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

by Unknown

I

As far as we know, the first avowedly musical organization in America was the Orpheus Club, which is said to have existed in Philadelphia in 1759. We possess no information concerning it. Philadelphia at that time contained a goodly number of music lovers. Such men as John Penn, James Brenner, Dr. Kuhn, and Francis Hopkinson, were then engaged in breathing the spirit of life into the dead body of musical Philadelphia. How well they succeeded we have seen in our chapter on early concerts. Musical gatherings were frequent at their homes and it is not impossible that they were prominently concerned in the formation of the Orpheus Club. If they were, the activities of that organization must have been very interesting and we can only regret that no record of them has seen the light.

In default of unimpeachable evidence even of the existence of the Orpheus Club at the time mentioned we must award the title of pioneer among American musical organizations to the St. Cecilia Society of Charleston.[35] This society was founded in 1762. According to the rules, which were 'agreed upon and finally confirmed' in 1773, it consisted of one hundred and twenty members and its main purpose apparently was to give concerts. Until well into the nineteenth century it was the centre of the concert life of Charleston and for many years it seemed indeed to have almost a monopoly of the musical talent, amateur and professional, in the city. It even went as far as Boston to gather properly qualified performers into its fold. In addition to a yearly concert on St. Cecilia's Day, the society gave regular fortnightly concerts during the season. The orchestra was composed of gentlemen performers and professional musicians—the latter engaged by the year. It was the nearest approach to a permanent orchestra that existed in America outside the theatres before the nineteenth century and there is every likelihood that its performances reached a high standard of technical and artistic excellence.

An Orpheus Society apparently existed in Charleston in 1772 and there has been found an allusion to an Amateur Society in 1791. A Harmonic Society also appeared there in 1794. All these societies gave concerts, but there are so few references to them in the contemporary press that we know nothing else definite about them. Probably their activities were to a large extent private and their concerts were confined to members. This would easily account for the absence of their names from the newspaper advertisement. There was a musical society in Baltimore in 1799 and a Harmonic Society in Fredericksburg, Va., in 1784. We know nothing about the former, but the latter, we gather, was 'peculiarly intended for benevolent purposes' and gave concerts on the third Wednesday evening of each month. Whether musical societies also existed in other Southern towns, such as Williamsburg, Richmond, Alexandria, Norfolk, and Petersburg, it is impossible to say. Probably they did. All the chief Virginia towns were of about equal size and importance, and social conditions in all of them were strikingly alike. The existence of a musical society in one of them is prima facie evidence of its existence in the others.

Considering the great activity apparent in the musical life of Philadelphia during the second half of the eighteenth century, the dearth of musical organizations is surprising. There appears to have been a musical club under the auspices of which subscription concerts, known collectively as the 'Amateur Concert,' were given between 1787 and 1789. This and the Orpheus Club already mentioned were the only musical societies existing in Philadelphia during the eighteenth century as far as we can discover. The Uranian Society is hard to classify, but it was really more an educational institution than a musical society in the accepted meaning of the term. It was founded in 1784 by Andrew Adgate, as an 'Institution for the Encouragement of Church Music,' an 'Institution for promoting the knowledge of psalmody' and an 'Institution for diffusing more generally the knowledge of Vocal Music.' Evidently there was some confusion in Mr. Adgate's mind as to the exact purpose of his institution. It was a somewhat Utopian scheme, contemplating the establishment of a free school for the study of vocal music, open to all denominations and subsisting on public bounty. The institution became known as the Uranian Society in 1785 and as the Uranian Academy in 1787. The plan of the academy, as finally formulated in the latter year, shows that its purpose had definitely narrowed down to the teaching of church music. The country was not yet ripe for such an undertaking and the enterprise failed, but between 1785 and 1787 it was responsible for a number of choral concerts on a scale hitherto unequalled in America.

Considering that there was an active concert life in New York at least as early as 1754, it might be presumed that musical societies of some sort existed there at that date, but we have no evidence on the subject. The first mention we find of a musical society in New York is contained in the advertisement of a concert in 1773 at which some of the instrumental parts were played by gentlemen of the Harmonic Society. Possibly the Harmonic Society had already been in existence for some years, but up to 1773 it escaped mention in the newspapers. How long it lasted we cannot say. In 1786 we find in the New York 'Daily Advertiser' an announcement that 'the Society for promoting vocal music meet at six o'clock this evening at Mr. Halett's School Room in Little Queen Street, agreeable to adjournment.' No further mention of the society appears and there is no clew to its name or to the length of its existence. Obviously it was not identical with the Harmonic, for the gentlemen of that society seem to have been devoted chiefly to instrumental music.

There was in New York a St. Cecilia Society, founded apparently in 1791, 'with a view to cultivate the science of music and good taste in its education' (?). Instrumental music was its main consideration and it held weekly concerts, the nature of which we have been unable to discover. We know only that 'the principal professors of music' were 'members and performers at these concerts.' The society lasted until 1799, when it was amalgamated with the Harmonical Society, which had been founded in 1796 'for the purpose of cultivating the knowledge of vocal and instrumental music.' The result of the amalgamation was the Philharmonic Society which held its first annual concert at the Tontine Hotel on Broadway in December, 1800, 'with a variety of vocal and instrumental music by the most celebrated performers in the city.' It is impossible to say how long the Philharmonic lasted, but probably it survived until well into the nineteenth century.

In 1793 there appears a mention of a Uranian Musical Society, which 'was instituted for improvement in sacred vocal music.' Meetings were held every Wednesday, and, judging from the number of prominent New Yorkers included in its membership, the society must have exercised considerable influence. The last mention of it appears in 1798, but there is no evidence that it ceased to exist in that year. Of the Polyhymnia Society, founded in 1799, and the Euterpean Society, which probably first appeared in 1800, we know nothing. According to Ritter, the latter was considered as 'perhaps the oldest musical society in the United States,' and 'as the lineal descendant of the old Apollo.' There is absolutely no evidence to support either of these statements. Mr. Sonneck quotes from the 'Sketches and Impressions' of Thomas Goodwin, published in 1887, the following note on the subject: 'The Euterpean, an amateur orchestra, was already an old organization half a century ago. It had been well managed, and owned a small library and several valuable instruments.... I have a program of its forty-eighth anniversary concert, given January 21, 1847, which would carry its organization back to the last century.' From the fact that the Euterpean Society does not appear among the musical societies in the directory of 1799, Mr. Sonneck is inclined to the opinion that the society was founded on January 21, 1800.

Probably in New York and elsewhere in America there were a number of convivial clubs in which music, especially the singing of glees and catches, occupied an important place. The frequency of such organizations in England is an argument in favor of the assumption, for English life was reproduced very much in detail by the American colonists. It is not surprising that they escaped mention in the contemporary press, as their activities were not of any public interest. An exception must be made in favor of the Columbian Anacreontic Society, which was modelled upon the famous Anacreontic Society of London. The latter is of special interest to Americans, since it furnished indirectly the music of 'The Star Spangled Banner.' The New York version of the society probably was more innocuous than its English model, though its affairs must have been marked by a robust jolity. It was founded by John Hodgkinson, a former member of the London Anacreontic Society, whose excellent musical endowments and achievements did not prevent him from being a faithful worshipper of Bacchus, and possibly it numbered also in its membership other graduates of its English prototype. The exact date of its foundation is not known, but it certainly existed in 1795, as we glean from the following item in a concert program of that year:

'Collini's Odes on the Passions (!), to be spoken by Mr. Hodgkinson. With music representative of each passion; as performed at the Anacreontic Society, composed by J. Hewitt.' This, Mr. Sonneck notes, 'is in all probability the earliest example of melodramatic music composed in America.' Unfortunately we have no other data on the nature of the music performed at the concerts of the society. These were held usually at the Tontine Coffee House, and it may be assumed that they were devoted chiefly to catches, glees, and other songs similar to those performed by the English society, but perhaps not so intimately frank. Unlike the English society, but curiously like every American stag society, before or since, the Columbian Anacreontic held an annual ladies' night. The custom carries an unpleasantly philistine flavor, which is further emphasized when we read an announcement that such members of the society as chose to attend a benefit performance for John Hodgkinson would be accommodated in the 'Shakespeare Box' and would 'wear their badges.' But in spite of all this it seems to have been of some value in the musical life of New York.