Boyce Eight Symphonies Op 2
“William Boyce does not at the present day enjoy the renown as an instrumental composer that is rightly his as a choral composer, but the neglect into which his instrumental works have fallen is unaccountable for they rank among the finest compositions of their time, not only in England but in Europe.” These observations are not of recent origin, of course, but come from the preface to Constant Lambert’s pioneering edition of Boyce’s Eight Symphonys published in 1928.
Apart from a few secular songs such as the patriotic Heart of Oak, Boyce’s reputation then rested on various anthems which had retained their place in the repertory, and on his work as editor of the monumental three-volume Cathedral Music (1760—73). This work is a collection of the finest English church music from the sixteenth to the early eighteenth centuries, and which during the 1920s was still in regular use in English cathedrals. In A History of Music in England, written in 1907, Ernest Walker described Boyce as “a primarily ecclesiastical” composer, and although misleading and one-sided, this statement accurately reflected the contemporary view.
Boyce’s instrumental music, as Lambert’s comments indicate, was very little known at that time though a number of arrangements of trio sonatas did exist, including a Suite for Strings (1892) by Hubert Parry based on two of the Twelve Sonatas (1747). These trio sonatas were the most widely performed of Boyce’s works in his lifetime. However, thanks to the enthusiastic advocacy of Lambert and his successors, the chamber and orchestral music of Boyce has today gained a secure niche in the repertory.
Boyce’s symphonies belong to the period of musical history when the symphony had yet to establish full independence from its forbear the Italian operatic overture (or sinfonia). Indeed, in mid-eighteenth-century England the terms ‘symphony’ and ‘overture’ were still interchangeable, and from the early 1730s onwards sets of Handel overtures had been published in London, sanctioned to be used independently of their original function as orchestral introductions to operas or oratorios. On practical as well as economic grounds, these works were issued in parts rather than in full score. The public theatres keenly sought out such material for use as entertainment between the acts of dramatic productions. Moreover, an ever growing number of public and private concert promoters, including the London pleasure gardens and provincial musical societies, were keen to supplement the concertos and chamber music which formed the bulk of the repertory. The demand for the overture-symphony culminated in John Walsh’s publication in 1749 of Handel’s Sixty Overtures. Walsh, the leading London music publisher of the time, also issued two similar, if more modest, sets by two of Boyce’s main English contemporaries, Maurice Greene (Six Overtures, 1745) and Thomas Arne (Eight Overtures, 1751).
Walsh’s edition of Boyce’s Eight Symphonys contains seven works that started life as overtures to earlier choral or operatic compositions; only one was conceived as an independent concert symphony. The publication bears no date, and Lambert confessed it was hard to assign an exact date to it. He quoted from two authorities who proposed dates as far apart as 1750 and 1765, but it was later established from advertisements placed in The Public Advertiser that Walsh had issued the Boyce symphonies in 1760. For such a date, Boyce’s works seem outmoded in their style. The possibility that they were published many years after they were written had been considered by Lambert, but he thought it unlikely. In fact, subsequent research has revealed that these symphonies were representative of Boyce’s output over a period of two decades. The following table presents the symphonies in chronological order with their dates of composition and sources:
| No.5 (1739): | Ode to St Cecilia: See fam’d Apollo | |
| No.7 (1740): | Pindaric Ode: Gentle lyre, begin the strain | |
| No.6* (1742): | Serenata: Solomon | |
| No.3* (1749): | Pastoral opera: The Chaplet | |
| No.4* (1751): | Pastoral opera: The Shepherd’s Lottery | |
| No.1 (1756): | Ode for the New Year: Hail, hail, auspicious day | |
| No.2 (1756): | Ode for the King’s Birthday: When Caesar’s natal day | |
| No.8 (pre 1758): | known as the “Worcester Overture”, also “Concerto in D minor”; written for a meeting of the Three Choirs at Worcester | |
| *Symphonies 3, 4 and 6 had already been published in full score in Walsh’s complete editions of The Chaplet (1750), The Shepherd’s Lottery (1751) and Solomon (1743) respectively. | ||
In arranging his symphonies for publication Boyce was evidently guided not by their chronology but by their formal characteristics. In broad terms the first four are modelled on the early eighteenth-century Italian sinfonia with its quick — slow — quick succession of movements, the first of which is energetic and high-spirited, the second relaxed and lyrical, and the finale vigorous and often dance-like. The Symphonies 5–8 can be related to the so-called ‘French Overture’, much favoured by Handel, in which a slow courtly introduction, typically characterised by dotted rhythms, leads into an extended fugue often followed by one or more dance movements. However, Boyce’s independence of stereotypes may be demonstrated in the first movement of No.3 where the introductory dotted rhythms and subsequent fugal textures of the French overture are integrated into an Italian Allegro, and in the opening movement of No.5 where the fugue is unexpectedly preceded by an Allegro incorporating brilliant antiphonal fanfares.
Boyce writes for an orchestra typical of the period, consisting normally of two oboes, bassoon(s), strings and keyboard continuo, with the addition as occasion allowed or demanded of trumpets and drums or French horns. In slow movements, especially when delicacy of expression is required, oboes are commonly replaced by flutes. Although the bassoon would typically reinforce the string bass line, Boyce is particularly imaginative in deploying this instrument to add colour to his scoring. Instances of this are the bourre-like second movement of Symphony No.3 where the bassoon gives support to the violin and viola melody, and the middle movement of Symphony No.4 where the string tone is beautifully enhanced by two bassoons and horns.
Mid-eighteenth-century overtures often included the popular minuet, sometimes as finales in Symphonies 3, 5 and 6. However, where Boyce is concerned, the gavottes tend to be more distinctive than the minuets. Symphonies 1–4 all serve to illustrate Boyce’s inclination towards a lively rather than a slow tempo for second movements, while the country dance character of the jig finales to Nos 1 and 7 remind us that these are above all the works of a composer rooted in the English tradition.
These outstanding examples of the late Baroque symphony in England may justly be described as broadly ‘Handelian’ in style, yet Boyce’s Eight Symphonys are by no means servile imitations. They are, in the words of Jack Westrup, ‘brilliant concert music of their time — as characteristic of the eighteenth century as Handel’s overtures and concerti grossi’.
© Ian Bartlett