 | Boyce, William - Voluntary I in D Major for String Quartet String Quartet |
Vidéo :
![]()
![]()
| Composer : | Boyce, William (1711 - 1779) | ||
| Instrumentation : | String Quartet | ||
| Style : | Baroque | ||
| Key : | D major | ||
| Arranger : Publisher : | MAGATAGAN, MICHAEL (1960 - ) | ||
| Copyright : | Public Domain | ||
| Added by magataganm, 11 May 2021 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). | |||
Log-in to comment
