Early Years
From the inspiration of a singing school given in Stoughton in 1774 by Boston composer, William Billings, a group of male singers in town decided to form a singing society. There were 25 names and all of them listed in the membership journal with the date of organization being November 7, 1786. Their first President was Elijah Dunbar, 1740–1814, from Canton. He was also their conductor and a singer.The first music collection the musical society purchased was The Worcester Collection of Sacred Harmony compiled by Isaiah Thomas in 1786, which contained the first American printing of the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's Messiah.
Read more about this topic: Stoughton Musical Society
Famous quotes containing the words early and/or years:
“Here is this vast, savage, howling mother of ours, Nature, lying all around, with such beauty, and such affection for her children, as the leopard; and yet we are so early weaned from her breast to society, to that culture which is exclusively an interaction of man on man,—a sort of breeding in and in, which produces at most a merely English nobility, a civilization destined to have a speedy limit.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Well, children, enjoy this all you can, for in four years you may begin to walk over again.”
—William Howard Taft (1857–1930)