Boyce, William

William Boyce, (baptized Sept. 11, 1711, London, Eng.—died Feb. 7, 1779, London), one of the foremost English composers of church music, known also for his symphonies and stage music, and as an organist and musical editor.

Boyce was a chorister and later a student of the organ at St. Paul’s Cathedral. His career as a composer was closely related to his many official positions. He became composer to the Chapel Royal in 1736, and many of his anthems and church services were written for use there and at other London churches of which he was organist. He also composed secular music for the stage, such as his music for the masque Peleus and Thetis, first produced sometime before 1740. The serenata Solomon (1743) is among the best of his compositions for the theatre; it contains the once-popular tenor scena “Softly Rise, O Southern Breeze.” His next published work was Twelve Sonatas for Two Violins, with a Bass for the Violoncello or Harpsichord (1747), which achieved an instant and lasting popularity. In 1749 he received his doctorate of music from the University of Cambridge for his setting of an ode by William Mason and for the anthem “O Be Joyful.” In the same year, he wrote the music for The Chaplet, a musical entertainment that long remained popular. The next year saw a revival of John Dryden’s Secular Masque, with music by Boyce, including the “Song of Momus to Mars.”

In 1755 Boyce became master of the King’s Band of Music. In 1758 he became one of the organists at the Chapel Royal, and in 1759 he composed the music for David Garrick’s pantomime Harlequin’s Invasion, which includes his best-known song, “Heart of Oak.” Boyce’s Eight Symphonys, orchestral pieces selected from his odes, operas, and other works, were published in 1760. Ten years later, when he published a second set, the Twelve Overtures, the more exciting symphonies of the Mannheim school were in vogue, and Boyce’s shapely and tuneful “ancient style” symphonies were regarded as out of date. Boyce’s symphonies usually follow the Italian overture form: fast-slow-fast. Associated with the orchestral suite and the concerto grosso, they have little relation to the developing Classical symphony. Meanwhile, he had begun to publish Cathedral Music, 3 vol. (1760–73), the first collection of church music in England after the Restoration and the first to be printed in score. This collection, which covered three centuries, was not superseded until the mid-19th century.