for SSATB unaccompanied This piece (entitled Carmen Funebre) and Tu es sacerdos were cited as examples of good church music in S.S.Wesley's pamphlet about the state of church music in 1849. The text had significance for Samuel Wesley as they were the last words said to him by his father. He uses the unusual key (for the time) of C sharp minor, giving the work a special intensity.
Reviews
The textures of Omnia vanitas^ are carefully wrought and aurally arresting, and this austere six-minute motet inhabits an interesting ecclesiastical early romanticism, positioned stylistically somewhere between Haydn and Bruckner. * Jeremy Summerly, Choir & Organ, January/February 2013 *
Son of hymn-writer Charles, and nephew of John, the founder of Methodism, Samuel Wesley was a musical prodigy. He was recognized as the finest organist and extemporizer of his day, and described by William Boyce as 'the English Mozart'. In spite of his family background, he developed a strong connection with the Roman Catholic Church in his teens.
