Wesleys

Whatever is offered to God should be as faultless as man can make it. Music should not be compelled to bring her worst gift to the altar!

—Samuel Sebastian Wesley

I always like that quote on Sundays when I've sung in a contemporary Catholic church. :-)

Samuel Sebastian Wesley isn't the Wesley, you know, the John Wesley who was the Anglican priest who founded Methodism, which led to the Methodist Church in the United States, or even John's brother Charles, who was the prolific hymn writer, but rather he is Charles's son Samuel's bastard child with the housekeeper!

This morning was odd. I played the last half of the 9:30 and sang the 11, and my playing at 9:30 and the organist's playing at the 11 were both unusually sloppy! Musta been the weather. Anyway, the choir had James Mulholland Day. Both anthems were hymns tunes he'd arranged into performance pieces, with "All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name" at the offertory and "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" at communion. I thought the choir sounded good today, though, even with only two tenors this morning.