“THOU WILT KEEP HIM
IN PERFECT PEACE”
Samuel Sebastian Wesley (1810-1876)
was one of the most remarkable cathedral musicians of the Victorian
period. He was the grandson of that prolific author of hymn texts,
the Rev’d Charles Wesley (1707-1788), and the (illegitimate) son of
composer Samuel Wesley (1766-1837). During his career, S. S. Wesley
held the position of organist at Hereford Cathedral (1832-1835), Exeter
Cathedral (1835-1842), Leeds Parish Church (1842-1849), Winchester Cathedral
(1849-1865), and Gloucester Cathedral (1865-1876). He was noted
for his hot temper and inability to get along with cathedral authorities.
On some future occasion I
hope to give a more detailed biographical profile of Wesley, but at
present I would like to take a close look at one of the anthems that
has long been in the Good Shepherd repertoire: “Thou wilt keep
him in perfect peace”, written around 1850. It will be sung
at the offertory on October 5. The musical form of the anthem
is a rondo in five sections (ABACA). The recurrence of the A music
serves as a refrain that ties the piece together.
Many of Wesley’s anthems
combine texts from several passages of scripture, and this one is a
good example. His combination of disparate texts is always coherent,
but the coherence seems to owe less to analytic reason than to devotional
intuition, and the musical setting generally underscores this coherence
with a purposeful, even dramatic progress.
The opening A section takes
its text from Isaiah 26:3: “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace
whose mind is stayed on thee”. The music is marked by tranquil
serenity evoking “that peace which the world cannot give” (second
collect at Evening Prayer).
The source of this peace
must be sought in the attributes and mercy of God. This is a subject
that could be extended to great length, but as that is not an option
for Wesley, he turns to Psalm 139:11 for a telling example: “The
darkness is no darkness with thee, but the night is as clear as the
day; the darkness and the light to thee are both alike.” This
is section B of the anthem, the first episode in the rondo structure.
It is sung by the men of the choir. The full choir enters with
the second appearance of the A music, but not to the words heard at
the beginning of the anthem. Here Wesley beautifully introduces words
from the First Epistle of St. John (1:5), which further develop the
themes of light and darkness: “God is light, and in him is no
darkness at all”.
The C section of the music,
the second episode of the rondo structure, may be taken as the soul’s
joyful, even ecstatic response to this truth. Wesley begins with
words from Psalm 119:175: “O let my soul live, and it shall
praise thee.” At this point the tempo and volume increase as
Wesley turns to the doxology of the Lord’s Prayer: “For thine
is the kingdom, the power, and the glory for evermore” (Matthew 6:13).
This is the emotional and musical climax of the anthem as a whole.
The music then subsides to a final statement of the A music to the original
words, thus bringing the anthem full circle with a calm and assured
reaffirmation of God’s peace. Listen for the exquisitely poignant
dissonance and resolution that Wesley introduces right at the end, bringing
the anthem to its serene close.
--WJG
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