Healey Willan: Life and Music [Hardcover]

F. R. C. Clarke (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1983

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.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'Willan's contribution to Canadian music, even though he remained essentially an Englishman in manner and temperament, is enormous and far-reaching. A cursory list of his students (Louis Applebaum, John Beckwith, Robert Fleming, George Maybee, John Weinzweig - and of course F.R.C. Clarke) reads like a Who's Who in Canadian music.'

(David Barber Kingston Whig-Standard )

'An exceptionally well-organized book for serious students and concert-goers'

(John Kraglund The Globe and Mail )

'Clarke's excellent book provides a stimulus for a wider appreciation of his music.'

(Choice Magazine )

'A warm and sympathetic portrait of the most prolific composer this country has ever known. ... Above all, it is a book which celebrates the attitudes of Willan as a teacher, composer and performer. Every choirmaster should read it, if only for one of the most trenchant pieces of advice any of them could ever have: "Sing words, sing words - any fool can sing notes - it takes brains to sing words."'

(Arnold Edinborough Canadian Churchman ) --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About the Author

F.R.C. Clarke is Professor Emeritus and former director of the School of Music, Queen's University.
--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 300 pages
• Publisher: Univ of Toronto Pr (January 1983)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802055494
• ISBN-13: 978-0802055491
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,460,532 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Best source available for Willan info, March 30, 2000

By 

Allen Bull (Houston, Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Healey Willan: Life and Music (Paperback)

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.