Derek Healey


Derek Edward Healey is an English composer whose compositions include an opera, a Requiem, orchestral, chamber, choral and organ works. Music is published in the UK, USA, Canada and Germany.

Life and career

Healey was born in Wargrave, England and studied composition under Herbert Howells and organ under Harold Darke at the Royal College of Music, London from 1952 to 1956. He received his Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Durham in 1961, followed by four years of further study at the graduate summer school of the Accademia Musicale Chigiana, Siena with Vito Frazzi, Francesco Lavagnino, and Goffredo Petrassi; and in 1962-1963 studied privately with Boris Porena in Rome.
In 1969, he moved to Canada and lived there for the next nine years. He completed his Doctor of Music at the University of Toronto in 1974 and also taught there as well as the University of Victoria, the Waterloo Lutheran University, and the University of Guelph before joining the music faculty of the University of Oregon in 1978. Healey returned to England in 1988 when he became academic professor of music at the RAF School of Music. He retired from teaching in 1996 and settled in Brooklyn, New York but has continued to actively compose, particularly for wind ensemble, saxophone octet, solo voice, choir and organ.

Selected works

Stage

  • Seabird Island: an opera in two acts - op. 46,

    Orchestra

  • Concerto for organ, strings and timpani, op. 8,
  • Variations on “Three Gypsies”, op. 22
  • Arctic Images, op. 40,
  • Primrose in Paradise, op. 45,
  • Tribulation and The Morning Trumpet, op. 53,
  • Gabriola , op. 70,
  • Salal , op. 71,

    Band/Wind Ensemble

  • Symphony II “Mountain Music”, op. 66,
  • Triptych - op. 73,
  • One Midsummer Morning, op. 82,
  • Latino Preludes, op. 89h,
  • Solemn Music, op. 93,
  • English Dances, op. 95,
  • Owl and Pale Maidens, op. 132,
  • HUNTER: a homage to Robert Flaherty, op. 134,
  • Songs from the “Shih Ching”, op. 150,
  • Nova: 12 Variations on a Scotian Song, op. 159,

    Chamber

  • Six Epigrams, op. 21,
  • Sonata for ‘cello and piano, op. 12,
  • Laudes, op. 26,
  • Maschere, op. 29,
  • From the West, op. 72,
  • Toccata per L’Elevazione, op. 112,
  • Tokkata: a homage to Buxtehude, op. 138,
  • Restoration: a homage to Purcell, op. 148,
  • Sonatina for Four, op. 149,
  • Weihnachten '16, op. 153,
  • Souvenirs of Frankfurt, op. 160,
  • Sonata, op. 161,
  • Souvenirs of Berlin, books 1 & 2, op. 162/3,

    Solo Voice

  • Six Greek Fragments, op. 11,
  • Six Irish Songs, op. 16,
  • Butterflies, op. 36,
  • Five Edward Thomas Songs, op. 97,
  • The Silvered Lute, op. 107,
  • The Coast of Oregon, op. 128,
  • Morgensternlieder, op. 129,
  • Seascapes and Shanties, op. 135
  • Heinelieder, op. 137,
  • Bianco’s Delight, op. 146,

    Choir – Sacred

  • Praise the Lord, O my Soul, op. 7,
  • The Shepherd Boy's Song, op. misc.
  • Discendi, amor santo, op. 28,
  • A Maiden Mild, op. misc.,
  • The God Whom Earth and Sea and Sky, op. misc.
  • God Be in My Head, op. misc.
  • The White Dove, op. misc.
  • O Blessed Queen of Mercy, op. misc.
  • The Lowly Child, op. misc.
  • For all Thy Saints, O Lord, op. misc.
  • Rejoice, the Glorious Day Is Come, op. misc.
  • Mass for San Corrado, op. 116,
  • The Garden, op. misc.,
  • Missa Brevis: Santa Cecilia, op. 130,
  • A Posy for the Christ Child, op. 140,
  • Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis for Canterbury, op. 151/2,
  • Magnificat for St. Martins, op. 158,
  • Requiem, op. 145,
  • Motets, op. 164,

    Choir – Secular

  • Six Canadian Folk Songs, op. 41,
  • In Flanders Fields, op. misc
  • The Brown Season, op. 48,
  • Six Canadian Folk Songs, set II, op.86,

    Organ

  • Three Voluntaries, op. 1a, b & c,
  • Three Voluntaries, op. 15, b & c,
  • Sonata for organ, op.10,
  • Variants, op. 23,
  • Festus, op. 32,
  • Sonata II, op. 92,
  • Sonata III, op. 80,
  • From the Gaelic: 10 Preludes on Irish Melodies, op. 81,
  • Seven Preludes on Latino Religious Songs op. 89a, b, and c,
  • Sonata for Virginia, op. 94,
  • Northern Landscapes, op. 102
  • Choralvorspiel, op. 154

    Piano

  • Twelve Preludes, op. 6,
  • Cityscape with Bells, op. 142,
  • Bagatelles Bk I, op. 144,

    Electronic

  • Night Thoughts, op. 39,
  • Lieber Robert, op. 43,
  • Summer ‘73/Ontario,, op. 44,
  • Wood, op. 51,