Brian Patrick Boydell (17 March 1917 – 8 November 2000) was an Irish composer whose works include orchestral pieces, chamber music, and songs. He was Professor of Music at Trinity College Dublin for 20 years, founder of the Dowland Consort, conductor of the Dublin Orchestral Players, and a broadcaster and writer on musical matters. He was also a musicologist specialising in 18th-century Irish musical history.

Boydell was born in Howth, County Dublin, into an Anglo-Irish family. His father James ran the family maltings business while his mother, Eileen Collins, was one of the first women graduates of Trinity College.

Following their son's birth, the Boydells moved from Howth and lived in a succession of rented houses before settling in Shankill, County Dublin. The young Boydell began his formal education at Monkstown Park in Dublin and was subsequently sent to the Dragon School at Oxford. From there he went to Rugby, where he came under the influence of Kenneth Stubbs, the music master. Although Boydell later spoke of his resentment at the anti-Irish attitude he experienced at Rugby, he said "the education there was very good, in science and music."

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. He won a choral scholarship to Clare College, Cambridge, where he studied natural science, graduating in 1938 with a first-class degree.

Following his graduation, he entered the Royal College of Music where he studied composition under Patrick Hadley, Herbert Howells, and Vaughan Williams. Boydell also became a oboe player during this time.

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. He also took further lessons in composition from John F. Larchet.

Boydell worked briefly as a research scientist, Boydell plunged himself into Dublin's classical musical scene. In 1942, he succeeded Havelock Nelson as conductor of the Dublin Orchestral Players, beginning an association with the amateur orchestra that would endure for a quarter of a century. In 1944 he was appointed Professor of Singing at the Royal Irish Academy of Music, a position he held for eight years. Along with fellow composers Edgar M. Deale, Aloys Fleischmann, and Frederick May he founded the Music Association of Ireland in 1948 as a vehicle to promote classical music throughout the country.

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. In 1962, having obtained a Doctorate in Music, he was appointed Professor of Music at Trinity College, a post which he would hold for 20 years. and immediately revamped the course making it more relevant to the second half of the twentieth century. From 1961 to 1983, Boydell was a member of the Arts Council.