This book was compiled from presentations and papers at a conference titled Music, Cultural History and the Wesleys. Held at the University of Bristol in July 2007, and hosted by the Centre for the History of Music in Britain, the Empire and the Commonwealth (CHOMBEC) the conference celebrated the tercentenary of Charles Wesley's birth. The focus of this book is the musical contributions of the Wesleys and includes only a portion of the papers that were presented. The book is divided into two main sections with the first part dedicated to ‘Music and Methodism’ and the second part to ‘The Wesley Musicians’.

For the reader only mildly familiar with John and Charles Wesley, the founders of Methodism, the family tree of the Wesleys can be a bit daunting. This body of scholarship covers the Wesley family from the birth of Samuel, in 1665, through the fourth generation to the death of Matthias Erasmus Wesley, in 1901. This span, encompassing nearly four centuries, is further complicated by the repetition of names across generations: there are more than one figure named Charles, Sarah and Samuel during the period in question. The editors help with this complexity by providing a family tree in the book's forward; and this is both a useful introduction and a helpful reference as the reader progresses through the articles.

In Part I: ‘Music and Methodism’, there is a focus on the poetry of Charles Wesley (the elder, 1707–88) and the great variety of tunes that have been used to support these cherished hymns over three centuries. Chapter 1, by Nicholas Temperley, provides a well-written biographical sketch of John Wesley (1703–1791), the stalwart theological founder of Methodism, and an overview of the impact his leadership and writings had on the way music was used to spread Methodism. The rest of Part I then concentrates on the influence and importance of John's younger brother, Charles. Despite the opportunities and restrictions that John's personality and rather dogmatic theological writings had on the early Methodist movement, the poetry of Charles may be the strongest link between eighteenth-century Methodism – in England and the United States – and the Methodism of the present day. Tunes, musical settings, degrees of imposed and presumed piety, musical traditions, practices, and festivals are examined here in painstaking detail and with significant statistical and anecdotal information. The poetry – and its uses and transformations – is elucidated by J.R. Watson in ‘Charles Wesley and the Music of Poetry’, Robin A. Leaver in ‘Psalms and Hymns and Hymns and Sacred Poems’, John Frederick Lampe in ‘Hymns on the Great Festivals and Other Occasions’, and, in the strong closing chapter of this section, by Carlton R. Young, in ‘The Musical Settings of Charles Wesley's Hymns’. The music, worship practice, and piety of Methodism is examined by Sally Drage in ‘Methodist Anthems: The Set Piece in English Psalmody’, by Anne Bagnall Yardley in ‘The Music of Methodism in Nineteenth-Century America’, and by Geoffrey C. Moore in ‘Eucharistic Piety in American Methodist Hymnody’.

Clearly, as cultural and musical tastes have changed, the popular tunes used to carry the poetry have been replaced and interchanged, and settings have ranged from the simple to the complex; but the poetry has remained relatively consistent. The strict personal code of conduct prescribed for Methodists and the restrictive admonitions for universal singing (meaning congregational singing with no special choir singers) and John Wesley's condemnation of fuging tunes have long since fallen by the wayside. Notwithstanding these changes, texts such as O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing continue to inspire and endure despite multiple tunes and settings that have come and gone and continual experimentation with melody, harmony, metre and setting.

These chapters are not for the casual reader. Charts, statistics, and detailed minutiae of the texts demonstrate ambitious research and scholarship. These efforts represent serious study into material that has a 300-year history of inquiry in a field of scholarship that has been thoroughly plowed by theologians and others for generations.Footnote 1 Conferences of this sort must have narrow and deep investigation to unearth new information and make significant contribution to knowledge about the Wesleys.

The second half of the book, ‘The Wesley Musicians’, considers the lesser-known limbs of the Wesley family tree, which include three significant nineteenth-century musicians: Charles Wesley (the younger, 1757–1834) and Samuel Wesley (1766–1837), both sons of Charles Wesley the elder, and Samuel's son, Samuel Sebastian Wesley (1810–1876). While perhaps lacking the piety and industry of their forebears, they made their own unique additions to the Wesley reputation (although it is unclear whether their body of work would be as well remembered had their last name been Smith or Jones). While not adhering to the standards of piety of their illustrious father, uncle, or grandfather, these three composers demonstrated an independence from the Methodist movement and the music that it spawned. Despite their departure from the conservative nature of their religious heritage, they were conservative in their approach to composition, musical taste, and performance practice. As much products of their times and generation as any composers are, they were overshadowed as much by their contemporary Handel as by larger figures in their own family.

This section of the book provides more accessible reading for the musicologist, with interesting investigations of these three composers. Their lives and times are explored by Stephen Barfield in ‘Style, Will, and the Environment: Three Composers at Odds with History’, by Jonathan Barry in ‘Charles Wesley's Family and the Musical Life of Bristol’, by Philip Olleson in ‘Father and Sons: Charles, Samuel, and Charles the Younger’, and by Peter S. Forsaith in ‘Pictorial Precocity: John Russell's Portraits of Charles and Samuel Wesley’. A contribution with a particularly delightful glimpse into the eighteenth-century practice of the benefit, or subscription concert, is ‘Harmony and Discord in the Wesley Family Concerts’ by Alyson McLamore. The discussion of the 64 Wesley family subscription concerts held at the home of Charles Wesley the elder for his two gifted sons, beginning in January 1779 and continuing periodically for several years, is a fascinating look at the oddities of that culture and era. Charles the elder kept careful documentation of finances, initiatives, problems with the audience, and performance practice and tradition. And the authors make intelligent suppositions based on these statistics about the relationships between Charles and his sons, about their music and that of their contemporaries, and about the concerts. Their conclusions will be equally engaging for Wesley scholars, musicologists and cultural anthropologists. This section closes with two chapters concerning the last significant personality of the Wesley line, Samuel Sebastian Wesley: Peter Horton's ‘The Anthem Texts and Word Setting of Sebastian Wesley’ and the final chapter, Stephen Banfield's and Nicholas Temperley's ‘The Legacy of Sebastian Wesley’.

This book is essential reading for Wesley scholars, and an interesting look into a family that contributed much to the theology and poetry of a significant branch of Christianity. The second half of the volume examines a small group of minor composers who, while failing to continue the religious legacy of their family, were able to continue and contribute to the musical customs of their time and place. Not an easy read for the mildly curious about Methodism, this significant body of work documents the research of the best Wesley scholars on the planet and their significant findings.