Votaries of Apollo: The St. Cecilia Society and the Patronage of Concert Music in Charleston, South Carolina, 1766-1820

Front Cover
Univ of South Carolina Press, 2007 - History - 375 pages
This work is a comprehensive account of the musical culture of Charleston's golden age. history of the dynamic and vibrant concert life in Charleston from 1766 to 1820, when the exclusive St. Cecilia Society functioned as North America's premier musical organization. In the process, he provides an unprecedented look into the early membership and inner workings of this storied society. For fifty-four seasons during the late colonial and early federal years, the St. Cecilia Society offered Charleston's wealthy elite opportunities to enjoy the latest European musical fashions performed by a cosmopolitan orchestra, visiting professional musicians, and talented amateurs. Intermingling the practices and values of both the Old and the New Worlds, the society's events formed a social stage on which the patronage, performance, and appreciation of contemporary European concert music evinced the cultural and political authority of its participants. Butler begins with a survey of the socio-economic background of the golden age of Charleston's prosperity in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries and then examines British modes of concert patronage that inspired this South Carolina institution. Following an overview of the society's half century of concert patronage, Butler focuses on specifics of the musical activity: organizational structure and management of activities, administration of finances, performance venues, performers and their relationship to the society, concert repertoire, and withdrawal from patronage.
 

Contents

British Subscription Concerts and the Meaning
17
The Rise and Fall of the Concerts
39
The Management
63
The Finances
78
The Venues
113
The Performers 17661792
151
The Performers 17931820
175
The Form and Musical Content of the Concerts
203
The End of an Era
237
Calendar of St Cecilia Concerts 17661820
259
Rules of the St Cecilia Society 1773
265
Known Members of the St Cecilia Society 17661820
273
Notes
279
Bibliography
347
About the Author 377
Copyright

Common terms and phrases

About the author (2007)

Special collections manager at the Charleston County Public Library, Nicholas Michael Butler is a musicologist, historian, archivist, and musician.

Bibliographic information