We may, however, define a musical society in the modern sense as a body of people regularly and permanently organized for the carrying out of a definite program of musical education, study or performance. Such societies in America have been an evolution. They have evolved, on the one hand, from coöperation between cultured amateurs for the purpose of giving musical performances and, on the other, from the formation of singing classes for cultivating a proper skill in rendering the psalms. There is, consequently, considerable justification for the course taken by some historians in looking upon these singing classes as the first of our musical organizations, though, as will appear later, they had nothing to do with the formation of our earliest musical societies properly so called, such as the St. Cecilia Society of Charleston, the Musical Society of Boston or the Harmonic Society of New York. I As far as we know, the first avowedly musical organization in America was the Orpheus Club, which is said to have existed in Philadelphia in 1759. We possess no information concerning it. Philadelphia at that time contained a goodly number of music lovers. Such men as John Penn, James Brenner, Dr. Kuhn, and Francis Hopkinson, were then engaged in breathing the spirit of life into the dead body of musical Philadelphia. How well they succeeded we have seen in our chapter on early concerts. Musical gatherings were frequent at their homes and it is not impossible that they were prominently concerned in the formation of the Orpheus Club. If they were, the activities of that organization must have been very interesting and we can only regret that no record of them has seen the light. In default of unimpeachable evidence even of the existence of the Orpheus Club at the time mentioned we must award the title of pioneer among American musical organizations to the St. Cecilia Society of Charleston.[35] This society was founded in 1762. According to the rules, which were 'agreed upon and finally confirmed' in 1773, it consisted of one hundred and twenty members and its main purpose apparently was to give concerts. Until well into the nineteenth century it was the centre of the concert life of Charleston and for many years it seemed indeed to have almost a monopoly of the musical talent, amateur and professional, in the city. It even went as far as Boston to gather properly qualified performers into its fold. In addition to a yearly concert on St. Cecilia's Day, the society gave regular fortnightly concerts during the season. The orchestra was composed of gentlemen performers and professional musicians--the latter engaged by the year. It was the nearest approach to a permanent orchestra that existed in America outside the theatres before the nineteenth century and there is every likelihood that its performances reached a high standard of technical and artistic excellence.