The art of music, Vol. 04 (of 14)

by Unknown

I

We cannot say when or where the first public concert was given in America. The first of which we have any record was advertised in the Boston 'Weekly News Letter' of December 16-23, 1731. It was 'a Concert of Music on sundry Instruments at Mr. Pelham's great Room, being the house of the late Doctor Noyes near the Sun Tavern.' Further than that we know nothing about it. We find notices of other concerts at intervals for several years, but nothing is said about the music played or the people who took part in them. In 1744 a concert was given at the historic Faneuil Hall, which had been built two years earlier and which was apparently the favorite place for such functions until about the year 1755, when it was supplanted by the newly erected Concert Hall in Queen Street.[26]

Most of the concerts at Faneuil Hall were given for the benefit of the poor and were held, it would appear, only by express permission of the selectmen. In 1755 we first notice concerts given for the benefit of private individuals and presumably without the permission of the selectmen. One was given for John Rice, organist of Trinity Church, and several for Thomas Dipper, organist of King's Chapel. We know nothing about these concerts except that they consisted of 'select pieces by the best masters.' It is possible that there existed from about the year 1744 a musical organization of which a Mr. Stephen Deblois was treasurer and which gave frequent concerts. The minutes of the Boston selectmen meetings, as reprinted in the 'Boston Town Records,' contain an entry under date of Nov. 21, 1744, to the effect that 'Mr. William Sheafe and a number of gentlemen desire the Use of Faneuil Hall for a Concert of Musick ... the Benefit arising by the Tickets to be for the Use of the Poor of the Town....' On Dec. 12, it was reported that 'the Selectmen received of Mr. Stephen Deblois two hundred and five pounds five shillings old Tenor being collected by a Concert of Musick in Faneuil Hall for the Use of the Poor of the Town'—obviously the same concert for which permission was granted to 'Mr. William Sheafe and a number of gentlemen.' In September, 1754, Stephen Deblois purchased Concert Hall for two thousand pounds, with the result that concerts immediately shifted there from Faneuil Hall. Thomas Dipper, for whom so many benefits were given, apparently had a hand in the organization, if there was one. We find an announcement in January, 1761, that 'Mr. Dipper's Public Concert will begin on Tuesday the 20th instant.' This suggests that there may have been also a series of private concerts for subscribers, as the term 'public' concert was very unusual in Colonial times. We read in the Boston 'News Letter' of April 29, 1762: 'The members of the Concert, usually performed at Concert Hall, are hereby notified that the same is deferred to the end of the Summer months. And it is desired that in the meantime each member would settle his respective arrearage with Stephen Deblois, with whom the several accounts are lodged for that purpose.' We are, in fact, confronted with suggestions of a musical organization which held a series of concerts for members and another for non-members. Whether such an organization existed or not, it is at least certain that Boston enjoyed the luxury of subscription concerts as early as 1761.

The 'Massachusetts Gazette' of October 2, 1766, advertised a series of concerts to begin on October 7, and 'to be continued every Tuesday evening for eight months.' The concerts were to be held at Concert Hall and intending subscribers were referred to Stephen Deblois. Beginning with the year 1770, several series were given by William Turner, Thomas Hartley, and David Propert, the latter promising in his announcement selections 'out of Mr. Handel's oratorios' besides 'select pieces upon the harpsichord with accompaniment compos'd by the most celebrated masters of Italy and London.' W. S. Morgan also gave some concerts immediately before the war. It had not yet become customary to announce the programs in detail and we are consequently in the dark as to the nature of most of them. Some of the concerts apparently were merely operas in concert form. An announcement of June 20, 1770, speaks of a vocal entertainment of three acts. 'The songs (which are numerous) are taken from a new celebrated opera, call'd "Lionel and Clarissa."' In the diary of John Rowe there is the following entry under date of March 23, 1770: 'In the evening I went to the Concert Hall to hear Mr. Joan read the Beggar's Opera and sing the songs....'

We find, however, a very fine program announced for May 17, 1771, by Josiah Flagg—the same of whom we have already spoken as a prominent compiler of psalm-tunes. Flagg was for many years a most conspicuous figure in the musical life of Boston. Besides publishing two good collections of psalm-tunes, he founded and trained a militia band and was active in promoting concerts of remarkably high quality. As he was the first to publish programs we cannot well compare his musical taste with that of his contemporaries, but it is doubtful if the average concert of the time rose to the level of the following:

Act I. Overture Ptolemy Handel
Song 'From the East breaks the morn'
Concerto 1st Stanley
Symphony 3d Bach
Act II. Overture 1st Schwindl
Duetto 'Turn fair Clora'
Organ Concerto
Periodical Symphony Stamitz
Act III. Overture 1st Abel
Duetto 'When Phœbus the tops of the hills'
Solo Violin
A new Hunting Song, set to music by Mr. Morgan
Periodical Symphony Pasquale Ricci

The other concerts given by Flagg were of about the same standard. He seems to have disappeared from Boston about the year 1773. His most important successor in the promotion of music in Boston was William Selby, an Englishman, who came over as organist of King's Chapel, Boston, in 1772, or perhaps earlier. Selby threw himself into the musical life of his adopted country with an enthusiasm for the cause which seems always to have been exclusively confined to foreigners. He played and taught the harpsichord and organ, composed prolifically, promoted concerts of fine quality, and was the leading spirit in the Musical Society which did much for music in Boston between 1785 and 1790. His devotion to choral music was especially noteworthy and he promoted some choral concerts of an artistic quality far beyond anything yet heard in America. We find announced for April 23, 1782, a concert under his direction, to consist of 'Musica Spiritualis, or Sacred Music, being a collection of Airs, Duetts, and Choruses, selected from the oritories [?] of Mr. Stanly, Mr. Smith and the late celebrated Mr. Handel; together with a favorite Dirge, set to music by Thomas Augustus Arne, Doctor in Music. Also, a Concert on the Organ, by Mr. Selby.' In the 'Massachusetts Gazette' of January 2, 1786, there is announced a remarkable concert to be given by the Musical Society on January 10. Besides prayers, psalms, and the Doxology, 'as set to musick by Mr. Selby,' the program consisted of the overture to Handel's 'Occasional Oratorio'; the recitative 'Comfort ye my people,' from the 'Messiah,' and the aria, 'Every valley shall be exalted,' from the same work; the fourth Concerto of Amizon, musica da capella, op. 7; 'Let the bright Cherubims,' from 'Samson,' and 'The trumpet shall sound,' from the 'Messiah'; the second organ concerto of Handel; 'a Solo, Piano, on the organ,' by Mr. Selby; and 'a favourite overture by Mr. Bach,' performed by 'the musical band.' A similar program was repeated on January 16, 1787, at a 'Spiritual Concert for the benefit of those who have known better Days.' The 'Hallelujah Chorus' from the 'Messiah' was included in the latter program, as was also Piccini's overture to La buona figliuola, a solo from the oratorio 'Jonah,' composed by Felsted, and a 'favourite overture' of Carlo Ditters,[27] played by 'the musical band.'

The Musical Society gave many concerts up to the year 1790—mostly in subscription series and always, it would seem, under the leadership of Selby. Apparently there were other musical societies in Boston as early as the year 1787, for the 'Massachusetts Centinel' on September 22 of that year announced a 'concert of Sacred Musick to assist in rebuilding the Meeting House in Hollis Street, agreeably to the generous intentions of the Musical Societies in this town.' The name of William Billings appears twice on the program of this concert. We have already mentioned the concert in honor of Washington's visit to Boston at which Felsted's oratorio, 'Jonah,' was given in its entirety—the first time that a complete oratorio had been given in Boston.[28]

The last mention of Selby's name in connection with a concert was in 1793 when the following program was given for his benefit and that of Jacobus Pick:

The Overture of Henry IVth[29]
A French Song by Mr. Mallet
A Clarinet Concerto by M. Foucard
A French Song by Madame Douvillier
A Violin Concerto, by Mr. Boullay
An Italian Duetto, by Messrs. Pick and Mallet
A Flute Concerto by Mr. Stone
La Chasse, composed by Hoffmeister
A Piano Forte Sonata, by Mr. Selby
A French Trio, by Madame Douvillier, Messrs. Pick and Mallet
A Duetto on the Harmonica, by Messrs. Pick & Petit
A Symphony, composed by Pichell

This program is important as marking a sharp transition in the style of Boston concerts. Due partly to the influx of theatrical companies, following the lifting of the ban on dramatic productions, and partly to the sudden increase in the number of French musicians, concerts in Boston after the year 1790 entirely lost their old dignified and solid demeanor and acquired a strange new lightness, a transatlantic frivolity, a cosmopolitan air, a flavor of complete worldliness. The 'late celebrated Mr. Handel' disappears entirely from the concert programs of a city to which he had for long been the musical mainstay, and in his stead enter Pleyel, Grétry, Gluck, and 'the celebrated Haydn.'

Until the beginning of the nineteenth century the leading figures in the concert life of Boston were Messrs. Pick and Mallet, Mrs. Pownall, and Dr. Berkenhead. The most important of these was Mallet, a French gentleman, who is supposed to have come to America with Lafayette and to have served in the army of the Revolution. In addition to his concert activities he taught music, played the organ for the 'Rev. Mr. Kirkland's congregation,' and was one of the first music publishers in Boston. After the year 1793 we find his name infrequently on concert programs, and after that year, too, we notice a decided decline in both the number and the quality of Boston concerts.

That the concert-life of New England was not altogether confined to Boston we gather from the old records and newspaper files of Cambridge, Salem, Newport, Providence, Newburyport, Hartford, New Haven, and other towns. On the whole, the concerts given in those towns followed closely the taste of Boston. As far as we can discover, they were not very frequent; but, when it is considered that as late as the beginning of the nineteenth century none of the towns named possessed as many as two thousand inhabitants and some of them contained less than half that number, it would be unreasonable to expect that they could have supported serious concerts to any great extent. Indeed, it is surprising that they should have lent their patronage to symphonies of Haydn, Pleyel, and Stamitz; overtures, concertos, quartets, and other numbers constituting what in the eighteenth century were 'heavy' programs; and we are not prepared to say how much patronage would be forthcoming for concerts of the same relative 'heaviness' in American towns of the same size to-day.