William Boyce (1711 – 1779) was an English composer
and organist. He was born in London, at Joiners Hall,
then in Lower Thames Street, to John Boyce, at the time
a joiner and cabinet-maker, and beadle of the
Worshipful Company of Joiners and Ceilers, and his wife
Elizabeth Cordwell. He was baptised on 11 September
1711 and was admitted by his father as a choirboy at St
Paul's Cathedral in 1719. After his voice broke in
1727, he studied music with Maurice Greene.
His first professional...(+)
William Boyce (1711 – 1779) was an English composer
and organist. He was born in London, at Joiners Hall,
then in Lower Thames Street, to John Boyce, at the time
a joiner and cabinet-maker, and beadle of the
Worshipful Company of Joiners and Ceilers, and his wife
Elizabeth Cordwell. He was baptised on 11 September
1711 and was admitted by his father as a choirboy at St
Paul's Cathedral in 1719. After his voice broke in
1727, he studied music with Maurice Greene.
His first professional appointment came in 1734 when he
was employed as an organist at the Oxford Chapel in
central London. He went on to take a number of similar
posts before being appointed Master of the King's
Musick in 1757 (he had applied for the post on the
death of Maurice Greene in 1755) and becoming one of
the organists at the Chapel Royal in 1758. He also gave
lessons, his daughter telling the composer R. J. S.
Stevens that both Thomas Linley the Elder and Thomas
Linley the Younger had been his pupils in counterpoint
in the period 1763-1768.
His work as a composer began in the 1730s, writing
songs for Vauxhall Gardens. In 1736 he was named as
composer to the Chapel Royal and wrote the oratorio
David's Lamentation over Saul and Jonathan. He was
engaged as conductor to the Three Choirs Festival in
1737; many of his works, including the Worcester
Overture (today known as his Symphony no. 8), will have
been premiered at the Festival over the succeeding
years. The 1740s saw his opera Peleus and Thetis, the
serenata Solomon, and his Secular Masque, to a libretto
by John Dryden. In 1749 he wrote an ode and the anthem
O be joyful to celebrate the installation of the Duke
of Newcastle as Chancellor of Cambridge University, and
was awarded the degree of Doctor of Music. In 1747 he
had published his first purely instrumental
composition, a set of "Twelve Sontas for Two Violins
and a Bass" and these proved popular. Charles Burney
wrote that they were "not only in constant use, as
Chamber music, in private concerts ... but in our
theatres, as act-tunes [i.e. intermezzi] and public
gardens, as favourite pieces, during many years."
In the 1750s Boyce supplied David Garrick with songs
and other music for many productions at the Drury Lane
Theatre. These included his own operas The Chaplet and
The Shepherd's Lottery, both to libretti by Moses
Mendez, and for Garrick's 1759 pantomime Harlequin's
Invasion which contained what became Boyce's most
famous song, Heart of Oak.
As Master of the King's Musick Boyce had the
responsibility of writing music for royal occasions
including funerals, weddings and coronations. He,
however, refused to make a new setting of Zadok the
Priest for the coronation of George III in 1761 on the
grounds that Handel's setting of the anthem was
unsurpassable – as a consequence of which Handel's
setting has been played at every subsequent British
coronation.
By the year 1758, his deafness had increased to such an
extent that he was unable to continue in his organist
posts. He resolved to give up teaching and to retire to
Kensington, and devote himself to editing the
collection of church music which bears his name. He
retired and worked on completing the compilation
Cathedral Music that his teacher Greene had left
incomplete at his death. This led to Boyce editing
works by the likes of William Byrd and Henry Purcell.
Many of the pieces in the collection are still used in
Anglican services today.
In music a voluntary is a piece of music, usually for
an organ, that is played as part of a church service.
In English-speaking countries, the music played before
and after the service is often called a 'voluntary',
whether or not it is titled so.
The title 'voluntary' was often used by English
composers during the late Renaissance, Baroque, and
Classical periods. Originally, the term was used for a
piece of organ music that was free in style, and was
meant to sound improvised (the word voluntary in
general means "proceeding from the will or from one's
own choice or consent"). This probably grew out of the
practice of church organists improvising after a
service.
Later, the voluntary began to develop into a more
definite form, though it has never been strictly
defined. During the late 17th century, a 'voluntary'
was typically written in a fugal or imitative style,
often with different sections. In the 18th century the
form typically began with a slow movement and then a
fugue. Two to four movements were common, with
contrasting tempos (slow-fast-slow-fast). In the 18th
century England, the word 'voluntary' and 'fuge' were
interchangeable. These English style 'fuges' (or fugue)
do not follow the strict theoretic form of German-style
fugues. They are more related to the 'fugues' written
by Italian composers of the time.
Besides the fugal type of voluntary, two other common
forms developed: the trumpet voluntary and the cornet
voluntary. These two were usually non-fugal, but still
contained movements with contrasting tempos. These
voluntaries were meant to feature the stops for which
they are named. One very long example of this form of
voluntary was written by Pepusch, and has 13 total
movements. Several of the movements are named after
organ solo stops or mixtures (bassoon, cornet, trumpet,
sesquialtera, flute, twelfth, etc.).
Many composers wrote voluntaries, including Orlando
Gibbons, John Blow, Henry Purcell, William Boyce, John
Stanley, Handel and Thomas Arne. Often, when English
music printers published continental organ music, they
would, by default, title the works as 'voluntaries',
though the word was not used by composers in mainland
Europe. Typically, these continental works were fugues
or other imitative forms.
Some voluntaries were called double voluntaries. These
were pieces written for organs with two manuals
(keyboards). The pieces contrasted a loud manual with a
soft one.
Source: Wikipedia
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Boyce_(composer)
).
Although originally written for Voice, Flute &
Continuo, I created this arrangement of Voluntary I in
D Major for String Quartet (2 Violins, Viola & Cello).
PARTITION