Healey Willan

• Name — Healey Willan • Birth Name — James Healey Willan • Born — 12 October 1880 • Birthplace — London, England • Died — 16 February 1968 • Place of death — Toronto, Ontario, Canada • Occupation — * Organist • composer

• Illustration — Memorial to Healey Willan Willan was born in England on 12 October 1880 and began musical training at age eight, with studies at St. Saviour's Choir School in Eastbourne. He continued at St. Saviour's until 1895, when he began working as organist and choirmaster at several London-area churches. He earned, by examination in organ playing, harmony, counterpoint, history and orchestration, the ARCO in 1897 and fellowship in 1899. From 1903 to 1913, he was organist and choirmaster of St. John the Baptist Church on Holland Road in London. The Anglo-Catholic Tractarian movement had led to an Anglican revival of plainsong, and in 1910 Willan joined the London Gregorian Association (which strove to preserve and revive "plain-chant"). In 1913 Willan emigrated to Canada. Willan became organist-choirmaster of Toronto's largest church, St. Paul's, Bloor Street, whose rector, Canon Cody, was later to become Ontario provincial education minister and the chancellor of the University of Toronto. In 1914, Willan was appointed a lecturer and examiner in music at the university. His royalties as a church music composer allowed him to leave "low church" St. Paul's in 1921 and to become precentor of the Church of St. Mary Magdalene (Toronto). He remained there until his death. St. Mary Magdalene's, under Willan, became a North American mecca for choral and Anglican church musicians. In 1934 he founded the Tudor Singers, which he conducted until it disbanded in 1939. • Illustration — Church of St. Mary Magdalene In 1920 the Toronto Conservatory (since 1947 the Royal Conservatory of Music) appointed Willan as head of its theory department. Later he became vice-principal. The conservatory was part of the University of Toronto. Students from the conservatory could become eligible to complete the music degree examinations administered by the university. From 1937 to 1950, Willan was University of Toronto Professor of Music and Organist and responsible for the music degree examinations. 2000 people attended an October 15, 1955 concert in St. Paul's to honor his 75th birthday. His notable pupils included pianists Howard Brown and Naomi Yanova, tenor Gordon Wry, and composers Cecil Gray, Patricia Blomfield Holt, Walter MacNutt, F. R. C. Clarke, Phyllis Gummer, Eldon Rathburn, Robert Fleming, and Kenneth Peacock. When the Order of Canada was established in 1967, it named Willan a Companion. In Britain, it was customary for the Archbishop of Canterbury to occasionally grant very distinguished English cathedral musicians the Lambeth Doctorate, Mus. D Cantuar; in 1956 Willan, "the Dean of Canadian composers" became the first non-English church musician to be so honoured; subsequently, many Canadian universities followed suit. Willan was one of the first Canadian musicians to appear on a Canadian postage stamp. It was not lost on young Canadian musicians that Willan was able to make his livelihood as a composer, and that being a composer was something to which they might realistically aspire. Willan, who would describe his provenance "English by birth; Canadian by adoption; Irish by extraction; Scotch by absorption", died on 16 February 1968 in Toronto. The park immediately to the east of St. Mary Magdalene church was named in his honour.

A fairly comprehensive listing of his works is given at the International Music Score Library Project. The Giles Bryant Healey Willan Catalogue assigns numbers to (some of) Willan's works, eg B314, Rise up, my love, my fair one. • Introduction, Passacaglia and Fugue for Organ in E flat minor (1916) • Passcaglia and Fugue • Epilogue • Andante, Fugue and Chorale for Organ in C sharp minor (1965)

• An Apostrophe to the Heavenly Hosts (1921), for double chorus a capella • England My England (Pro Rege Nostro), cantata for mixed chorus and piano accompaniment or orchestra • The Mystery of Bethlehem, Christmas cantata for soprano and baritone solo, mixed chorus, and organ or orchestra • O Perfect Love, sacred song for high voice

• Missa brevis No. 1 in E flat • Missa brevis No. 2 in F minor • Missa brevis No. 3 in F major • Missa brevis No. 4 in E major (1934), based on the plainsong hymn, Corde natus ex parentis • Missa brevis No. 5 in F sharp minor (1935) • Missa brevis No. 6 in F minor (1935) • Missa brevis No. 7, "O Westron Wynde" (1936), based on the English folk melody of the same name • Missa brevis No. 8 in D minor, "Missa SS Philippi et Jacobi" (1949) • Missa brevis No. 9 in A minor, "Missa Sancti Michaelis" (1947) • Missa brevis No. 10 in C minor/major (1948) • Missa brevis No. 11 in G minor/major, "Missa Sancti Johannis Baptistae" (1953) • Missa brevis No. 12 in D major (1956), based on the Christmas plainsong hymn, Christe Redemptor omnium • Missa brevis No. 13 in G minor, "Holy Cross" (1960) • Missa brevis No. 14, "St Alphege" (1962)

• How They So Softly Rest (1917) • Hail, Gladdening Light (1924) • O How Glorious (1924) • Very Bread, Good Shepherd Tend Us (1924) • O Sacred Feast (1924) • O How Sweet (1924) • Let Us Worship (1924) • O Trinity, Most Blessed Light (1925) • The Three Kings (1928) • Preserve Us O Lord (1928) • O King All Glorious (1928) • I Beheld Her (1928) • Fair in Face (1928) • Rise Up, My Love (1929) • O King of Glory (1929) • Lo, in the Time Appointed (1929) • O King to Whom All Things Do Live (1931) • Behold the Tabernacle of God (1933) • Hodie, Christus natus est (1935) • Who Is She That Ascendeth (1937) • O Saving Victim, SSA (1935) • Look Down, O Lord, SSA (1935) • Ave verum corpus (1943) • Brébeuf and His Brethren (1948) • I Will Lay Me down in Peace (1949) • Christ Our Passover (1950) • Grant Us Thy Light (1950) • The Spirit of the Lord (1950) • Gloria Deo per immensa saecula (1950) • Great Is the Lord (1952) • Te Deum Laudamus (1956)

• L'Ordre du bon temps (1928) • Prince Charlie and Flora (1929) • The Ayrshire Ploughman (?) • Maureen [lost] • Indian Christmas Play [lost] • Transit through Fire (1942, written for Canadian Radio) • Deirdre (1946, written for Canadian Radio, revised for stage in 1965)

• Symphonic Poem (1908) • Symphony No 1 in D minor (1936) • Piano Concerto in C minor (1944), premiered by Canadian pianist Agnes Butcher • Symphony No 2 in C minor (1948) • Overture to an Unwritten Comedy (1951) • Poem (for string orchestra) (1959) • Elégie Héroïque (for band) (1960)