J. S. BACH Jonathan Berkahn - Victoria University - Victoria ...

in Bath) recommended that Charles ‘should have nothing to do with any “great
master”, who would spoil him and destroy any spark of originality in him. Instead, he
should study Handel’s “Lessons”... until he had mastered them.’ 41 As might perhaps
have been expected, this seems to have had the opposite effect. Charles Wesley’s
voluntary in G minor, for example (published 1815) begins with a French ouverture;
his Voluntary in A minor concludes with a Handel transcription. That Charles could
do this at the same time as Beethoven was entering his ‘third period’ shows how
unevenly the new ideals of originality percolated through European musical life. One
is tempted here to ascribe the cause to English insularity, but the same was true of
many German organists at this time (Albrechtsberger, Rinck, Rembt, etc.). In Charles’
case it was no doubt a combination of musical environment and personal temperament.
Samuel, on the other hand, was already exposing himself to other musical
experiences not quite as orthodox. His involvement with Roman Catholic church
music actually seems to have slightly pre-dated the Wesley house-concerts, apparently
beginning when he was as young as twelve years of age in 1778. It is not certain
whether his parents were aware of this sort of extracurricular activity, but it shows an
independence of mind and conduct that was only to increase over the next few years,
and eventually to lead to near-total estrangement from his parents. Two events
completed the breakdown in relations: his conversion to Catholicism, and his
relationship with Charlotte Maria Martin.
His parents worst fears were realised with his conversion in 1784. Erik
Routley has pointed out that converting to Catholicism in the 1780s was a very
different affair from doing so, say, seventy years later. 42 The drama, persecution, and
party feeling surrounding John Henry Newman and the Anglo-Catholics did not exist
then; entirely personal, Wesley’s decision was both less problematic and less
41 Olleson, Wesley, p.8.
42 Routley, Wesleys, p.65-67.
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