BRIDGEWATER QUINTET
MURIEL HERBERT (soprano) William Boyce (1710-1779) is chiefly remembered as organist, church-composer and editor of ' Cathedral Music, being a collection in score of the most valuable and useful compositions for that service by the several English masters of the last two hundred years ', a. compilation that, as Grove says,
' served as the basis of the Enghsh cathedral repertory for a century or so after its publication'. But Boyce also distinguished himself in the sphere of theatre music. (His Harlequin's Invasion (1759) contains one song known by everyone 'Heart of Oak'.)
The Shepherd's. Lottery, a ' 'musical entertainment' by one Moses Mendez , for which Boyce wrote the music, was produced at Drury Lane in 1751. The ' symphony ' (or entr'acte, as we should call it) that concludes the suite is a first-rate example of Boyce's sturdy English-ness.