Almost exact contemporaries, William Boyce and Thomas Arne were the most successful British composers to follow in Handel's wake, and they initiated the early classical style in England. Boyce's symphonies (also called overtures due to the looseness of the period's terminology) are clearly indebted to Handel, particularly in melodic simplicity and open contrapuntal writing. Yet Boyce's uncertain experimentation with the new style from the continent -- without recourse to models other than the Italian overture and with no ...
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Almost exact contemporaries, William Boyce and Thomas Arne were the most successful British composers to follow in Handel's wake, and they initiated the early classical style in England. Boyce's symphonies (also called overtures due to the looseness of the period's terminology) are clearly indebted to Handel, particularly in melodic simplicity and open contrapuntal writing. Yet Boyce's uncertain experimentation with the new style from the continent -- without recourse to models other than the Italian overture and with no first-hand experience of the Mannheim School's innovations -- makes his music sound transitional and idiosyncratic, no longer Baroque but not fully classical, either. Thomas Arne's symphonies are more sophisticated and recognizable as examples of the early classical form, with more expansive melodies and freer exploration of keys, though his symphonic development is still rudimentary. Yehudi Menuhin and the Menuhin Festival Orchestra present seven of Boyce's eight symphonies in a...
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