Missa de Sancta Maria Magdalena – Healey Willan (1880-1968)

https://youtu.be/0hLvEJp8tiE (Sanctus/Benedictus)

If a Canadian ever joined a choir, whether in school, at church, or in the broader community, at some point he or she likely sang something by Healey Willan, an English immigrant who landed in Toronto in 1913. He composed some 800 works, most being sacred music for choir and organ, such as anthems, hymns, and mass settings.

Willan composed O Lord Our Governor, an anthem for the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. His friends pitched in for airfare so he could attend the event and the work is still performed today at important events. From 1921 until his death in 1968 Willan was the organist & choirmaster at St. Mary Magdalene, an anglo-catholic parish in Toronto. In 1956 he received the Lambeth Doctorate from the Archbishop of Canterbury, and became one of the first members of the Order of Canada in 1967.

Willan came across as rather prim and proper, but he wasn’t without a sense of humour. He summed himself up by saying he was “English by birth; Canadian by adoption; Irish by extraction; Scotch by absorption.”

Written in 1928 and named for the parish Willan served for most of his life, this Sunday’s setting of the ordinary of the mass in church, features a vocal line influenced by plainchant, and the modalism in the organ accompaniment is derived from the same source. It has become one of the most widely used congregational settings and has been reprinted in several hymn books. It is reasonably easy to sing without being trite: a difficult thing to accomplish.

Gerald Harder

The Eyes of All Wait Upon Thee – Jean Berger (1909-2002)

View video here

Composer Jean Berger was born Arthur Schlossberg in Germany in 1909. After earning a Ph.D. in musicology in 1931, he moved to Paris and changed his name to Jean Berger as the Nazis came to power in Germany. He later moved to the United States, became an American citizen, and enlisted in the US Army in 1942. After the war, he became an arranger for CBS and NBC and toured as a concert accompanist. During the latter part of his career, he taught for decades at several American colleges and universities while continuing to compose.

Choral works were very much the central focus of Berger’s composition. “The Eyes of All Wait Upon Thee” (1959), one of Berger’s best-known pieces, and this Sunday’s communion motet in church, is based on a text from Psalm 145. After starting in E minor, the piece features a mid-section which shifts across several keys. The third section partially mirrors the first, with the substantial difference of closing the piece in E major.

The eyes of all wait upon thee,

and thou givest them their meat in due season.

Thou openest thine hand,

and satisfies the desire of every living thing.

Gerald Harder

Music for Aboriginal Prayer Sunday — June 26 2022

Music for Corpus et Sanguis Christi — Sunday June 19 2022

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