Recital of the works of Samuel S Wesley: Hereford Cathedral 1980 (Roy Massey)

Private recording of a recital given by Hereford Cathedral choir, under the direction of Roy Massey, organist Roger Judd, on 13 September 1980 1. The wilderness and the solitary place (Samuel Sebastian Wesley) 2. Blessed be the God and Father (Samuel Sebastian Wesley) 3. Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace (Samuel Sebastian Wesley) 4. O thou who camest from above (Hymn) 5. O give thanks unto the Lord (Samuel Sebastian Wesley) 6. Cast me not away (Samuel Sebastian Wesley) 7. Wash me throughly (Samuel Sebastian Wesley) 8. O help us Lord (Hymn: Bedford) - with organ interludes Samuel Sebastian Wesley (1810-1876) was appointed to his first cathedral post at Hereford in 1832, where he wrote "The wilderness" within weeks of arriving, following it a couple of years later with "Blessed be the God and Father". But things were not all sweetness and light at Hereford. According to Dr Peter Horton: “It was a move he was bitterly to regret in later life, and there can be little doubt that had he known the reality of life at a provincial cathedral he would have thought long and hard about leaving the capital. Encouragement, one suspects, had come from the new Dean, Dr John Merewether, who had previously been curate of Hampton Parish Church where Wesley had been evening organist. The fact that there were only three candidates also suggests that the election was biased in Wesley’s favour - although this could equally well have been a reflection on the miserable salary of £60 on offer, no less than £40 having been diverted to provide a pension for his elderly and infirm predecessor, John Clarke-Whitfeld, who, at the Dean & Chapter’s insistence, had been forced into offering his resignation. Writing many years later Wesley painted a grim picture of the conditions he had encountered: “Painful and dangerous is the position of a young musician who, after acquiring great knowledge of his art in the Metropolis, joins a country Cathedral. At first he can scarcely believe that the mass of error and inferiority in which he has to participate is habitual and irremediable. He thinks he will reform matters, gently, and without giving offence; but he soon discovers that it is his approbation and not his advice that is needed. The Choir is ‘the best in England’ (such being the belief at most Cathedrals) and, if he give trouble in his attempts at improvement, he would be, by some Chapters, at once voted a person with whom they ‘cannot go on smoothly’ and ‘a bore’.” In one respect, however, the move was the making of him as a composer in that it triggered the composition of his first masterpiece, the anthem The Wilderness. On reaching Hereford in September, Wesley had found himself with nothing to do as choral services had been discontinued while the cathedral organ was enlarged and repaired. [ ... ] Yet his time was well spent and on 10 November, the day after the organ came back into use, the congregation were treated to the first performance of his new anthem. What, one wonders, did they make of it, for nothing remotely like it had been heard at Hereford before? Wesley himself had no doubts as he wrote a few weeks later to his friend WH. Kearns: ‘I liked the music very well, it was done here in the Cathedral’.” [http://church-music.org.uk/articles/s...]