for a very few notable exceptions such as AURELIA paired with the Samuel John Stone text "The Church's one foundation." His anthems, however, fared better, and some have become standards of cathedral anthem repertory. British writer and composer Donald Hunt's article is about the life and legacy of S. S. Wesley.
Growing up in the Anglican cathedral tradition, Wesley became a chorister at the Chapel Royal, St. James Palace, at the age of eight. His first musical training was with his father, and by the age of twentytwo he received his first position at Hereford Cathedral. Seven years later he was awarded his doctorate in music from Oxford University. Subsequent appointments included Exeter, Leeds, Winchester, and Gloucester.
Wesley came to maturity in the Victorian Age, and, according to Hunt, this was a time when music in the English cathedrals suffered from a lack of direction and discipline. As he further explains, "dreariness and slovenly standards of performance were commonplace and almost welcomed by the clergy." Reacting to this state of affairs, Wesley published a scathing treatise entitled A few words on cathedral music. Although the clergy dismissed these protestations as irrelevant ramblings, Hunt believes that Wesley's arguments eventually bore fruit decades later. "It could be argued that the healthy state of cathedral music in Britain today stems in some way from his efforts, even though improvements during his lifetime were almost negligible."
Later in life Wesley became increasingly bitter about church in general; and after prolonged suffering from Bright's disease he died on April 19, 1876, at the age of sixty-five. He was buried in the family's vault at Exeter, apparently without the ministrations of clergy.
In summary, Hunt observes that many of Wesley's fine hymn tunes are still awaiting discovery, and...