William Boyce

Boyce worked between 1711 and 1779 across composer. The registers place that work in symphony and ode. This article rests on 105 catalogued compositions, 23 published texts, 14 issued recordings and 39 scholarly references drawn from named institutional registers. Every statement below returns to a source shown in the evidence panel; where the record is silent or divided, the article says so instead of resolving it.

William Boyce studied at St Paul's Cathedral School. Training under Maurice Greene is recorded. The recorded working language is English. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are symphony and ode. Positions recorded include Master of the King's Music. Works named in the authority record are Twelve sonatas for two violins, with a bass for the violoncello or harpsicord, Symphonies, Op.

• Illustration — William Boyce by Thomas Hudson, ca. 1745 Boyce 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 Sonatas for Two Violins and a Bass" and these proved popular. English music historian 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 and Charlotte in 1761 on the grounds that Handel's setting of the anthem was unsurpassable – as a consequence of which Handel's setting has been performed at every subsequent British coronation. However, that coronation is the only one recorded where a single musician wrote nearly all the music, Boyce having composed a total of eight anthems specifically for the event. 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. On 7 February 1779 Boyce died from an attack of gout, aged 67. He was buried under the dome of St Paul's Cathedral. His only son, also William Boyce (25 March 1764 – 1824), was a professional double bass player.

See List of compositions by William Boyce

William Boyce is recorded as a citizen of Kingdom of Great Britain. Recorded with the occupation composer. Classed in the genre symphony. Established in Library of Congress under n81022393. Established in IMSLP under Category:Boyce,_William. Established in Discogs under 1356670. Established in FAST under 68647.