This chapter follows the influence of elite ideas about the role of music into the realm of early musical organizations and societies. Through a focus on the founding of two of the most influential early American musical organizations–the Musical Fund Society of Philadelphia and the Boston Academy of Music–the chapter, more than simply highlighting the scale and variety of early American civic society, argues that these organizations consciously sought to influence the relationship between civil society and the state by promoting a highly hierarchical vision of society–one in which the nation’s success depended on respect for authority, subordination to an educated elite, and a willingness of the majority to accept their place in the greater chorus of the nation.
