"The music was good, the two bass viols and French horns were grand. There were upwards of two hundred and fifty ladies present and it was called no great number. In loftiness of head-dress these ladies stoop to the daughters of the North; in richness of dress surpass them. The gentlemen, many of them dressed with richness and elegance—uncommon with us; many with swords on."
The Carolinians travelled often to England. They were lively and expensive in their dress, and an Englishman visiting Charleston in 1782 writes home that it "was the pleasantest and politest as it is one of the richest cities in all America." The charming old city still retains its two first recommendations, though, alas, the riches have flown. In 1768 the organ seen in [Figure 84], was imported from England for St. Michael's Church, Charleston. Within a little frame on one side of the organ is an inscription as follows.
Jno Snetzler fecit, Londoni, 1767.
This inscription was found on one of the pipes of the organ when it was taken down during the bombardment of Charleston in the Civil War. At this time the organ was stored away in the Sunday-school room of St. Paul's Church, Radcliffeboro, for safe keeping. This is said to be the largest old church organ in the country, and this church probably had the first surpliced choir of boys. They are mentioned in the vestry books as early as 1794. The photograph of this organ was procured through the courtesy of Mr. Charles N. Beesley, of Charleston.
Figure 87. CRISTOFORI PIANO.
In the homes in various parts of the country, besides the virginal, were found the hand lyre, large and small fiddle, the recorder, flute, and hautboy. Some of these were imported, some were home-made. The first church organ built in New England was made for Christ Church, Boston, by Thomas Johnson, in 1752, and indeed by this time music in churches was pretty general all over the country. The puritans, with their hatred of anything secular, or, as it seems now, of anything that could ornament or beautify this none too joyous stay on earth, condemned music. In his "History of Music in New England", Mr. Hood says that before 1690 music was mostly written in psalm-books, the number of tunes rarely exceeding five or six. At the beginning of the eighteenth century New England congregations were rarely able to sing more than three or four tunes, and even these were sung by the doleful process of "lining out". The deacon would read one line of a psalm, and the congregation would sing it. Then he would read the next, and so on. About 1720 an effort was made to improve this method of singing, but it met with violent opposition. Some of the objections advanced were that "it grieved good men and caused them to behave disorderly;" that it was "Quakerish and Popish"; that "the names of the notes were blasphemous;" etc. Yet after a while the congregations were soothed by the publication of several "Letters of Pacification", written by ministers, and some books were published like that of the Rev. Thomas Walter of Roxbury, Mass., entitled:
"The Grounds and Rules of Musick Explained. Or, An Introduction to the Art of Singing by Note Fitted to the Meanest Capacity By Thomas Walter, A.M. Recommended by Several Ministers, 'Let everything that hath truth praise the Lord.' Ps. 150. 6. Boston."
Singing-Schools for the instruction of the young were opened, and music, the only science allowed, crept into the church. "The Newport Mercury" for January 8, 1770, contains the following:
"The Public are hereby informed That a Singing-School will be opened at Mr. Bradford's Schoolhouse next Thursday evening by a Person who has taught the various Branches of Psalmody in the Provinces of New York, Massachusetts Bay and Connecticut and those Gentlemen and Ladies who have an inclination to improve in this Excellent Art may expect all that Care and Dilligence which is necessary to their being rightly instructed in the same."