Brian Boydell

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Brian Boydell (17 March 1917 – November 8, 2000) was an Irish composer whose output included orchestral pieces, chamber music, and songs.

He was Professor of Music at Trinity College, Dublin, for 20 years, was the conductor of the Dublin Orchestral Players, a prolific broadcaster and writer on musical topics.

Early years

Brian Boydell was born in Howth, County Dublin, into a wealthy Anglo-Irish family. Although his father James operated the family maltings business, his mother, Eileen Collins, was one of the first female graduates of Trinity College. The Boydells went from Howth and lived in a string of rented houses before settling in Shankill, County Dublin, following their son's birth. The young Boydell began his formal education at Monkstown Park in Dublin and was subsequently transferred to Oxford's Dragon School. He went to Rugby, where he came under the influence of Kenneth Stubbs, the music master, from there. Despite Boydell's regrets over his Rugby's anti-Irish attitude, he later expressed, he praised the university's excellent science and music education.

Boydell spent the summer of 1935 in Heidelberg, where he wrote his first songs and also studied organ. He received a choral scholarship to Clare College, Cambridge, where, perhaps due to parental pressure, he learned natural science, graduating in 1938 with a first-class degree.

However, his love of music led him next to the Royal College of Music, where he studied composition under Patrick Hadley, Herbert Howells, and Vaughan Williams. Boydell, who was already a natural pianist, also excelled at oboe playing during this period.

Boydell returned to Dublin in 1942 with a Bachelor of Music degree from Trinity College, following the outbreak of World War II. He also took further lessons in composition from John F. Larchet.

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Life and career

Boydell's active life included teaching, acting, and writing. Boydell leapt into Dublin's classical musical scene following a brief stint in his father's industry. He succeeded Havelock Nelson as the conductor of the Dublin Orchestral Players in 1943, sparking a long association with the amateur orchestra that would last for a quarter of a century (until 1966). He was appointed Professor of Singing at the Royal Irish Academy of Music in 1944, a position he held for eight years. In 1948, along with fellow composer Edgar M. Deale, Aloys Fleischmann, and Frederick May, he founded the Music Association of Ireland to promote classical music around the world.

Boydell's obsession with Renaissance music, in particular the madrigal, led to the formation of the Dowland Consort, a vocal group with whom he performed for many years and released an LP. He was appointed Professor of Music at Trinity College in 1962, making the program more relevant to the second half of the twentieth century. He took time to serve on the Arts Council in the 1960s, 1970s, and early 1980s.

Boydell's communication skills, as well as his infectious enthusiasm, made him a natural broadcaster. The appeal of his programmes on the history and performance of music, first on RTÉ Radio and then in Telef's Éireann, appealed to a wider audience and was, for several people, their introduction to a new world of aural pleasure.

Boydell had a variety of passions beyond music. He was a member of The White Stag club in the 1940s as a surrealist painter (he took lessons from Mainie Jellett). He was also passionate about cars and photography.

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