Symphony No. 3 in C Major

Main page for Boyce’s 8 Symphonys in 8 Parts

• This symphony started life as the overture Boyce’s The Chaplet  (librettist: Moses Mendez), an all-sung afterpiece on a pastoral subject, which premiered in 1749.¹
  • An afterpiece is a short, light entertainment programmed after a more serious play, to lighten the mood and attract more audience.
• The Chaplet was a fun show with songs in popular ballad style² about the romantic entanglements of shepherds and shepherdesses.³
• Listen for: unusual effect in which Boyce uses bassoon to double violin melody.⁴

1. Keith Anderson, liner notes to William Boyce: Eight Symphonies, Op. 2, Aradia Ensemble, Kevin Mallon, Naxos 8.557278, CD, 2005.
2. Bruce and Ian Bartlett, “Boyce, William,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed August 8, 2019, https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000040029.
3. Anderson, liner notes to William Boyce: Eight Symphonies, Op. 2.
4. Ibid.