Samuel Sebastian Wesley: Lead me, Lord | The Choir of Somerville College, Oxford 

@@dpodsful It's just as likely that he learned from a good mentor.

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There is definitely vibrato in this sound.

Me too, at St Marys church in Luton in the eighties. It was the default song to be sung at weddings about half way through the ceremony and was guaranteed to make the bride cry.

I had the same experience!

I would love to hear the Cambridge Singers do this piece! I would also like to hear it done with alto and soprano soloists, with choir, as it was originally performed.

Mine in 1968!!✨✨✨

Yes, that's fine as long as you credit the performers (The Choir of Somerville College, Oxford; Robert Pecksmith, organist; David Crown, conductor) and/or include a link to the original video.

@@somervillechoir many thanks! I will

I guess Wesley used safety in the same way as Rupert Brookes did: “Safety” a poem by Rupert Brooke Dear! of all happy in the hour, most blest He who has found our hid security, Assured in the dark tides of the world that rest, And heard our word, "Who is so safe as we?" We have found safety with all things undying, The winds, and morning, tears of men and mirth, The deep night, and birds singing, and clouds flying, And sleep, and freedom, and the autumnal earth. We have built a house that is not for Time's throwing. We have gained a peace unshaken by pain for ever. War knows no power. Safe shall be my going, Secretly armed against all death's endeavour; Safe though all safety's lost; safe where men fall; And if these poor limbs die, safest of all.

Lovely thank you.

Wesley took the text from Psalms 4 and 5, v. 8 in each case. "Safety" was David's term (4:8; Hebrew "betach": security, safety), so perhaps you should address your worry to him.

Wesley took the text, including "safety," from Psalm 4:8 (opening of anthem from 5:8), so I guess he used it as David used it.

Followed by a soprano solo after the choir repeats the alto text!✨ It was my first alto solo at St George's in the Stockade, in 1968.

It's Lionel Dakers' edition from "The New Church Anthem Book" (Oxford University Press, 1994).

agreed the tempo is a tad on the slow side

It's supposed to be this speed, haven't you ever heard this song before?

It sounds very Catholic! Lovely!

And yet it's Wesley's music, ironic, isn't it...

Just well disciplined.

When it comes to choral writing , Wesley is the equal of mendelsohn

Yes, many would think so, including me. This anthem is just sublime. Short and simple, yet very effective.

You might also hold him the equal of Mendelssohn.

Hugh Mackay h

Great performance and hymn, but no music performed with a sincere heart as worship to God is drivel, modern or otherwise.