Brian Boydell: A Centenary Display

Brian Boydell, Professor of Music at Trinity
College Dublin 1962-1982, was one of Ireland’s leading composers, as well as an
influential musicologist, performer, broadcaster, arts campaigner and
organiser. This display reflects many facets of the life and career of a major
figure in the cultural life of Ireland in the 20th century.

Born on 17th March 1917, Brian Boydell became one of the most influential figures in Irish cultural life from the 1940s until his death on 8th November 2000. After studies at Heidelberg, Cambridge, and London, Boydell embarked on a multi-faceted career as composer, conductor, singer, teacher, broadcaster, academic researcher and writer. For many years he represented the interests of creative artists on the Arts Council. He was appointed Professor of Music at the University of Dublin (Trinity College) in 1962, and developed the School of Music to the point that it became a fully-fledged academic department in 1974.

Boydell composed four works for string quartet: three numbered quartets, and an 'Adagio and scherzo, op. 89'. He valued these works highly, stating that they are “the works I would save if everything else was lost”. The third quartet, op. 65, was written in 1969 for the RTE String Quartet, and received its first performance at the National Gallery on 20 September 1970. Interviewed at the time of its composition, Boydell described this single-movement work as “an avowal of my musical beliefs … I feel it is terribly honest music, and it’s what I believe to be beautiful”.

Boydell retired as Professor of Music in 1982 in order to devote more time to composition, musicological research, and his many other interests. His contributions to Irish cultural life were recognised through various awards, including Commendatore della Repubblica Italiana (1983), membership of Aosdána (1984), and an honorary fellowship of the Royal Irish Academy of Music (1990). Celebrations of his 80th birthday in 1997 included a reception at Dublin Castle addressed by President Mary Robinson, and a documentary 'All my enthusiasms' by Anne Makower, shown on RTE television.

Boydell exerted a strong influence in music and arts administration. He was a founding member of the Music Association of Ireland in 1948, and served on the Arts Council of Ireland from 1961 to 1983. In 1981 the Arts Council established Aosdána “to honour artists whose work has made an outstanding contribution to the creative arts in Ireland”, and Boydell chaired the interim Board which selected the initial membership. Boydell’s 'Toccata and Chorale for a State Occasion' for brass ensemble was commissioned for the inaugural meeting of Aosdána in April 1983, and he was subsequently elected a member in 1984.

Commissioned to write a piece for organ, harp and percussion for the Dublin International Organ Festival, Boydell conceived a confrontation between diverse musical sounds emerging from different parts of a reverberant cathedral, moving towards eventual peaceful resolution. A lifelong pacifist, he imagined that within the walls of a cathedral this work might symbolise the reconciliation of conflicting entrenched beliefs through a spirit of understanding. 'Confrontations in a cathedral' had its first performance in St. Patrick’s Cathedral in June 1986.

Boydell’s long-held concerns about human destruction of the natural environment find expression in his last orchestral work, 'Masai Mara, op. 87', composed in 1988. The piece was inspired by a visit to the Kenyan game reserve, where the composer was struck by the unspoilt beauty of the landscape. The work opens with bird-calls evoking “a timeless and mysteriously peaceful world, as it was before human beings began to disturb its natural beauty”. At the end of the piece, a motif from Boydell’s first string quartet (composed forty years earlier) is used as the basis for “a passionate prayer for a positive resolution of the struggle against destructive forces”.