Healey Willan: Life and Music

By F.R.C. Clarke

Book Overview

Healey Willan (1880-1968) played a major role in the development of music in Canada for more than fifty years. As a teacher and organist-choirmaster he inspired generations of singers, musicians, and composers. As a composer he created some 800 works, including operas and symphonies as well as organ, piano, chamber, vocal, and band music.

Interest in Healey Willan's music has soared, with recent sales of recordings of his music exceeding 50,000 copies. F.R.C. Clarke's book is the definitive guide to the life and work of this remarkable man. The paper edition is an unabridged reprint of the edition first published in 1983, with a new foreword by the author.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0802081363
• ISBN13: 9780802081360
• Release Date: September 1997
• Publisher: University of Toronto Press
• Length: 320 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Best source available for Willan info

This book is actually two books. The first is a comparatively concise biography of Healey Willan, detailing his youth, his coming to Canada, and his long tenure at St. Mary Magdalene. It is full of interesting stories which reflect Willan's personality, but is presented with a professional objectivity which makes it very credible and easy to read. The second part of the book is a very detailed study of most of Willan's works by category -- songs, piano works, symphonic works, choral pieces (motets and masses), organ works, and everything else this prolific composer wrote. It covers, at a medium level, Willan's compositional techniques and influences. At the end is a section with almost 500 musical examples which are referred to throughout the text. All in all, a very valuable and very professionally written biography and musical analysis of the "old man". I would have given it 5 stars if the biography section were longer (It's about 100 pages -- not bad, but.). Those of us who are hardcore fans want all the details of the man that we can get. Other than that, a superb book.