Dr Arthur Wills OBE (1926-2020)

[Simon Biazeck]

I am sad to hear of his passing - one of the greats of Anglican church music and one of the last of his generation.

I recently sang his fine ATB setting of By the waters of Babylon - it made quite an impression on the clergy! A good one, I hasten to say.

Missa Ellienssis was a favourite and St. Paul's, Melbourne in the '80s and '90s.

Requiescat in pace

SBz.

[ardcarp]

Yes, he was one of the (very competent) O&Cs who was also a serious composer...in the sense of taking the process seriously. I remember hearing a live [?] broadcast of Britten's Ceremony of Carols with Ely trebles in AW's day, and it had the expressive freedom of tone that BB would have approved of.

Sad to hear of his passing.

[PJPJ]

RIP Arthur Wills

[Alison]

I saw/heard him on the organ at Cromer Parish Church.

One of the better improvisers.

RIP Dr Arthur.

[Quilisma]

We were all so hugely sad to hear that our great friend, colossus of the organ and of cathedral music, who has been right at the heart of Ely Cathedral since arriving as Assistant Organist and Decani Tenor Lay Clerk (simultaneously!) in 1949, and was Director of Music from 1958 to 1990, has passed away aged 94. We all owe him some very much. What a colossus he has been. It's strange to think that it's very nearly four years since our broadcast in belated honour of Arthur's ninetieth birthday (9th November 2016), in which we sang an almost entirely Wills programme, and doubly uncanny that we will very soon be broadcasting again: 11th November live, but also (spoiler alert!) 10th November pre-recorded for a later date. (Would it be too late to sneak some Wills in, I wonder?!?)

As it happens, it was less than two weeks ago, on Sunday 18th October, that we resurrected Arthur's extraordinary Service on Plainsong Tones after an absence of more than four years. This meant that for two of the six lay clerks, and all of the current set of choristers, this was their first time encountering it. I relished sitting in on the choristers' rehearsals and witnessing them learn it from first principles, with almost no spoonfeeding, and gradually realising that they could indeed get it right and that they might indeed end up loving it. It was like a glimpse back to the late 1970s, the very middle of the Wills era, when it was a brand new piece: a bridge in time between us and our direct counterparts a few decades ago. We had already decided to consolidate it by doing it again soon; I'm sure we will. But for now, here is the iconic 1996 recording under Paul Trepte, with David Price on the organ (still in its Wills-era incarnation at this point), and several other very familiar figures in the choir, notably Peter North as cantor. We are all now currently singing this in our hearts for Arthur himself, and that famously transcendental final organ chord can indeed now extend all the way through into eternity. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbkTYL2oQDM

[cjsb]

Very sorry to hear this news. I moved up to mid-Suffolk in 1976 and soon discovered Ely Cathedral - I remember attending many evensongs directed by Dr Wills over the next fourteen years. In the eighties there was a documentary made by Anglia TV about the choir and it is now on the Archive of Recorded Church Music's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1xg7pYPx9s

[ahinton]

Very sorry to hear this news. I moved up to mid-Suffolk in 1976 and soon discovered Ely Cathedral - I remember attending many evensongs directed by Dr Wills over the next fourteen years. In the eighties there was a documentary made by Anglia TV about the choir and it is now on the Archive of Recorded Church Music's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1xg7pYPx9s

Just Francis Jackson still around then, it would seem (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franci...son_(composer) )...

[Quilisma]

Yes, he was one of the (very competent) O&Cs who was also a serious composer...in the sense of taking the process seriously. I remember hearing a live [?] broadcast of Britten's Ceremony of Carols with Ely trebles in AW's day, and it had the expressive freedom of tone that BB would have approved of.

Sad to hear of his passing.

Actually I think that broadcast was in 1956, which still comes within the Michael Howard era. But it's certainly fair to say that a lot of what they achieved at that time was down to Arthur's excellent work as Assistant, along with John Whitworth and Day McAusland, who helped with vocal training. Unfortunately, in his autobiography Howard rather paints himself as having been the great catalyst for radical improvement, but the choir which he inherited from Sidney Campbell, complete with their excellent young Assistant, Arthur Wills, was nowhere near as hopeless as he implies. The fact that things did not fall apart after Howard left the scene in 1958 shows that Wills most definitely knew what he was doing: although there were of course moments during his thirty-two-year tenure when the choir was not at its absolute best, the strong periods were certainly very good, and the level of commitment to performing advanced, challenging and unfamiliar repertoire with great gusto was definitely ahead of its time: it is largely thanks to Arthur Wills that Ely has such a long-standing tradition of defying people's musical expectations of what might seem to be a "sleepy rural backwater"!

[Quilisma]

Just Francis Jackson still around then, it would seem (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franci...son_(composer) )...

Yes: long may he remain!

[ardcarp]

Actually I think that broadcast was in 1956, which still comes within the Michael Howard era. But it's certainly fair to say that a lot of what they achieved at that time was down to Arthur's excellent work as Assistant, along with John Whitworth and Day McAusland, who helped with vocal training. Unfortunately, in his autobiography Howard rather paints himself as having been the great catalyst for radical improvement, but the choir which he inherited from Sidney Campbell, complete with their excellent young Assistant, Arthur Wills, was nowhere near as hopeless as he implies. The fact that things did not fall apart after Howard left the scene in 1958 shows that Wills most definitely knew what he was doing: although there were of course moments during his thirty-two-year tenure when the choir was not at its absolute best, the strong periods were certainly very good, and the level of commitment to performing advanced, challenging and unfamiliar repertoire with great gusto was definitely ahead of its time: it is largely thanks to Arthur Wills that Ely has such a long-standing tradition of defying people's musical expectations of what might seem to be a "sleepy rural backwater"!

My memory is a bit dodgy, Q, but I'm certain AW did Britten's Ceremony of Carols at some time in the past...more like the late 60s. A friend's son was an Ely chorister at the time...so it's possible I even attended it live. But I do seem to remember a broadcast.....

[Quilisma]

My memory is a bit dodgy, Q, but I'm certain AW did Britten's Ceremony of Carols at some time in the past...more like the late 60s. A friend's son was an Ely chorister at the time...so it's possible I even attended it live. But I do seem to remember a broadcast.....

I daresay you're right! I was referring to this one, on the Archive of Recorded Church Music YouTube channel... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wwau3Y2xDoY

[Finzi4ever]

Yes, he was one of the (very competent) O&Cs who was also a serious composer...in the sense of taking the process seriously. I remember hearing a live [?] broadcast of Britten's Ceremony of Carols with Ely trebles in AW's day, and it had the expressive freedom of tone that BB would have approved of.

Sad to hear of his passing.

Yes, I was one of those trebles. Osian Ellis was the harpist of his day and on that day.

[Finzi4ever]

My memory is a bit dodgy, Q, but I'm certain AW did Britten's Ceremony of Carols at some time in the past...more like the late 60s. A friend's son was an Ely chorister at the time...so it's possible I even attended it live. But I do seem to remember a broadcast.....

The BBC broadcast was Dec 74 or 75 I reckon and def not more than a year either side.

[Roslynmuse]

The BBC broadcast was Dec 74 or 75 I reckon and def not more than a year either side.

https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/a2fb6836b088457d954a691cecb1a49a

20th Dec 1976

[Finzi4ever]

ah well, I'm younger than I thought! - still a year either side, lol

LONG before my time and with a hugely diff sound was this BBC CE from 1960 courtesy of that fantastically evocative 'Archive of RCM'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0jGArF0lsE