'Food for Apollo': Cultivated Music in Antebellum Philadelphia

235 Pages·2011·2 MB·English

by  Dorothy T. Potter

“Food for Apollo”
Studies in Eighteenth-Century America and the Atlantic World
co-sponsored by
The Lawrence Henry Gipson Institute for Eighteenth-Century
Studies, Lehigh University
General Editor: Scott Paul Gordon, Lehigh University
Publishing rich, innovative scholarship that extends and enlarges the fi eld of early
American studies, Studies in Eighteenth-Century America and the Atlantic World embraces
interdisciplinary work in eighteenth-century transatlantic literature, history, visual
arts, material culture, religion, education, law, and medicine.
Other Titles in This Series
Dorothy T. Potter, “Food for Apollo”:
Cultivated Music in Antebellum Philadelphia
James P. Myers, Jr., The Ordeal of Thomas Barton:
Anglican Missionary in the Pennsylvania Backcountry, 1755–1780
Paul Peucker and Heikki Lempa, eds., Self, Community, World:
Moravian Education in a Transatlantic World
Priscilla H. Roberts and Richard S. Roberts, Thomas Barclay (1728–1793):
Consul in France, Diplomat in Barbary
Sarah Fatherly, Gentlewomen and Learned Ladies:
Women and Elite Families in Eighteenth-Century Philadelphia
Jewel A. Smith, Music, Women, and Pianos:
The Moravian Young Ladies’ Seminary in Antebellum Bethlehem, Pennsylvania (1815–1860)

Jean R. Soderlund and Catherine S. Parzynski, eds., Backcountry Crucibles:
The Lehigh Valley from Settlement to Steel
Charles K. Jones, Francis Johnson (1792–1844):
Chronicle of a Black Musician in Early Nineteenth-Century Philadelphia
Steven Craig Harper, Promised Land: Penn’s Holy Experiment,
The Walking Purchase, and the Dispossession of Delawares, 1600–1763
Patricia D’Antonio, Founding Friends: Families, Staff, and Patients
at the Friends Asylum in Early Nineteenth-Century Philadelphia
http://www.lehigh.edu/~inlup
“Food for Apollo”
Cultivated Music in
Antebellum Philadelphia
Dorothy T. Potter
Bethlehem: Lehigh University Press
Published by Lehigh University Press
Co-published with The Rowman & Littlefi eld Publishing Group, Inc.
4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706
www.rowmanlittlefi eld.com
Estover Road, Plymouth PL6 7PY, United Kingdom
Copyright © 2011 by Dorothy T. Potter
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by
any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval
systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who
may quote passages in a review.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data on fi le under LC# 2010013832
ISBN: 978-1-61146-002-5 (cl. : alk. paper)
eISBN: 978-1-61146-003-2
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of
American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for
Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992.
Printed in the United States of America
Contents
Acknowledgments 7
Introduction 11
1. Philadelphia’s Musical Beginnings, 1700–1786 17
2. From City Tavern to Musical Fund Society Hall:
Philadelphia’s Music in Transition, 1786–1831 34
3. Cultivated Music Adapts and Thrives, 1831–1861 70
4. Music for the Masses: Publishers and Piano Makers,
1786–1861 102
5. Historians, Critics, and Romantics: Mozart in Literature,
1803–1861 133
Appendix 163
Notes 185
Bibliography 211
Index 227

Acknowledgments
COMPLETING A HISTORICAL STUDY REMINDS one of how interconnected
is the world of scholarship, and the debts that are owed to many oth-
ers. Thus it is a pleasure to acknowledge and thank those persons and
institutions that helped make this book a reality. This study had its
genesis in 1991, the bicentennial year of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s
death, when I noticed that amid all the performances, events, and
scholarship, relatively little was said or written about the Atlantic
world, and specifi cally, the nature of performances and publishing in
the late-eighteenth century and antebellum era in the United States.
I became curious about the earliest instances of Mozart’s music in
America and found that the fi rst most likely occurred in late 1786, at
a concert in Philadelphia’s City Tavern. Continued research led to my
being granted a year’s leave of absence and funding from Lynchburg
College in 1993, to begin my PhD studies in history at the University
of Virginia; these were completed in 2000. I remain grateful to the
administration of the college, who approved and facilitated this leave,
as well as to my advisor at the university, Peter S. Onuf, and my second
reader, Marita P. McClymonds. Their insights, expertise, and encour-
agement were invaluable, and without them the dissertation would
probably have never seen the light of day.
Current thanks are due again, to Lynchburg College, for my sab-
batical leave in the spring of 2008; this time it was essential to rewrit-
ing the dissertation and pursuing further avenues of research. That
summer, I team-taught a small graduate seminar on pre-Civil War
American culture and used the manuscript-in-progress as one of sev-
eral texts. The six students’ comments and insights were very helpful,
as the process continued.
Various colleagues at the college have taken a supportive interest in
my seemingly endless study of cultivated music in antebellum Phila-
delphia. In this regard, I wish to particularly acknowledge Elza C. Tiner,
who included me as one of the presenters for the John M. Turner Lec-
tures in the Humanities in 2006, when she was the Turner Chair.
Thanks are also due to the staff at Knight-Capron Library, particu-
larly Elizabeth F. Henderson, Ariel K. Myers, and Robyn J. Williams,
who were always able to fi nd the needed elusive reference or obscure
book in record time. Several fellow members of the Mozart Society
7
8 “FOOD FOR APOLLO”
of America, in whose sessions I have given two papers at conferences,
have offered useful ideas and suggestions, particularly its past presi-
dent, Isabelle Emerson.
Among others to whom I owe special thanks for their advice and
assistance regarding images for the book are Dana M. Lamparello,
digital collections archivist, Historical Society of Pennsylvania; Nicole
Joniec, Print Department assistant and Digital Collections manager,
the Library Company of Philadelphia; Kevin LaVine, senior music
specialist, Library of Congress Music Division; Robert Kosovsky,
curator, Rare Book and Manuscripts Music Division; Thomas Lisanti,
permissions manager NYPL Express, the New York Public Library;
Holly Frisbee, Rights and Reproductions, the Philadelphia Museum
of Art; and Helena Richardson, assistant librarian, Printed Book and
Periodical Collection, Winterthur Library.
Finding an elusive picture of Alexander Reinagle proved particu-
larly time-consuming; thanks are due to John Bewley, at the Music
Library, University of Buffalo, who put me on the right track. Nancy
R. Miller, Jim Duffi n, and John Pollack, at the University of Penn-
sylvania’s archives provided specifi c information on the original acad-
emy building.
Scott Paul Gordon, director of Lehigh University Press, has been
very supportive in this endeavor. I am grateful for his suggestions and
insightful critiques of the work at various stages, as well as fi nding
readers to review the initial manuscript, which led me to broaden my
focus. Judi Mayer provided timely answers to several questions, which
has been most helpful.
Last, and most important, I am grateful to my husband, Clifton,
a British historian and a lover of classical music, who read parts of
the manuscript countless times, offered invaluable feedback, and was
always ready to solve seemingly endless computer issues, even though
he was in the midst of a manuscript of his own. Our son, Edmund, a
historian and artist, who teaches at Mary Baldwin College, gave good
advice and photographed several pieces of Mozart music from my
personal collection. Without these two wonderful people, this work
would never have been completed; I owe them a greater debt than I
can adequately express for their patience and faith in me. This book
is dedicated to them, our daughter-in-law Rachel, beautiful grandsons
Eric and Landon, and to my parents, who regrettably did not live to
see it fi nished, but who were always very supportive of my work.
“Food for Apollo”