Brian Patrick Boydell (17 March 1917 – 8 November 2000) was an Irish composer whose works include orchestral pieces, chamber music, and songs.
[1] Following their son's birth, the Boydells moved from Howth and lived in a succession of rented houses before settling in Shankill, County Dublin.
Having completed his secondary education, Boydell spent the summer of 1935 developing his musical knowledge at Heidelberg, where he wrote his first songs and also studied organ.
[1] He won a choral scholarship to Clare College, Cambridge, where, perhaps through parental pressure, he studied natural science, graduating in 1938 with a first-class degree.
Upon the outbreak of World War II, Boydell returned to Dublin and achieved further academic success in 1942 with a Bachelor of Music degree from Trinity College.
In 1943, he succeeded Havelock Nelson as conductor of the Dublin Orchestral Players,[1] beginning an association with the amateur orchestra that would endure for a quarter of a century (until 1966).
[3] Boydell's interest in Renaissance music, in particular the madrigal, led in 1959 to founding the Dowland Consort, a vocal ensemble with which he performed for many years and recorded an LP.
The appeal of his programmes on the history and performance of music, first on RTÉ Radio and later on Telefís Éireann, went beyond a specialist audience and were, for many people, their introduction to a new world of aural pleasure.
[2] Brian Boydell died at his home in Howth at the age of 83 in the company of his wife of 56 years, Mary (née Jones) and their sons, Cormac and Barra.
[2] Boydell arranged an orchestral version of Amhrán na bhFiann for RTÉ for the launch of their television service in 1961, which was played daily at the end of broadcasting for many years.