The Parish Church of St John-at-Hampstead

at Choral Evensong on the 1st Sunday of each month

followed by a glass of sherry with the choir and musicians
after the service

From September to December this year James has chosen to feature anthems by S S Wesley.  Samuel Sebastian Wesley – to give him the full name by which he is usually identified from the rest of his musical family – is widely considered to be the finest composer in the Anglican cathedral tradition between Purcell and Stanford.  His paternal grandfather was Charles Wesley, the author of such well-known hymns as Love Divine, all loves excelling and Hark the herald angels sing, and his great-uncle was John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist movement.  From both his grandfather and great-uncle S S Wesley inherited a profound belief in the power of music to add its expressive quality to church services, and from his father, Samuel Wesley, a thorough knowledge of the music of Johann Sebastian Bach (Samuel was a composer and organist who counted Mendelssohn amongst his friends – and through him became so enthusiastic about Bach’s music that he named this son after him).

At the beginning of the 19th century, music in English parish churches as well as cathedrals was at an all-time low;  choirs of Charity Children (such as here in Hampstead) did little for performing standards and church music was not valued by clergy nor congregations. Things began to improve with the Oxford Movement after 1834: surpliced choirs of professional singers raised standards and there was a wide demand for good new music for them to sing.  As a young man S S Wesley took up his first appointment in 1836 as organist of St James’s Chapel, Hampstead Road (the chapel, since demolished, for the cemetery of St James’s Piccadilly), and subsequently held no fewer than four major cathedral posts – Hereford, Exeter, Winchester and Gloucester. His career gave him extensive opportunities to develop his fine evangelical feeling for enhancing biblical texts with music:  his anthems are notable for their dramatic expression as well as their melodic beauty and inspired choral writing.