Samuel Wesley's 250th Birthday Celebrations in Bristol

Events happing in the New Room 

Celebrating Samuel Wesley's Birthday.

Samuel son of Charles Wesley, the family lived in their family home in Charles Street Bristol where he showed his musical talent early in life. As a boy, he was recognised as a child prodigy by the  musical establishment;

He was full eight years old when Dr [William] Boyce came to see us and accosted me with, 'Sir, I hear you have an English Mozart in your house'. I called Sam to answer for himself. He had by this time scrawled down his Oratorio of Ruth. The Doctor looked it over very carefully and seemed highly pleased with the performance. Some of his words were, 'These airs are some of the prettiest I have seen. This boy writes by nature as true a bass as I can do by rule and study'

(The Musical Wesleys. London: Herbert Jenkins)

Wesley worked as a conductor  as well as a music teacher and lecturer. He seems to have been one of the pioneers of the British organ recital. His ability on the organ was so highly regarded that he was introduced to, and played for Mendelssohn. Many of his best-known compositions were written for the church; they include the motet In exitu Israel.

Wesley was a contemporary of Mozart (1756–1791) and was called by some "the English Mozart".

In 1784, Wesley privately converted to Roman Catholicism, to the dismay of his uncle John Wesley. His hymn-writer father Charles, expressed his opinion in the following words:

While ready and resolved is he to plunge into the dark abyss

And cast his soul away

That poison of the Romish sect

O let not his soul infect

 Samuel died in 1837 and was buried in St Marylebone Parish Church London.

CLICK HERE 

to listen to Samuel Wesley'sSymphony in E flat Major Allegro

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