St. Osmund (Healey Willan Hymn Tune)
  • Bruce E. Ford
    Posts: 431
    Does anyone have the score for Healey Willan's hymn tune, used for "Lord, enthroned in heavenly splendor"?

    I have transcribed it from a recording, but my transcription may contain mistakes, and I would like to see the score.
  • Joseph Michael
    Posts: 258
    Here is a scan. Sorry--it is upside down.
    St Osmund.pdf
    315K
    Thanked by 1Bruce E. Ford
  • Joseph Michael
    Posts: 258
    Somewhere, I have a recording of Healey rehearsing this hymn with his St Mary Magdalene (Toronto) choir. On first try, they were not ready, and there was disunity in the tempo and pitch. Willan was annoyed. The first time that I ever heard this tune sung was in Vancouver (early 1980s) where Sir David Willcocks performed it with a 200 voice diocesan choir.
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,424
    With all due respect to HW, this hymn has far and away a better marriage when sung to BRYN CALFARIA, as found at no. 318 in The English Hymnal, or at no. 307 in The Hymnal 1982. This is one of those Welsh tunes that really does lift the text up into another dimension. It's not 'easy', but it's not really 'hard', and will well reward those who take a little bit of trouble to learn it. It will become a favourite.
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • Joseph Michael
    Posts: 258
    There is no such thing as a bad Welsh hymn tune.
    Thanked by 1CHGiffen
  • ScottKChicago
    Posts: 349
    I can't agree with "far and away a better marriage." St Osmund and Bryn Calfaria are both fine tunes for this text.
  • Heath
    Posts: 966
    Joseph, is there a second page I'm not seeing? Surely the piece doesn't end on a half-cadence . . .
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,424
    I must say again 'far and away a better marriage'. Yes: 'far and away'.
    ST OSMUND be good, but BRYN CALFARIA be much better with this text.
  • Bruce E. Ford
    Posts: 431
    Thank you, Joseph. I thought it so unlikely that anyone would have a copy of St. Osmund in electronic format that I did not even check until this morning. Otherwise, I would surely have thanked you sooner.

    Unfortunately, the .pdf document you attached does not include the last third of the tune ("Alleluia, Jesus true and living bread"), which appears, I assume, on the next page of the hymnal. Would you be kind enough to provide it?
  • Joseph Michael
    Posts: 258
    I'm so sorry! Haste makes waste. Here is the COMPLETE St Osmund hymn tune.


    St Osmund COMPLETE.pdf
    503K
  • Bruce E. Ford
    Posts: 431
    Thank you very much, Joseph, once again.
  • Steve CollinsSteve Collins
    Posts: 1,022
    Does anyone know of a Marian text to this tune or meter? I seem to remember one on a cassette of music from the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham in England.
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