After his musical training as a chorister at the Chapel Royal, Samuel Sebastian Wesley pursued a career in London, playing the organ at various London churches and working as a pianist for the English Opera House (now the Palace Theatre). In 1832, at the age of twenty-two, he secured his first cathedral post at Hereford—the first of numerous appointments which began with optimism but always ended in disillusionment, partly because of Wesley’s innate irascibility, but also because each position of employment failed to offer the kind of conditions he wanted in order to realize his aspirations for excellence in church music. During his first year at Hereford, he composed
The wilderness, which set a new standard in various ways. One was the novel, intricate and independent organ part which makes full use of the pedals; another was the bold harmonic palette which would characterize so much of Wesley’s future sacred output. With his background in the theatre, Wesley also wanted to bring an element of drama to his texts, and this dimension was more than evident to those who heard this bold setting of verses from Isaiah 35. The anthem commences with a verse for solo quartet (‘The wilderness and the solitary place’) in E major (an unusual and adventurous key in a time when so many organs were tuned to just intonation), which is followed by a through-composed aria in A minor for solo bass (‘Say to them of a fearful heart’) that is cast in a neo-Bachian style with walking bass. A tenor recitative provides the conduit to an episode for solo quartet and choir (‘for in the wilderness’) which moves through a series of thirds-related modulations (E, A flat and C) before returning to E major. At this point, Wesley embarks on an even more arresting series of modulations in a dramatic recitative for lower voices (‘And a highway shall be there’) which reveals just how advanced his harmonic outlook was in the early 1830s. This is also true of the climactic passage at the end of the florid fugue (‘they shall obtain joy’), which leads to a serene concluding five-part verse (‘And sorrow and sighing shall flee away’)—arguably the most emotional part of the anthem in its use of melody and expressive harmony.
from notes by Jeremy Dibble © 2023