The St. Cecilia Society of Charleston, South Carolina, named for the traditional patron saint of music, was formed in 1766 as a private subscription concert organization. Over the next fifty-four years, its annual concert series formed the most sophisticated musical phenomenon in North America.
Due to loss of the organization's administrative records during the American Civil War, much inaccurate information about the society has been published. Its important role in the formation of early American musical culture has largely been overlooked.
Although its musical patronage ended in 1820, the St. Cecilia Society continues to flourish today as one of South Carolina's oldest and most exclusive social institutions.
Origin Many writers have labeled Charleston's St. Cecilia Society the first musical society in the United States, but it would be more accurate to describe it as the earliest known private subscription concert organization in North America. Similar subscription concert organizations, such as the Academy of Ancient Music, abounded in mid-18th-century Britain, and similar subscription series also appeared in Boston, New York City, and Philadelphia in the mid-1760s. Unlike those northern examples that were founded as public commercial ventures run by professional musicians, however, Charleston's St. Cecilia Society was established as a private organization. It was incorporated and administered by gentlemen amateurs, who contracted with professional musicians to present an annual series of private concerts.The details of the St. Cecilia Society early management and finances are found in Butler, Votaries of Apollo, 63-111. This arrangement not only endowed the society with a more secure financial base, but also ensured its survival beyond the initial generation of founders.
Since the loss of the society's earliest records, its founding date has been the subject of a good deal of speculation and confusion.The loss of the society's early records is confirmed in Butler, Votaries of Apollo, 43-44. A wide range of dates, spanning from as early as 1732 to as late as 1784, has been published in various books and articles over the past century, but the year 1762 is most often cited in reference to the society's origin. Unfortunately, this widely accepted date is grounded on inaccurate information taken from secondary sources. The preponderance of historical evidence, of which there is a considerable amount, clearly places the founding of Charleston's St. Cecilia Society in the year 1766.A detailed discussion of the historical confusion about the St. Cecilia Society's founding date can be found in Butler, Votaries of Apollo, 40-44.
Early membership The full list of the early members of Charleston's St. Cecilia Society perished with the rest of its records during the Civil War. Recent efforts to reconstruct the early membership from archival sources have yielded more than two hundred names, which, while representing only a fraction of the membership, allow some general conclusions to be drawn. From the beginning, the St. Cecilia Society's membership included the most prosperous planters, politicians, lawyers, physicians, and merchants in the South Carolina Lowcountry.
As with other social organizations and political institutions formed in 18th-century South Carolina, the society's early membership consisted entirely of white Protestant men, the majority of whom were members of the Anglican or Episcopal Church.A list of the known members of the society during its first half century, drawn from extant archival sources, is included in Butler, Votaries of Apollo, 273-78. Following the example of the numerous subscription concert organizations in late 18th-century Britain, the membership of the St. Cecilia Society was (and still is) open only to men. Women have formed a significant part of the audience at the society's events since 1767, but they have never been considered as members of the organization.Butler, Votaries of Apollo, 21-22, 48-49, 81-84.
Concert series Over the span of 54 years of concert activity, 1766 to 1820, the St. Cecilia Society presented 43 seasons of regular concerts. The eleven years of apparent inactivity were the result of the American Revolution (eight seasons, autumn 1775 - spring 1783), financial complications (two seasons, autumn 1788 – spring 1790), and the War of 1812 (one season, autumn 1814 - spring 1815).
While the date of the commencement and termination of each season varied from year to year, the concerts generally began in mid-autumn and continued fortnightly through early spring. The number of concerts each season also varied, but over the course of half a century they averaged at least eight or nine performances per season.A reconstructed calendar of the St. Cecilia Society's concerts, 1766-1820, is included in Butler, Votaries of Apollo, 259-64.
Elegant balls or dancing assemblies replaced the concerts after 1820, but dancing was not a new addition to the society's activities. Beginning with its inaugural season in 1766–67, each concert was followed by several hours of social dancing.Butler, Votaries of Apollo, 48. Since 1820, however, dancing assemblies have been the focus of the society's annual events.Fraser, Reminiscences of Charleston, 61; Butler, Votaries of Apollo, 59-61.
Audience A number of music historians have described the St. Cecilia Society's performances as among the earliest public concerts in the United States. This statement is misleading, however, as the society's concerts were never "public" events in the modern American sense of the word. From the beginning, the St. Cecilia concerts were open only to members of the society and their guests, including the ladies of the members' families and invited gentlemen.
The early success of its concerts prompted the society to enact measures to control access to its events. Many of its early rules articulated the eligibility requirements for male guests and expressly prohibited the admission of "boys."See the discussions of the society's rules and its distribution of tickets for ladies in Butler, Votaries of Apollo, 265-72.
Performance venues In its long history, the St. Cecilia Society has never owned or built its own performance space. During its concert era the society hired eight different venues in Charleston, ranging in size from approximately 1,000 to nearly . Four of these structures still survive: the Great Room in the Exchange Building, the Long Room of McCrady's Tavern, the South Carolina Society Hall, and the first South Carolina State House (now Charleston County Courthouse).All eight of the venues hired by the St. Cecilia Society are discussed in Butler, Votaries of Apollo, 113-50.
Between 1821 and 1861, the society held its events at St. Andrew's Hall. After the Civil War it briefly used the South Carolina Society Hall and the Deutsche Freundschafts Bund Hall (now the home of Charleston's Washington Light Infantry).
Since the early 1880s, its events have taken place at Hibernian Hall.Each of the numerous invitations in the St. Cecilia Society Collection at the South Carolina Historical Society, which span from 1841 through the 20th century, names the location of the event.
Performers The music at the St. Cecilia Society's concerts was performed by a combination of amateurs and hired professionals. Like the British subscription concert organizations it emulated, the core of the society's early orchestra was drawn from its membership, and seasoned professionals were hired as its treasury grew.
Professional musicians were usually drawn from the local population or recruited through private channels, but in 1771 the society advertised throughout the American colonies and in London to fill several positions, offering contracts for one to three years. On the eve of the American Revolution, the orchestra of the St. Cecilia Society included at least twenty musicians, including gentlemen amateurs and professionals from England, the Dutch Republic, France, Germany, Italy, and the West Indies.Butler, Votaries of Apollo, 151-74.
Following several years of rebuilding its forces in the wake of the Revolution, the size of the society's orchestra was augmented in 1793 by the opening of the Charleston Theatre, with its seasonally resident orchestra, and the nearly simultaneous arrival of French musicians fleeing the Haitian Revolution. Over the next two decades, the society enjoyed a symbiotic relationship with the local theater musicians, many of whom traveled northward for the summer months and performed at other concert series.Butler, Votaries of Apollo, 175-201.
Female amateurs and female professionals appeared occasionally at the St. Cecilia Society's concerts, as instrumental or vocal soloists. Professional singers, usually affiliated with the local theater, presented songs from popular English and French stage works. Young lady amateurs, generally performing on the harpsichord, piano, or harp, occasionally played solo works or appeared in small ensembles or as concerto soloists.Numerous examples of female performers at these concerts are mentioned in Butler, Votaries of Apollo, 180-94.
Musical repertoire Despite the long distance between Charleston and London, the repertoire of the St. Cecilia concerts (as the society's performances were known) generally kept pace with the musical fashions of contemporary Britain. The constant commercial trade between the two cities, augmented by Charleston's fervent desire to follow English fashions, encouraged the importation of musical works by the most "modern" and "fashionable" European composers, or at least the works of composers then favored in London. Among the composers whose works were heard in Charleston between 1766 and 1820 are Carl Friedrich Abel, Johann Christian Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven, George Frideric Handel, Joseph Haydn, Leopold Kozeluch, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Josef Mysliveček, Ignaz Pleyel, and Johann Stamitz.A complete discussion of the society's musical tastes and the repertoire heard in Charleston is found in Butler, Votaries of Apollo, 203-36.
London musical fashions did not completely monopolize the concert repertoire heard in Charleston during this period. Thanks to the influx of French musicians in the 1790s in the wake of the French Revolution and the Haitian Revolution, the works of composers such as François Adrien Boieldieu, Nicolas-Marie Dalayrac, André Ernest Modeste Grétry, and Étienne Méhul were also heard in Charleston.The influence of French refugees and French repertoire on the content of the St. Cecilia Society's concerts is discussed in Butler, Votaries of Apollo, 203-36.
Although several of the musicians residing in Charleston during the late 18th and early 19th centuries are known to have composed some music, the St. Cecilia Society made no effort to encourage the creation of a local musical style. Since the society measured its musical success by its ability to replicate contemporary European practices, the cultivation of a "native" musical language would have seemed too provincial for an organization that strove to appear as cosmopolitan as possible.Butler, Votaries of Apollo, 206-7.
In keeping with British practices of the day, each of the St. Cecilia Society's concerts included a mix of musical genres. Orchestral works opened and closed each of the "acts" or "parts" of the concert, while a varied succession of concertos, pieces for small instrumental ensembles, and vocal selections filled the rest of the bill.Butler, Votaries of Apollo, 207-11.
Cessation of concerts