Andrew Adgate

Background

Andrew Adgate was born on March 22, 1762 in Norwich, Connecticut, United States. He was probably the son of a mechanic.

Education

Nothing is known about his education.

Career

In 1784 Adgate opened an Institution for the Encouragement of Church Music, which in 1785 took the name of the Free School for Spreading the Knowledge of Vocal Music, and in 1787, under a more elaborate plan of organization, that of The Uranian Academy. Among the names on the board of directors of this last we find the lawyer-composer Francis Hopkinson and the physician Benjamin Rush. The Academy seems to have continued until after 1800.

As early as 1785, if not before, Adgate set about giving occasional choral concerts, at which various tunes and anthems by Lyons, Billings, Tuckey, and others already active in America were given, besides even the Hallelujah Chorus from Handel's Messiah. His most ambitious undertaking in this line was on May 4, 1786, when for a concert at the German Church he gathered a chorus of 230 voices and a band of fifty players.

Though the scope of his pedagogical work was naturally limited by the circumstances of the time, what he says of his projects implies enterprise and thoughtful purpose. For the Academy he published about a half-dozen books in 1785-1788, of which the Rudiments of Music and the Philadelphia Harmony ran through eight editions from 1788 to 1803, and a Selection of Sacred Harmony through five before 1797, besides the Lecture and the Songster above named as possibly his.

His death occurred during the yellow fever epidemic of 1793.

Achievements

• Adgate was an active and useful promoter of rudimentary musical education in Philadelphia. He is noted for founding the Institution for Encouragement of Church Music in Philadelphia, which later became The Uranian Academy.

Connections

There is no record of his family.

References

• Who was who in America. Historical volume 1607-1896. Revised Edition 1967. A Component Volume of Who's Who in American History.
• Church Music in America: Comprising Its History and Its Peculiarities at Different Periods, With Cursory Remarks on Its Legitimate Use and Its Abuse (Classic Reprint)