American city in South Carolina. Founded in 1670 by Lord Anthony Ashley Cooper (later 1st Earl of Shaftesbury), the town (then Charles Town, after Charles II) rapidly became the centre of commerce and culture in the colonial South. In the 18th century it grew from a small seaport into the fourth largest city in the USA. The pre-Civil War years (c1830–60) saw the culmination of the city’s golden age of commerce and culture. Charleston continued to dominate the intellectual, cultural, commercial and political life of the South until the Civil War. Today it is a modern shipping and industrial centre.
The first records of musical activity in Charleston date from 1732, when the South Carolina Gazette reported a ‘Consort of Musick’ presented ‘for the benefit of Mr Salter’ on 12 April, the second public concert on record in the American colonies. Charleston was also the site of the first opera performance in the colonies, when Colley Cibber’s ballad opera Flora, or Hob in the Well was given at ‘the Courtroom’ above Shepheard’s Tavern on 18 February 1735. Colonial Charleston housed several musicians of high calibre. Among these were John Salter, first organist at St Philip’s Church, and his successor, Charles Theodore Pachelbel, son of the famous German organist Johann Pachelbel. Charles Theodore was an organist and church musician in Charleston from 1737 until his death in 1750.
The mainstay of Charleston’s 18th-century musical life was the St Cecilia Society, the oldest musical society in the USA, founded in 1762. Its heyday was in the 1770s, when its concerts were affairs of great elegance and noteworthy musical interest. Typical programmes included overtures, oratorio selections, songs and piano pieces by contemporary European composers. These concerts continued until 1822 when increasing difficulty in obtaining musicians led to the society’s transformation into an exclusive social cotillion which continues today.
The social season in pre-Civil War Charleston from October to May offered a round of pleasures including concerts, balls and theatrical productions. Audiences heard a host of performers, many of whom were internationally renowned, such as Mme Anna Bishop, Ole Bull, Jenny Lind, Adelina Patti and Sigismund Thalberg. Apart from contemporary Italian opera, which was highly favoured, the concert repertory bore a distinct British imprint, for the most popular composers were either native Britons or lived in London (Haydn, Handel, Moore, Bishop, Arne, Braham, Clementi, Stevenson, King and others).
Among noteworthy local musicians was Jacob Eckhard, composer and organist at St Michael’s from 1809 to 1833, who maintained high standards in church music. Also prominent were Charles Gilfert, a composer, pianist and theatrical entrepreneur who lived and worked in Charleston from 1807 to 1825; André Louis Eugène Guilbert, a composer, violinist and harpist; Henry Wellington Greatorex, the ‘American psalmodist’; and Samuel Dyer, an English church musician who lived in Charleston from 1819 to 1822. Filippo Trajetta, son of Tommaso Traetta, also made Charleston his home during the first decade of the 19th century. Six local music societies presented regular concerts, most of which were organized in the interest of charity and the cultivation of music among the citizens. Summer pleasure gardens were also popular, the favourite being Vauxhall Gardens, modelled after its British counterpart.
Cultural events naturally diminished sharply during the Civil War, in which the city was directly involved. After it, Charleston again enjoyed a flourishing musical life. The Charleston Conservatory was opened in 1884 under the leadership of Otto Müller. The leading musical personality of the late 19th century was ‘Mme Barbot’ (formerly Hermina Petit), teacher, conductor and upholder of local musical standards and traditions. Other prominent residents in the early 20th century included the composer Karl Theodore Saul; Karl Metz, composer and leader of ‘Metz’s Band’; and G. Theo Wichmann, founder of the Charleston PO (1925; now the Charleston SO). A series of concerts (1919–24) sponsored by Maud Gibbon, a local patron of music, brought to the city such artists as Casals, Thibaud, Lhévinne, Kreisler and Rachmaninoff. The Jenkins Orphanage Band was a group of African American children that achieved international recognition in the early 20th century with tours of the USA and Europe. The Siegling Musical House (1819–1970), among the longest lasting music shops in the USA, was also active in music publishing during the 19th century.
The Charleston Concert Association, founded in 1936, presents major soloists, orchestras and opera and dance companies. Dance is presented by the Charleston Ballet Theatre and, associated with the College of Charleston, the Robert Ivey Ballet. The college has also held an International Piano Series annually since 1990; an extension of this has been the yearly piano masterclasses of Maria Curcio since 1993.
Gian Carlo Menotti chose Charleston as the New World setting for his Festival of Two Worlds, held also in Spoleto, Italy. Since 1977 this annual event in May and June has been a comprehensive arts festival, including jazz and country music as well as art music, and featuring newly discovered talent. The Lowcountry Heritage Society, founded in 1994, presents works of music, art and literature about or inspired by the South Carolina Lowcountry.
O.G.T. Sonneck: Early Concert-Life in America (Leipzig, 1907/R, 2/1949)
O.G.T. Sonneck: Early Opera in America (Boston, 1915/R)
E.P. Simons: Music in Charleston from 1732 to 1919 (Charleston, SC, 1927)
G.W. Williams: St Michael’s Charleston, 1751–1951 (Columbia, 1951)
J.J. Hindman: Concert Life in Ante Bellum Charleston (diss., U. of North Carolina, 1971)
G.W. Williams: Jacob Eckhard’s Choirmaster’s Book of 1809 (Columbia, 1971)
JOHN JOSEPH HINDMAN/DOUGLAS ASHLEY