From all of which appears that for a short time before the war musical life in Philadelphia degenerated sadly. Presumably the people were too much interested in the big and burning issues of the day to lend substantial support to concert givers. Likewise during the war they were too much occupied with more vital and disturbing affairs. While Lord Howe's army occupied Philadelphia there were, according to Capt. Johann Heinrich of the Hessian Jäger Corps, 'assemblies, concerts, comedies, clubs, and the like,' but it would hardly be patriotic to consider these activities of the enemy. Apart from them there were no public performances during the war until, on December 11, 1781, Lucerne, the French minister, gave an 'elegant concert' in honor of Generals Washington and Greene 'and a very polite circle of gentlemen and ladies,' at which was performed Francis Hopkinson's patriotic 'oratorial entertainment "Temple of Minerva".'
After the war, however, the musical life of Philadelphia awoke with a bound. The revival was inaugurated by a fortnightly series of city concerts in 1783 under the leadership of John Bentley. A second series under the same leadership followed in 1784. Bentley promised for his second season 'a more elegant and perfect entertainment than it was possible (from the peculiar circumstances of the time) to procure during the last winter,' and he felt encouraged in his enterprise by 'the rising taste for music, and its improved state in Philadelphia.' Bentley discontinued his concerts in 1785-86 and apparently that season was barren of such entertainments. In 1786, however, there came the advent of Alexander Reinagle. Together with Henri Capron, William Brown, and Alexander Juhan he started in that year a series of twelve fortnightly concerts, the programs of which were all announced in the newspapers. Certainly there could have been no lack of musical culture among the Philadelphians when they supported an extended series of such concerts as were given by Reinagle et al. The concerts were continued in the winter of 1787-88 and then apparently discontinued until 1792, when they were revived by Messrs. Reinagle and Capron in conjunction with John Christopher Moller. In these the high standard of the preceding concerts was well maintained.
Meanwhile a Mr. Duplessis, who kept an English school for young gentlemen, started a series of fourteen concerts on his own account in 1786, but we do not know how many he succeeded in giving. In the same year an amateur subscription series was started, apparently under the auspices of a society called the 'Musical Club,' and was continued every season until 1790-91. Then, it seems, there was a consolidation of amateurs and professionals in 1794, with Reinagle as the guiding spirit. They gave a season of six subscription concerts with programs devoted largely to Haydn, Pleyel, and Handel. No further subscription series are discoverable before the end of the century, with the exception of those given by Mrs. Grattan, who, in 1797, announced eight subscription concerts. As she referred to these as 'the second Ladies Concert' the inference is that she had already given a series in 1796. Mrs. Grattan confined her activities chiefly to chamber and vocal music, but as we find Handel, Haydn, Pleyel, Paesiello, Viotti, and Sacchini figuring on her programs, it is evident that the public taste had not degenerated. She gave another season in 1797-98, after which she left Philadelphia for Charleston, appearing later in New York. In addition to regular subscription concerts there were, after the Revolution, an increasing number of affairs given for private profit, for charity, and for other purposes. Especially noteworthy are the activities of Andrew Adgate, who was a real pioneer of artistic choral music in Philadelphia. In 1784 Adgate founded by subscription 'The Institution for the Encouragement of Church Music,' which became known in 1785 as the Uranian Society and in 1787 as the Uranian Academy of Philadelphia.
In the preceding chapter we mentioned the Grand Concert given on May 4, 1786, with a chorus of 230 and an orchestra of 50, as well as the concert of April 12, 1787. Both were given under the auspices of the Uranian Society, with Adgate as conductor. It is worthy of note that the syllabus of the second concert was accompanied by remarks on the pieces to be performed—probably the first example of annotated programs in America. The Uranian Academy was actually opened in 1787 and its second annual concert was held in 1788. How long afterward it survived we cannot say, as no further references to it are found in the newspapers. According to Scharf and Westcott's 'History of Philadelphia,' however, it was active until after 1800.
After 1788 the sacred choral concerts—or 'oratorios,' as they were called—gradually approximated the style of the purely secular vocal and instrumental concerts, and after 1790 they seem to have disappeared altogether.
The arrival in 1790 of the French company of which we have already spoken introduced a strikingly novel note into the concert life of Philadelphia. In contrast to the style of thing done by Bremner, Hopkinson, Reinagle, and other men of severe taste their programs do not strike us too favorably. Indeed, their concerts marked the beginning of a curious corruption in the public taste and of a tendency toward indiscriminate program-making which has not yet completely disappeared from our midst. From this time until the end of the century hardly a program appears that does not contain a theatrical composition of Monsigny, Paesiello, Sacchini, Cimarosa, Cherubini, or some other operatic writer of this period, and, as we draw nearer to the nineteenth century, the more miscellaneous become the programs. During those years the concert-life of Philadelphia was dominated largely by French musicians, most of whom, it would appear, were men who had received the best European training. We notice, for instance, that Joseph César was 'a pupil of the celebrated Signor Viotti and first violin of the theatre in Cape François,' and that Victor Pelissier was 'first French horn in the theatre in Cape François.' Perhaps the fact that so many of the French musicians were virtuosi inspired the making of programs devoted to medleys, ariettes, 'favourite sonatas,' and concertos for every instrument that could possibly be employed solo. Yet even such a thorough artist as Alexander Reinagle descended—perforce, we presume—to the inclusion in his programs of such vocal gems as 'Kiss me now or never,' 'Poor Tom Bowling,' 'My Poll and my partner Joe,' 'A Smile from the girl of my heart,' and so forth. Mr. and Mrs. Hodgkinson, Mrs. Pownall, Miss Broadhurst and others gave concerts with programs equally miscellaneous, and it must be admitted that all this points to a distinct musical retrogression in Philadelphia during the last decade of the eighteenth century.
There remain to be mentioned the summer concerts given in public gardens which became very popular toward the beginning of the nineteenth century. They were inaugurated, it would seem, by a Mr. Vincent M. Pelosi, proprietor of the Pennsylvania Coffee House, who proposed for the summer season of 1786 'to open a Concert of Harmonial Music,' to be continued weekly from the first Thursday of June to the last Thursday of September. His example was followed in 1789 by Messrs. George and Robert Gray, proprietors of 'Gray's Gardens,' who gave weekly concerts from May to October, and continued that feature until about 1793. As their programs included compositions of Haydn, Stamitz, Martini, and Abel, it may be seen that they adhered to the prevailing standard. George Esterley started concerts at his 'Vauxhall Harrowgate' in 1789, engaging as soloist 'a lady from Europe who has performed in all the operas in the theatres Royal of Dublin and Edinburgh.' The announcement has a very modern ring. As far as we know Esterley continued his enterprise at least until 1796, presenting somewhat the same programs as Messrs. Gray. In 1797 Messrs. Bates and Darley opened Bush Hill or Pennsylvania Tea Gardens with vocal and instrumental music as a feature, but were obliged to dissolve partnership in the same year. John Mearns, proprietor of the Centre House Tavern and Gardens, announced in 1799 that he would add 'to the entertainment his house afforded ... at a very great expense ... a grand organ of the first power and tone, which [would] be played every Monday, Wednesday and Friday evening during the summer.' He added regular concerts in the following summer.
IV
It is not a far-fetched surmise that concerts, in the broadest acceptation of the term, were known in the South earlier than in any other part of the country. The colonial cavalier, who, after the fashion of English gentlemen at the time, kept a chest of viols in his house, must occasionally have found among his visitors a sufficient number of competent players to form an ensemble of some sort. As the population increased and the opportunities for social intercourse improved these occasions undoubtedly became frequent, and, without any sacrifice of historical probability, one can easily imagine social gatherings at which the most skillful musicians performed concerted pieces for the entertainment of the other guests. The picture is quite in accord with what we know of English and Southern colonial society in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century. Certainly, in Charleston and other centres of Southern society and culture, it is hard to imagine that private musical affairs were not quite common at the beginning of the eighteenth century. Indeed, a large proportion of the earlier public concerts in Charleston were given by amateurs with the assistance of professional musicians, and it is reasonable to assume that a habit of giving private concerts preceded the custom of giving public ones.
The first public concert we find trace of in Charleston was a benefit given for Mr. John Salter in 1732. Several other benefit concerts were given in the same year. We know nothing about them except that they consisted of vocal and instrumental music and were usually followed by a ball. Mr. Sonneck thinks it probable that they were devoted to 'more or less skillful renditions of Corelli, Vivaldi, Purcell, Abaco, Handel, Geminiani, and such other masters whose fame was firmly established in Europe.' Probably subscription concerts started in 1732 or 1733, for in the latter year we find 'N. B.'s' to concert advertisements to the effect that 'This will be the last Concert' and 'This is the first time on the subscription.' These subscription seasons apparently continued until 1735. From that year until 1751 there are no concerts advertised except a benefit for John Salter and one for Charles Theodore Pachelbel. A benefit concert in 1751, one in 1755, and one in 1760 brings us through years of famine to 1765 and Mr. Thomas Pike. Mr. Pike was a talented person who played the French horn and the bassoon, and also taught ladies and gentlemen 'very expeditiously on moderate terms in Orchesography (or the art of dancing by characters and demonstrative figures)'. He gave a concert in 1765 with the assistance of 'gentlemen of the place,' and was obliging enough to publish the program, which was devoted to horn, violoncello, harpsichord, and bassoon concertos, a song, a trio, and the overture of Handel's 'Scipio.'