Customer Reviews

Healey Willan: Life and Music

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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.