William Boyce and William Byrd

William Boyce, English composer, organist, and editor, was baptized on September 11, 1711. He was the son of a cabinet-maker, born in London on the 7th of February 1710. As a chorister in St. Paul's he received his early musical education from Charles King and Dr. Maurice Greene, and he afterwards studied the theory of music under Dr. Pepusch. In 1734, having become organist of Oxford chapel, Vere Street, Cavendish Square, he set Lord Lansdowne's masque of Peleus and Thetis to music. In 1736 he left Oxford chapel and was appointed organist of St. Michael's church, Cornhill, and in the same year he became composer to the chapel royal, and wrote the music for John Lockman's oratorio David's Lamentation over Saul and Jonathan. In 1737 he was appointed to conduct the meetings of the three choirs of Gloucester, Worcester and Hereford. In 1743 was written the serenata Solomon, in which occurs the favorite song "Softly rise, 0 southern breeze." In 1749 he received the degree of doctor of music from the university of Cambridge, as an acknowledgment of the merit of his setting of the ode performed at the installation of Henry Pelham, duke of Newcastle, as chancellor; and in this year he became organist of All-Hallows the Great and Less, Thames Street. A musical setting to The Chaplet, an entertainment by Moses Mendez, was Boyce's most successful achievement in this year. In 1750 he wrote songs for John Dryden's Secular Masque and in 1751 set another piece (The Shepherd's Lottery) by Mendez. He became master of the king's band in succession to Greene in 1757, and in 1758 he was appointed principal organist to the chapel royal. As an ecclesiastical composer Boyce ranks among the best representatives of the English school. His two church services and his anthems, of which the best specimens are By the Waters of Babylon and 0, Where shall Wisdom be found, are frequently performed. It should also be remembered that he wrote additional accompaniments and choruses for Henry Purcell's Te Deum and Jubilate, which the earlier musician had composed for the St. Cecilia's day of 1694. Boyce did this in his capacity of conductor at the annual festivals of the Sons of the Clergy at St. Paul's cathedral, an office which he had taken in succession to Greene. His twelve trios for two violins and a bass were long popular. One of his most valuable services to musical art was his publication in three volumes quarto of a work on Cathedral Music. The collection had been begun by Greene, but it was mainly the work of Boyce. The first volume appeared in 1760 and the last in 1778. On the 7th of February 1779 Boyce died from an attack of gout. He was buried under the dome of St. Paul's cathedral.

As editor of Cathedral Music, Boyce commented on various English composers of the past, including one of my favorites, William Byrd:
 
William Bird, was admitted a Gentleman of the Chapel Royal in 1569. He, in conjunction with Thomas Tallis, published in 1575 a collection of their own compositions in Latin, entitled, Sacred Songs: and in the Years 1589, 1591, and 1605, he printed three other collections of his own Productions in the same Language, all of which had the same Title with the first conjoint Publication.

His works were, in his own time, in great Repute, both at Home and Abroad, and are still held in general Estimation: His Canon of Non nobis Domine, will, in particular, remain a perpetual Monument to his Memory.--- He died in 1623.

Notice that there is no mention of William Byrd's religion or that the "Sacred Songs" published in 1605 were actually the Gradualia (volume 1) which comprises "many short pieces of liturgical music, set in verse sections, which can be combined in various ways to form liturgically accurate Propers cycles for every significant feast and votive mass of the Roman Catholic Rite." But it's due to William Boyce's inclusion and editing of William Byrd's music that it has been part of the Anglican musical patrimony. William Boyce's most popular works now are his Eight Symphonies.