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.
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.