| The composer Charles Wesley (1757-1834) said, "a more modest man than Dr. Boyce I have never known. I never heard him speak a vain or ill-natured word, either to exalt himself or deprecate another". Writing twenty four years after the composer's death Charles Burney said of Boyce, "There was no professor whom I was ever acquainted with that I loved, honored, and respected more". “As a musician, Dr. Boyce was doubtless one of the first of his time, if we except Mr.Handel, whom the sublimity of his genius has placed above all comparison. Dr. Boyce's merit consisted in the union in his own person and character, of the various excellencies of former church musicians. In musical erudition, he emulated Tallis and Byrd; in harmony and various modulation, Orlando Gibbons; and in the sweetness of their melody, Purcell and Weldon: In a word, it may be said, that in skill, and the powers of invention, he was not surpassed by any the most celebrated of his predecessors or contemporaries. In the art of musical composition he had formed some rules which were the result of his own study and reflection, that served to guard him from the errors of others. One axiom of his in particular, is worthy of remembrance by all students in the science; it is this, that whereas it is the endeavor of most musicians, both in composition and extempore performance on the organ, to modulate from key to key by all the various methods their invention can suggest, "the skill of the artist is best shown, not in departing from the original key, but in keeping within it;" and producing, by the interchanges of its own consonances, all that variety of harmony of which it may be found capable.” |
looks very interesting
ReplyDeleteMore than interesting. Another page turned in the Boyce book. Thanks alot! :-)
ReplyDeleteThank you vey much, dear Otto!
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