Choir Corner: Healy Willan and Missa de Sancta Maria Magdalena

David Williamson, Organist and Choirmaster

By David Williamson

Some of you have noticed that we switched service music, or the Ordinary of the Mass, for Advent. We will continue with it through the Christmas season, including the late service on Christmas Eve, when we substitute the Gloria in Excelsis for the Kyrie. (According to the rubrics, the Gloria is not said or sung in Advent or Lent.). The setting is the glorious 1928 Missa de Sancta Maria Magdalena by Healy Willan 1880-1968.)

Willan was born and educated in England and moved to Canada in 1913. He composed and taught at the Royal Conservatory and earned enough from his composition royalties to leave the more prominent St Paul’s Bloor Street in 1921 for the smaller St. Mary Magdalene, which was High Church. The mass setting was named for the church. A former rector’s wife grew up in that parish, and when her family visited, I asked about his time there. He paid for the music budget by charging his singers!

In his sacred compositions, he was of that generation influenced by both the high church movement and looking back at earlier styles of music from pre-Baroque to plainsong chant.

His limericks were said to be wonderful! He’s famously quoted as saying he was “English by birth, Canadian by adoption, Irish by extraction, and Scotch by absorption.” He was the Dean of Canadian composers and was commissioned to write an anthem for the 1953 Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. In 1989, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother unveiled a plaque in his memory at the church.

We have a few pieces in the choir library and sang his Advent anthem, “ Rejoice O Jerusalem, behold thy King Cometh,” on the first Sunday of Advent. I probably play more hymn-based voluntaries by him than any other composer.

In The Hymnal 1940, this setting was the Second Service and was the most frequently used service music in most congregations. If you’re not as familiar with this setting, there are several YouTube videos of it.

December Choir Corner by David Williamson

As we approach the two shortest seasons of the Liturgical Year, I’m reminded of the old saying that Good Friday belongs to the Roman Catholics, Easter belongs to the Eastern Orthodox Christians, but Advent, Christmas, and all the Holy Days dealing with the Incarnation are the domain of us Anglicans. We are militant in refusing to celebrate Christmas without thoroughly preparing ourselves though Advent. Our hymnody embraces and reinforces the dual preparation for both the celebration of the first coming of Jesus and the proclamation of his return in glory. Among the Advent favorites in our hymnal are “Hark, a thrilling voice is sounding,” “On Jordan’s bank the Baptist’s cry,” “Prepare the way, O Zion,” ”Sleepers Wake,” “Lo! He comes with clouds descending,” and “O come, O come, Emmanuel.”

The Gloria in Excelsis (the song at the beginning of worship that begins, “Glory to God in the Highest...”) is given up for Advent but will return in our worship on Christmas Eve in the metrical form of “Angels we have heard on high.” This is appropriate since the first lines
of the Gloria in Excelsis comes directly from the angels’ mouths as they announce the birth of Jesus to the shepheards.

During Advent, we will once again sing the Schubert’s Kyrie (“Lord, have mercy upon us...”) and Sanctus (“Holy, holy, holy Lord...”) along with Mark Schweitzer’s “St. James’ Christmas Service” setting of the Agnus Dei (“O, Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world...”) to the tune “Greensleeves.” Greensleeves is the tune most are familiar with as the setting of “What Child is This?”