Samuel Wesley (1766-1837)

Book excerpt: Hailed as a child prodigy and later acclaimed as England's finest extempore organist, Samuel Wesley - son of Charles Wesley and nephew of John Wesley, the founders of Methodism - is best known today for his musical compositions and for his promotion of the music of J. S. Bach. At the heart of this source book is a calendar of Samuel Wesley's correspondence. The editors date and summarise the content of over 1100 surviving letters and other documents, most of which have not previously been published. The book accordingly reveals considerable new information about Wesley and his complex personal affairs, including his incarceration for debt and his confinement in a lunatic asylum for a year. Many details are provided about London musical life in the era from Boyce to Mendelssohn that prior scholars have not taken into account. The book also presents a chronology of Wesley's life, a descriptive list of his nearly 550 musical and literary works, a discography, an iconography and a bibliography. It therefore is the most comprehensive available reference source for Wesley's life, times and music.