TORONTO — The bells of the Church of St. Mary Magdalene fell silent this week as news spread that Canon Dr. Giles Bryant, the towering successor to Healey Willan and one of the last living links to Canada’s golden age of Anglican church music, has died at age 91.
For more than half a century, Bryant presided over the choir loft at “SMM” with a combination of scholarly rigour, theatrical flair, and boundless generosity that made him as beloved as the music he music he served.
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When Healey Willan died in 1968, many feared the unique sonic world he had built at St. Mary Magdalene—those soaring motets, thunderous hymn accompaniments, and delicate Willan chants—would fade. Instead, Bryant, then only 34, took the reins and spent the next five decades polishing the jewel until it shone even brighter.
Under his direction the choir continued to premiere Willan works posthumously, recorded landmark albums, and mentored generations of Canadian church musicians who now lead programs from Vancouver to Halifax.
Yet those who knew him best say it was Bryant’s personality that left the deepest mark: the booming laugh that echoed through the nave, the impeccable British-tinged diction (“My dears, the crescen-DO begins on the AND of three!”), and the open-door policy that turned his rural Ontario
home into a pilgrimage site for scholars, organists, and curious students alike.
One legendary snowy afternoon in the 2000s perfectly captured the man: three researchers braved a near-blizzard to reach his doorstep. Before they could knock, the door flew open and a beaming Bryant, apron dusted with flour, roared, “Ohhhhhhhh! You made it! Come in, come in—egg salad sandwiches and Old Speckled Hen are waiting!” What followed was hours of stories, rare recordings spun on an ancient turntable, and, as they left, an unassuming cardboard box handed over with the words, “Oh, just some help for your project”—inside were priceless Willan manuscripts and Bryant’s own exhaustive catalogues.
He is predeceased by his wife Beverley and survived by a legion of musical “children” who speak of him with the same reverence once reserved for Willan himself.
A requiem Mass in the full Rite I Anglo-Catholic splendour that Bryant adored will be celebrated at St. Mary Magdalene on Saturday, December 13 at 11 a.m., with the choir singing Willan’s Missa Brevis No. 11 and Bryant’s own cherished arrangement of “The Lord’s My Shepherd.”
In the words he often used to close rehearsals: “More heart, less noise, my dears.”
Rest eternal grant unto him, O Lord, and let light perpetual shine upon him. The organ loft is dimmer tonight, but the music plays on. 🎶🕯️