Wesley, Samuel (EN)

Wesley Samuel, *24 February 1766 Bristol, †11 October 1837 London, English composer and organist, younger son of Charles I Wesley. He studied organ with D. Williams, and at the age of seven, he was performing psalms during services at St. James’s Church. At eight, he composed the oratorio Ruth and four years later, his eight harpsichord sonatas were published. W. Boyce called him the “English Mozart”. In 1771, he settled in London with his family; during home concerts from 1779 to 1787, he presented his works and also performed as a violinist, harpsichordist, and organist. In 1784, against the wishes of his family, he converted to Catholicism and dedicated his most extensive choral composition (lasting approximately 90 minutes), Missa de Spiritu Sancto, to Pope Pius VI. In 1787, he suffered an accident (falling into a construction pit) and a severe head injury, which may have been responsible for recurring periods of depression (particularly severe in the late 1780s, 1802–05, 1817–23). Another theory (supported by analysis of letters and family documents) suggests bipolar disorder, the symptoms of which appeared in adolescence. In 1793, the composer married Charlotte Martin; his first son, Charles, was born that same year, followed by John William six years later, and daughter Emma Frances in 1806. After 17 years, Wesley divorced and began an informal relationship with sixteen-year-old housemaid Sarah Suter, with whom he raised seven more children. In the early 19^th century, a turning point in his life came with his discovery of the works of J.S. Bach. Together with a group of friends (including K.F. Horn, V. Novello, B. Jacob), he popularised Bach’s music in England. With K.F. Horn, he published in London six organ sonatas, BWV 525–530 (1809), and Das wohltemperierte Klavier (1810–13), entitled S. Wesley and C.F. Horn’s New and Correct Edition of the Celebrated Forty-Eight Preludes and Fugues. From 1812 to 1818, he served as Grand Organist of the Ancient Lodge of Freemasons; from 1813 to 1817, he regularly participated in oratorio concerts in Covent Garden, and in 1824, he gained his first permanent position as organist at Camden Chapel. Despite occasional work as a music reviewer for the European Magazine, a teacher in girls’ schools, and a music copyist, his financial situation was deteriorating. In 1817, after the death of his newborn child, he threw himself from a window and was committed to an institution for treatment. In the 1820s, after another nervous breakdown, Samuel Wesley abandoned solo performances. He played publicly for the last time in 1837 with F. Mendelssohn at Christ Church in London. He died four weeks later after a short illness.

Samuel Wesley’s oeuvre centres on religious music to Latin texts, including choral works and compositions for solo voices, choir and orchestra or organ. Among his most distinguished works are motets Dixit Dominus and Exultate Deo (1800), In exitu Israel (1810), Omnia vanitas (1824), and Tu es sacerdos (1827). These works were mainly used in the Anglican Church, first in their English translation, and from 1900 in their original version. The composer crystallised his sacred style, combining Renaissance and Baroque traditions with 19^th-century harmony, in the motet Confitebor tibi, Domine (1799), considered the pinnacle of his religious music. Some of the organ fugues are similar, where Samuel Wesley – a distinguished practitioner and leading representative of the 19^th-century English organ music – developed a Baroque counterpoint technique drawn from the works of A. Corelli, J.S. Bach, and G.F. Handel. The remaining instrumental works represent a different style, drawing on the tradition of the Viennese classics. The most popular was the Symphony in B flat major (1802), modelled on J. Haydn’s London symphonies.

Literature: Jan Wesley: Kazania, transl. of an English ed. from 1787, Warsaw 1926; Letters of Samuel Wesley to Mr. Jacobs, ed. E. Wesley, London 1875, 2^nd ed. 1878, facsimile ed. entitled The Wesley Bach Letters, introduction P. Williams, London 1988; The Letters of Samuel Wesley. Professional and Social Correspondence: 1797–1837, ed. P. Olleson, Oxford 2001; Journal of the Rev. Charles Wesley, M.A., ed. T. Jackson, London 1849, reprint 1977; G.J. Stevenson Memorials of the Wesley Family, London 1876, reprint New York 2010; L. Tyerman The Life and Times of John Wesley, New York 1872; J.K. Pyne Wesleyana, in: The Musical Times, vol. 40, No. 676, 1899; R. Green The Works of John and Charles Wesley. A Bibliography, London 1896, 2^nd ed. 1906; J.S. Bumpus The Church Compositions of Samuel Sebastian Wesley, in: Musical News, vol. 39, 1910; Letters of John Wesley, ed. J. Telford, London 1931; M. Lelièvre Jan Wesley. Jego życie i dzieło, transl. from French, Warsaw 1931; J.T. Lightwood Samuel Wesley, London 1937, reprint New York 1972; E. Roudey The Musical Wesleys, London 1968, reprint Westport 1976; H. Ambrose The Anglican Anthems and Roman Catholic Motets of Samuel Wesley, Boston 1969; N.F. Adams The Musical Sources for John Wesley’s Tune Book, Ann Arbor 1974; P.P. Chappell Dr. Samuel Sebastian Wesley, Great Wakering 1977; P. Horton The Music of Samuel Sebastian Wesley, Oxford 1983; A Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People Called Methodists, The Works of John Wesley, ed. F. Hildebrandt, O.A. Beckerledge, vol. 7, Oxford 1983; R.W. Brown Chares Wesley, Hymnwriter, Bristol 1993; C.R. Young Music of the Heart: John and Charles Wesley on Music and Musicians, Carol Stream 1995;  P. Horton The Unknown Wesley: the Early Instrumental and Secular Vocal Music od Samuel Sebastian Wesley, in: Nineteenth Century British Music Studies, vol. 1, ed. B. Zon, Aldershot 1999; P. Olleson Samuel Wesley and the Music Profession, in: Music and Culture, 1785–1914, commemorative book of C. Ehrlich, ed. C. Bashford and L. Langley, Oxford 2000; M. Kassler, P.J. Olleson Samuel Wesley: a Sourcebook, Aldershot 2001; P.J. Olleson Samuel Wesley: the Man and his Music, Aldershot 2003; P. Horton Samuel Sebastian Wesley. A Life, Oxford 2004 (contains a thematic catalogue); Charles Wesley: Life, Literature and Legacy, ed. K.G. Newport, T.A. Campbell, Peterborough, 2007; Music and the Wesleys, ed. N. Temperley and S. Banfield, Farnham 2010; P.J. Olleson Samuel Wesley and the Development of Organ Pedals in England, in: Music and Performance Culture in Nineteenth-Century Britain, ed. B. Zon, Aldershot 2012; W. Markowski Jan i Karol Wesleyowie – ojcowie metodyzmu, in: Gdański Rocznik Ewangelicki, vol. 7, 2013.