Wesley - Air and Gavotte

Samuel Wesley (24 February 1766 – 11 October 1837) was an English organist and composer in the late Georgian period. Wesley was a contemporary of Mozart (1756–1791) and was called by some "the English Mozart."

Born in Bristol, he was the son of noted Methodist and hymn-writer Charles Wesley, the grandson of Samuel Wesley (a poet of the late Stuart period) and the nephew of John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist Church.

Samuel showed his musical talent early in life. He played the violin as well as the organ, and worked as a conductor as well as a music lecturer. Many of his best-known compositions were written for the church; they include the motet In exitu Israel. His secular compositions include the five part madrigal O singe unto mie roundelaie set to the well known poem by Thomas Chatterton.

In 1788 Wesley was initiated into freemasonry in the Lodge of Antiquity. The Duke of Sussex appointed him Grand Organist in 1812, but he resigned the appointment in 1818.

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

This Air and Gavotte belong to his most popular works.

I played on a small registration, because the organ Samuel probable used was much smaller than the big blockbusters in use nowadays. In his time organs had a limited set of stops and often only a coupled pedal.