II
Turning to New York, we find that concert life began there about the same time as it did in Boston. In fact, wherever the first concert in America may have been held—a disputed point which is not of vital importance—the impulse to give such musical entertainments seems to have affected the whole country almost, if not quite, simultaneously. That there were concerts held in New York as early as 1733 appears from the publication in the New York 'Gazette' for December 24-31 of that year of a fearfully bad poem 'written at a Concert of Music where there was a great Number of Ladies.' In spite of the indiscriminate taste of the 'Gazette' it is unfortunate that we have preserved a very few numbers between 1725, when it first appeared, and 1733, when Zenger's New York 'Weekly Journal' was started. Possibly it said something in intelligible prose about such concerts as may have been given before the latter date. We first get on solid ground in 1736 with the announcement for January 21 of 'a Consort of Musick, Vocal and Instrumental for the Benefit of Mr. Pachelbell, the Harpsichord Part performed by himself. The Songs, Violins and German Flutes by private Hands.' For nearly twenty years following there is trace of only two concerts, concerning which no particulars have been vouchsafed us. Then we read in the New York 'Mercury' of January, 1754, that Mr. Charles Love gave 'a Concert of vocal and instrumental Musick. To which will be added several select pieces on the hautboy by Mr. Love. After the concert will be a Ball.' In the following year William Tuckey advertised in the 'Weekly Post Boy' a 'Concert of Vocal and Instrumental Musick' of which he was good enough to indicate partially the program. Among other things he promised 'the celebrated dialogue between Damon and Chloe, compos'd by Mr. Arne. A two part Song, in Praise of a Soldier, by the late famous Mr. Henry Purcell. An "Ode on Masonry"[30] never perform'd in this country, nor ever in England but once in publick. And a Solo on the German flute by Mr. Cobham.' Mr. Tuckey's sympathies were pronouncedly English, but his taste was good. A concert given in 1756 featured a new organ built by a New Yorker named Gilfert Ash and two songs composed by Mr. Handel, one of them being 'in praise of musick, particularly of an organ.' There is no further mention of concerts in the newspapers until 1760 and, except there was a conspiracy of silence on the part of the press, the concert life of New York up to that year must have been extremely meagre.
It would appear, however, that subscription series started in 1760, for we find a notice in the New York 'Gazette' of January 14 that 'the Subscription Concert will be opened on Thursday next, the 15th instant,' and that 'those gentlemen that intend to subscribe to the said concert, are desired to send their names to Messrs. Dienval and Hulett who will wait on them with tickets, for the season.' In 1762 Messrs. Leonard and Dienval announced 'a publick and weekly Concert of Musick,' probably a continuation of the subscription series inaugurated in 1762, though there is no announcement for 1763. Apparently there were subscription concerts every year until 1767, presumably under the same auspices. Then there is a hiatus until 1773, when subscription concerts were revived.
John Jones, in the meantime, had given summer concerts at his Ranelagh Gardens from 1765 until the enterprise failed in 1768. Also, Edward Bardin started a tri-weekly concert of music at his 'King's Arms Garden in the Broadway' in 1766. We do not know how long he continued his musical entertainments; we only know that he went out of business in 1769. Undeterred by the failure of Jones and Bardin, Samuel Francis opened Vaux Hall Gardens in 1769. He announced a concert of music, vocal and instrumental, to be given twice a week, but it would appear that he met with no greater success than his predecessors.
Besides summer concerts at the various gardens and the subscription concerts already alluded to, there were between 1760 and 1775 a number of benefit concerts, as well as a few performances by military bands and theatrical companies. The fine program given at Mr. Stotherd's benefit on February 9, 1770, has been quoted in the preceding chapter. About the same year French and Italian virtuosi began to settle in New York and their presence soon made itself felt.
The only musician in New York at this period who stands out prominently is William Tuckey and, though he gave some benefit concerts, he was concerned mainly with the development of church music. However, it is worthy of note that he was the first to introduce the 'Messiah' to America, the occasion being a concert of sacred music in 1770, devoted largely to excerpts from that oratorio, including 'the overture and sixteen other pieces, viz. air, recitatives and choruses.' During the war there were a number of concerts in New York given by officers of the British army and navy. William Brown, who also appears in the concert life of Philadelphia and the South, gave a subscription series in New York in 1783 and again in 1785. Subsequently there seems to have been a lull in the musical affairs of the city until 1788, when subscription concerts were revived under the direction of Alexander Reinagle, 'member of the Society of Musicians in London,' and Henri Capron, a pupil of Gaviniés. They were continued by Mr. and Mrs. Van Hagen, 'lately from Amsterdam.' Pleyel, Stamitz, Dittersdorf, Martini, and Haydn shared the chief honors on the programs of that period, and we find a duet of Mozart on a program offered by Reinagle and Capron in 1789.
Beginning about the year 1797 the concert season in New York shifted from the winter to the summer, and regular subscription concerts consequently declined. Their place was taken by concerts which the enterprising proprietors of public gardens offered as special attractions to their patrons. It would seem at first blush that the musical taste of the people at large was exceptionally good when concerts of high grade really proved attractive, but the public gardens of that period usually did not cater to the masses. After the failure of Samuel Francis's Vaux Hall Gardens, enterprises of the kind seem to have lost favor. In 1793 we find Mrs. Armory running a Vaux Hall in Great George Street and announcing a concert of 'the most favourite overtures and pieces from the compositions of Fisher and Handel ... the orchestra being placed in the middle of a large tree.' Joseph Delacroix in the following year gave a very fine concert under the leadership of James Hewitt at his 'Salloon,' the Ice House Garden, No. 112 Broadway. Three years later he announced concerts of vocal and instrumental music to be given with an orchestra of fifteen of the best musicians three times a week at his newly decorated Vaux Hall Gardens. In 1798 he raised the number of his concerts to four a week, but in the following year, unfortunately, he had to abandon the enterprise. The concerts given by Delacroix were invariably of the highest grade, according to later eighteenth-century standards.
During the summers of 1798 and 1799 there were given nightly concerts of 'vocal and instrumental' music at B. Ishewood's Ranelagh Garden near the Battery. The programs were made up almost entirely of popular songs. Joseph Corre, who opened Columbia Garden, opposite the Battery, in 1798, and Mount Vernon Garden on Leonard Street in 1800, hit upon the idea of attracting both æsthete and philistine by a judicious mixture of serious and popular programs. His serious concerts were similar to those given by Joseph Delacroix; his popular programs contained the same sort of stuff as was offered at Ranelagh Gardens.
Besides these summer garden concerts and the winter subscription series already mentioned there were many single benefit concerts after the war. The first of these, apparently, was given by William Brown in 1786, and in the same year Alexander Reinagle gave a Gargantuan affair that included three Haydn overtures, five excerpts from the 'Messiah' and 'Samson,' a concerto for violin, a sonata for pianoforte, a duet for violin and 'cello, and ten miscellaneous vocal numbers. Between that year and the end of the century benefit concerts were given by Henri Capron, the Van Hagens, John Christopher Moller, Jane Hewitt, George Edward Saliment, Mrs. Pownall, Mrs. Hodgkinson, Mme. De Sèze, and others. As a rule these concerts followed the prevailing fashion in the make-up of their programs. Haydn, Pleyel, Stamitz, Sacchini, Martini, Wranitzky, Kozeluch, and Clementi furnished the pièces de résistance for programs otherwise consisting of songs, concerts, sonatas and lesser instrumental forms by unidentified composers. The presence of a French operatic troupe in 1790 gave a theatrical tinge to a few concerts in which they participated.
Outside of New York City there was practically no concert life, either in New York or New Jersey. Occasionally some musician on his way between New York and Philadelphia or the South would give a concert in Princeton, Newark, Trenton, or New Brunswick. One concert in the last-named town featured 'speaking and elegant dancing between the parts.' Albany, presumably, had the benefit of a few concerts, perhaps by visiting musicians from New York. Mr. Sonneck has discovered the announcement of a creditable concert given there in 1797 by J. H. Schmidt, 'formerly organist of the cathedral of Schiedam in Holland,' also formerly of Charleston and Baltimore. On the whole, however, New York and New Jersey, except for New York City, were musically very backward compared with New England.