founded in
Charleston, S. C., an organization which lasted for a hundred and fifty
years.

Other societies followed at short intervals and in widely scattered
localities; the "Handel Society" of Dartmouth College, about 1780, the
"Stoughton (Mass.) Musical Society," 1786, and "The Musical Society" of
New York City, all tend to show that social centres were developing, and
the people were finding expression in music.

An indication of what had been growing by degrees is found in the
reports of concerts. Mention of instruments such as violins, French
horns, oboes, trombones, etc., was made here and there, and especially
in connection with the Moravian settlements in Bethlehem, Pa., where was
established the first music school.

We find the first mention of an orchestra made in connection with a
performance of "The Beggar's Opera" at Upper Marlboro, Md., in 1752, and
a few years later (1788) a great concert was given in Philadelphia with
an orchestra of fifty and a chorus of two hundred performers.

There is also a record of a concert given in Charleston, S. C., in 1796,
when an orchestra of thirty instruments was employed in a performance of
Gluck's overture to "Iphegenie en Aulide," and Haydn's "Stabat Mater."

It is quite possible that orchestras were used more or less in other
concerts. Mr. Sonneck shows, in his "Early Concert-Life in America,"
many programs in which orchestral works are mentioned. And it is well to
state here that it is almost impossible to locate the first performance
in America of many of the works of the older composers, including Haydn
and Mozart, because no opus number is mentioned, nor anything to
indicate the identity of the work. Pleyel, Gluck and Clementi were much
in vogue.

The American composer was beginning to be heard from during this period.
Francis Hopkinson, who is generally regarded as the first American
composer, wrote, in 1759, a song with the title "My Days Have Been So
Wondrous Free." Some time later, in 1788, a small volume of songs was
published under the title "Seven Songs," by the same composer.

Francis Hopkinson was a well-educated man, a signer of the Declaration
of Independence, a member of the Convention of 1787 which formulated the
Constitution of the United States, first Judge of the Admiralty Court in
Pennsylvania, and author of many pamphlets and poems.

A man of entirely different calibre was William Billings, who was
considered the first composer in New En