Samuel Sebastian Wesley

Samuel Sebastian Wesley (1810–1876) was an English organist and composer and a leading figure in nineteenth-century Anglican church music. Born in London, he was a grandson of Charles Wesley and a son of the organist and composer Samuel Wesley. As a boy he sang in the Chapel Royal choir, then developed as an organist and composer under his father's instruction. He later earned the Doctor of Music degree at Oxford.

Wesley held major church-music appointments at Hereford Cathedral, Exeter Cathedral, Leeds Parish Church, Winchester Cathedral, and Gloucester Cathedral. He argued for higher standards in cathedral music and for better professional conditions for church musicians, setting out part of his case in A Few Words on Cathedral Music and the Musical System of the Church (1849).

His output included anthems, organ music, services, and many hymn tunes. AURELIA, composed in 1864, became one of the best-known English Victorian hymn tunes and has been used with several texts. Hymnals have also paired AURELIA with James Montgomery's “Hail to the Lord's Anointed.” Wesley's work helped bridge the inherited Anglican cathedral tradition and the expanding hymn repertory of Victorian congregational worship.