From ‘News and Notes’

September 2011

Samuel Sebastian Wesley and Tavistock: A Brief Note

Jason Smart

Samuel Sebastian Wesley (1810–1876) was a difficult man. The most gifted British organist and church musician of his age, he managed to fall out with his employers almost everywhere he went – and not only them. Particular chips on his shoulder were the lack of support (if not obstruction) from the clergy in matters musical and what he saw as the insulting rates of pay. His concern for money may have been inherited from his father Samuel Wesley (1766–1837), who had experienced severe financial difficulties.

Of all the appointments in his illustrious career, he claimed to have been happiest as organist of Exeter Cathedral, where, aged 25, he went in 1835. In 1842 he exchanged rural Devon for the ‘dirt, smoke and inhabitants’ of industrial Leeds on becoming organist of the newly completed parish church. However, it was only two years before he became dissatisfied there too and started looking around for other jobs.

In 1846 Tavistock Parish Church acquired a brand new, 19-stop, three-manual organ by Joseph William Walker. Well before it was installed, Wesley was booked to give the opening recital. The announcement of this in a local newspaper that April makes intriguing reading:

TAVISTOCK.– The Organ built by Mr. Walker, of London, for Tavistock Church is completed, and about to be removed to that place. About mid-summer it will be opened by Dr. Wesley, at present organist of Leeds parish church. Tavistock Church has been reseated in carved oak by Mr. John Rundle, builder, whose execution of the works intrusted to him reflects credit both upon him and the Church Committee. The specifications for the organ were drawn up by K. J. Pye, Esq. Of Exeter, and are considered by competent judges to be such as will insure a good instrument. Negociations having been closed with Dr. Wesley, his services have been secured. The parish of Tavistock may now be proud of its church, one of the best, if not the best in the West of England, and of its future organist, whose predilection for Devonshire is the cause of his again coming to reside in this county, preferring its salubrity to the dingy atmosphere of Leeds. There were testimonials from eighty candidates for the situation, and from this number ten were selected, from which, in case Dr. Wesley did not accept the office, the organist was intended to be chosen. Mr. Henry Franklin, organist of St. James, was the only one in the neighbourhood of Exeter among this chosen number, the other nine being cathedral Organists in various parts of the kingdom. 1

1 The Plymouth, Devonport and Stonehouse Herald , 11 April 1846, p.3. Kellow John Pye (1812–1901) was born in Exeter and died in Exmouth. After studying piano and harmony, counterpoint and composition at the Royal Academy of Music, he returned to Exeter where he enjoyed considerable local fame. In 1853 he gave up professional music to work in a wine merchant’s firm in London, but maintained an interest in music, becoming a director of the Royal Academy of Music and joining the council of the Royal College of Music. He is remembered today solely for an Anglican chant. Fuller Maitland (ed.), Grove’s Dictionary of Music and Musicians (London, 1907), vol.3, pp.859–60.

© Jason Smart 2011 No first-hand verification of Wesley’s appointment to Tavistock is known, but there must have been some substance to the claim as it was repeated almost three months later in the report of his opening recital on 25 June:

TAVISTOCK CHURCH.– On Thursday last the new Organ, lately erected in the church, by Mr. Walker, the eminent organ builder of London, was opened by Dr. S. S. Wesley, who has recently been appointed organist to the church. A numerous company had assembled long before the time appointed for the commencement of the morning performance, comprising the elite of the town and neighbourhood, and also the principal organists and professors of these towns, and others from distant parts of Devon and Cornwall, attracted doubtless by the great treat in store for them. Of the Doctor’s performance on that noble instrument it would be quite superfluous to add our meed of praise to talents that have long been acknowledged by the first musicians of the age to be unequalled, and to those who could fully appreciate the extraordinary development of his powers in the execution of the difficult Pedal Fugues by Bach, the treat was of no ordinary kind. We were much struck with the delicious effects produced in the air by Handel (the harmonious Blacksmith), and which was performed in an admirable manner – in fact, we scarcely imagined that such beautiful varieties could be produced on the organ. In the full instrumental pieces all the effects of a complete orchestra were given, with the crescendos and diminuendos to absolute perfection. We must not omit noticing a Fugue of the Doctor’s own composition, and which he played in a most extraordinary manner, producing an effect on those who perfectly understood the difficulties and beauties of such a composition, that will not easily be forgotten. On the whole we may safely assert that such a musical treat in the way of an organ performance has never before been enjoyed in the West of England, and the inhabitants of Tavistock ought to congratulate themselves on their good fortune in having so talented a musician as Dr. Wesley for their organist. 2

As late as August the move was still on the cards. That month Wesley drew up an agreement to sell his teaching practice in Leeds to the choirmaster, Robert Burton, for £500 on leaving the town. 3 He also referred obliquely to the pending move in a letter to an acquaintance in York:

Augt 7th. 1846 My Dear Madam . . . Mrs. Wesley has been very seriously ill. She is now well enough to move about, and, before She goes to the South, for good, the Medical Man says She should go to Thorp Arch for a short time as the Change would give her strength to undergo the fatigue of the longer journey. 4

In the event Wesley never took up the Tavistock appointment and stayed at Leeds until 1849. What went wrong? Did he fail to persuade the church to pay what he considered a fair salary – a complaint he fired at the churchwardens of St Andrew’s, Plymouth, when they were advertising for an organist in 1868? 5 Did his wife’s ill health prevent the move taking place? Sadly, almost no Tavistock Parish Church records survive from the later 1840s, so it is unlikely we will ever know. 6

2 The Plymouth and Devonport Weekly Journal , 2 July 1846, p.3. 3 Peter Horton, Samuel Sebastian Wesley: A Life (Oxford, 2004), p.173. When Wesley eventually did leave Leeds, Burton refused to pay him more than £350. Wesley took him to court and was awarded £100 damages: Horton, p.201 n. 4 London, Guildhall Library MS 10 189/2, ff.359–60, quoted from Horton, p.173. 5 News and Notes , June 2009, p.23. 6 There is a book of vestry minutes for 1830–57 (Devon Record Office, 482A/PV3), but it deals with neither organs nor organists.