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

have, to a head-injury sustained in 1787 when he fell into a street excavation. The first
known reference to event, however, comes from his obituary in 1837, and there is no
trace of it in the letters or any other documents of the time. Even if it did happen as
stated (by Wesley himself, so far as we can tell), his erratic behaviour began well
before the accident, and most likely had entirely other causes. A physical injury to the
brain was, however, a comprehensible diagnosis in the eighteenth century in a way that
a bipolar chemical imbalance was not. 45
A number of other important events occurred around this time. 1787 saw the
last of the house-concerts, and was the year in which he attained majority (thereby
coming into a number of valuable bequests). The following year his father died. In
short, he was now propelled into the world, dependent on his own resources. Forced
to cease being a rebellious adolescent, he had to begin to make his own career.
SAMUEL WESLEY COMES OF AGE
This was also the time of his first maturity as a composer; and although his
style continued to develop, he never surpassed some of the ambitious works he wrote
during these years. As far as keyboard music went, he had yet to begin his op.6 series
of voluntaries, but had written many apprentice pieces for the organ. He had also
published a set of clavier sonatas in 1777. None of these can compare, however, with
the extraordinary unpublished Andante maestoso and Presto KO 627. 46 The Presto is
dated 16 May, 1788. It is not clear whether this should be considered as a kind of
45 See the discussion in Olleson, Wesley, pp.35-36, and Olleson, ‘Obituary’, pp.124, 127. Olleson
notes (Wesley, p.3) that at least one biographer has suggested that his father too had bipolar
tendencies: H. Rack, Reasonable Enthusiast: John Wesley and the Rise of Methodism (London:
Epworth Press, 2002), pp.51, 252.
46 BL Add. Ms 14340.
144