10 April 2015

Healey Willan's HAEC DIES

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I think those in the Catholic Church who love the Anglican Patrimony would be interested in the composer Healey Willan's contributions to an older Basilian hymnal entitled The New Saint Basil Hymnal.   This hymnal bears the Imprimatur of H.E. James Cardinal McGuigan of Toronto.  

Willan's Mass of Saint Teresa (No. 227) is included as one of the congregational Mass settings in Latin. There is also a very singable four-part setting of HAEC DIES for Easter at No. 43.  Willan's HAEC DIES is an elegant composition that a quartet, a modest chorus or a large choir could sing successfully.  Anyone familiar with Willan's Missa de Sancta Maria Magdalena in THE HYMNAL 1940 would find the musical idiom of The Mass of Saint Teresa very familiar.  (I would think that Ordinariate communities would be well served by having in common a congregational setting in Latin by such an august Anglican composer.)  

It is not as easy to find copies of The New Saint Basil Hymnal as once it was, but copies still can be found from time to time on eBay and online booksellers.  

Healey Willan's The Mass of St. Theresa can be purchased separately from the Healey Willan Society (Fr. Scott Haynes of the Canons Regular of St. John Cantius in Chicago)at this LINK.

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