ABSTRACT
The new society gave itself a name that if new to Belfast had been used a good deal elsewhere. Dublin had an Anacreontic Society since 1740, its object being to promote the cultivation and practise of instrumental music, its membership at the outset confined to amateurs. It was free of political coloration: 'the Protestant and the Catholic do truly play in concert'. The Belfast Anacreontic Society, its appearance not noticed in the contemporary newspapers, regarded itself as being formed in 1814; the concerts of 1855–1856, for example, are described in the programmes as 'Forty-second season'. Furthermore, Gerbini advertised her second concert in the Exchange Rooms to be given on 4 March 1815 'by particular desire of the Marquis of Donegall, Thomas Verner Esq, Sovereign, and of the President and Members of the Anacreontic Society'. If the concerts of the Anacreontic Society had not been numerous, neither had been those promoted by others.
