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The National Music of America. 61
the same year in Northampton, Mass. In the preface of the latter work the following sentence occurs:
" A general preference has been given to American productions, and perhaps nothing will more effectually exhibit the progress of the human mind in the refinements which characterize the age, than the songs, which from general consent, are now in vogue."
That this boasting preamble was not carried out in the American musical numbers of that time may readily be seen from the following composition, which is by no means poorer than other American compositions in the book.
Concerts of secular music had also now begun. As early as 1756, a public-spirited citizen, named Stephen Deblois, built a "Concert Hall" in Boston,1 and many enter-
1 This stood on the southern corner of Hanover and Court Streets. This was at that time the fashionable end of the town. Washington Street was at that time called Marlboro Street, its northern extremity was called Corn-hill, its extreme southern end, on "the neck," was the only part then called Washington Street. North Street, Cornhill, India Street, and Broad Street were fashionable thoroughfares, the last-named containing the finest shops. |
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