Healey Willan

Healey Willan (1880-1968) was an English-Canadian kantor, organist, and composer of both sacred and secular music from the Anglo-Catholic tradition. For reasons unknown to me, the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod and/or Concordia Publishing House came to own some of his work.

In my time as a seminarian at Fort Wayne, we would sometimes use his magnificent setting of the Te Deum in chapel. It was also used by the children (sung beautifully from memory) at the school chapel services at Zion (Fort Wayne).

One of Dr. Willan’s settings of the Mass - which I believe is property of the LCMS and/or CPH - is used by some of our churches, including Redeemer (Fort Wayne) and Our Savior (Baltimore). It is a musical setting of the Common Service (as is Divine Service 3 in Lutheran Service Book). Perhaps it will be a setting of the Common Service in the next hymnal project of our synod. Here are two videos of the Willan setting, one led by celebrant the Rev. Fr. Charles McClean, and one at Redeemer celebrated by the Rev. Fr. Shawn Barnett:

Years ago, my wife and I once made a visit to Dr. Willan’s parish church in Toronto. He served there from 1921 until his death in 1968. It is beautiful and small, and tucked away in a residential neighborhood. At least at that time, Willan’s choir was still in existence, and sang at parish Masses. Sadly, just as the Anglican Communion has fallen into the paganism of priestesses, so has this parish. At least Dr. Willan did not live to see it.

My father in law was rather the aficionado of sacred music, and made a lot of recordings back in the old days of cassettes and VHS tapes. He gave me a copy of a videotape that he had made from a rerun of an old Canadian TV show, in which Healey Willan was interviewed a couple years before his death. I uploaded it to YouTube - and in those days, it had to be done in two parts and made into a playlist. The first part of the interview now has more than 18,000 views.

Here is the delightful and informative interview:

And as a postscript, here are a few examples of Willan’s soaring, heavenly harmonies that sing the praise of our Lord Jesus Christ: