Boyce Symphony No. 5 in D Major

Symphony No. 5 in D Major

William Boyce (1711-1779)

It is usually claimed that native English composers began to be pushed into the background after the early death of Henry Purcell in 1695, forced to compete with an increasing flood of styles and creative personalities from the continent, especially the case with Handel, who lived the last 48 years of his life in London, and quite overshadowed his English contemporaries. Nevertheless, there was vigourous activity on the part of local composers, especially in the field of church music, and to some extent English-language theatre music. One of the most prominent of these was William Boyce, whose early work was admired by Handel himself, and who became a distinguished composer of music for popular entertainments, incidental music for the stage, as well as anthems, odes and choral works of all sorts. In 1760 Boyce published a collection of eight “symphonys” for strings, for the most part comprising movements assembled from various works written for the theatre, brought together as miniature compositions in three movement, nicely summing up the wit and cheerful elegance favoured in mid-18^th century English music.

One of the finest of the Boyce symphonies, No. 5 in D Major follows the usual plan: a brilliant opening movement, a relaxed middle movement, with a graceful dance movement to conclude. The result lies somewhere between the orchestral suite and early classical symphony in conception, in style much beholden to the late Baroque idiom of Handel. The D Major Symphony is a splendid example of this, opening with a vivacious allegro movement, given a brazen brilliancy with trumpets heard against lively scrubbing in the strings. Only when a second section comes forward do we realise that this is actually a rather Italianate variant of the old “French Overture” – the pompous opening section with its typical dotted rhythms here replaced by the buoyant energy of Boyce’s introductory section, now followed by a fugue in triple metre. The subject is a Handelian tune with three repeated noted, at first largely confined to the strings, soon joined by the trumpets, leading to a striking moment when the subject is hammered out in unison, going on to a jubilant conclusion. The second movement (in moderate tempo) also has Handelian manners, in its ambling gait and relaxed cheeriness. The symphony is rounded out by a sprightly minuet (Baroque minuets were often quicker in tempo than they would later be in Haydn and Mozart). In which the oboes take a prominent role. Thus this composition has moved from bustling high spirits, to relaxation, and an elegant close.

[NB: the word ”Symphonys” in the first paragraph should retain that odd spelling – which was used by William Boyce himself in his title…]

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