In the circle of musical development of which Philadelphia was the centre, Andrew Adgate of that city was the leading spirit. In 1784 he established an 'Institution for the Encouragement of Church Music' supported by subscription and governed by trustees. So fervent was Adgate in the cause of 'music for the people' that, as conductor of the institution, he organized 'public singings,' which became so popular that within a year the trustees, objecting to 'the indiscriminate assemblage' of the general public, restricted admission to subscribers. Adgate thereupon resigned his position and established a free school, 'Adgate's Institution for diffusing more generally the knowledge of vocal music.' It is significant of the public spirit of the 'cradle of independence' that he found a number of influential men willing to act as trustees of the new organization. The splendid institution which is now the University of Pennsylvania opened its doors to the new enterprise. Inviting requests to join these free classes, Adgate announced: 'The more there are who make this application and the sooner they make it, the more acceptable will it be to the trustees and the teacher.'
Adgate's Institution had a marked influence in Philadelphia in the development of musical appreciation, which is an essential precedent in any community of the practical cultivation of the art. Foreign music teachers after trying vainly in other places, such as New York, for something like remunerative recognition, finally found it in the city whose civic spirit had been broadened by Adgate to include artistic as well as material progress. Among these may be mentioned William Tuckey, already noted; the English musician, Rayner Taylor, who came to America in 1792; and Filippo Trajetta, a Venetian, the son of the noted composer Tomaso Trajetta. Filippo was trained by the best masters, notably Piccini; entering the revolutionary army of Italy, he was captured by the royalists, but, escaping, fled to America, arriving in Boston in 1799, where he taught singing. He toured through the South as a theatrical manager, and finally settled in Philadelphia, teaching and composing music ('Washington's Dead March' being his most popular composition) until his death at the age of seventy-eight in 1854. He published 'Rudiments of the Art of Singing' as a text-book for the 'American Conservatorio,' an institution established in Philadelphia by his pupil, Uri K. Hill; in this he advocated the Italian system of solfeggio to supersede the 'defective sol-fa-ing' in universal use in America.
In New England, more particularly Boston, we find that the foreign influence was making itself felt in music through 'The Massachusetts Compiler,' a work which embodied something of the theory of music as given in the works of German, French, and English authorities. The introduction of this element was probably due to Hans Gram, the German organist at Brattle Church, Boston, who, with Oliver Holden and Samuel Holyoke, published the work in 1795. To Gottlieb Graupner, another German, was mainly due the foreign influence which caused Boston to become for half a century the leading city of the country in musical influence. The 'Philharmonic Society,' which was formed by Graupner and his associates in 1810, prepared the way for the Handel and Haydn Society, founded in 1815, which not only educated Boston and New England in musical appreciation, but had a formative influence on the taste of the entire country.
English talent conjoined at Boston with German in this educational work. Dr. G. J. Jackson, an English musician of the order of William Tuckey and Rayner Taylor—indeed, he was Taylor's schoolmate—had come to America in 1796, and taught music at Norfolk and Alexandria, Va., and Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York. In his northward progress he arrived in Boston in 1812, and became organist successively of the Brattle Street Church, King's Chapel, Trinity Church, and St. Paul's Church. He was the leading choirmaster of his day, teaching the English method of chanting, and was employed as music teacher by the first families. He published a book of chants, anthems, etc., and contributed original compositions to 'The Churchman's Choral Companion,' published in New York in 1808 by the Rev. William Smith. His friend Rayner Taylor was also represented in the collection.
II
A singing club, more social than serious in its purpose, had been formed at Harvard in 1786. In 1808 a novel institution, the 'Pierean Sodality,' was established at the college. This was a singing fraternity, the members of which were linked together by a common interest in music. The Sodality was the germ of the present Department of Music in Harvard University. Out of it there arose in 1837 the 'Harvard Musical Association,' composed of alumni of the college who had been members of the Sodality. The report of the committee on organization admirably described the fraternal function of music and stated the fashion in which this was to be realized by the new association:
'Nothing unites men more than music. It makes brothers of strangers; it makes the most diffident feel at home; the most shy and suspicious it renders frank and full of trust; it overflows the rocks of separation between us; it comes up like a full tide beneath us, and opens a free intercourse of hearts.
'We propose, then, to form an association which shall meet here annually on commencement day: if for nothing more, at least to exchange salutations and review recollections, and feel the common bond of music and old scenes....
'But the ultimate object proposed is the advancement of the cause of music, particularly in this university. We would have it regarded as an important object of attention within its walls, as something which sooner or later must hold its place in every liberal system of education; and that place not accidental or a stolen one, but formally recognized. We that love music feel that it is worthy of its professorship, as well as any other science.'
As we shall see later this high purpose was fulfilled in the establishment of a Department of Music in Harvard on an equal basis with the other departments. The association stated that one of its objects was to collect a musical library, and another to promote the production of great symphonies. This program was greatly extended in the course of the existence of the association; chamber concerts, hitherto unknown in Boston, were given in the winter under the leadership of such artists as Herwig and Hohnstock. These concerts led in 1849 to the organization of the Mendelssohn Quintet Club for the exclusive cultivation of chamber music. In 1852, with the moral backing of the association, J. S. Dwight, one of its leading spirits, established 'Dwight's Journal of Music,' a periodical of the highest aim and most authoritative character. Its publication ceased in 1881.