The Moravians are members of a Protestant denomination founded in Germany in the 18th century but with roots in 15th-century Bohemia and Moravia. Missionary activity during the 18th century led to the establishment of communities in a number of countries around the world, but most notably in North America, where there continues to be a strong Moravian presence. From the earliest days the Moravian Church kept meticulous records of its ecclesiastical, community and commercial life, and has ensured that active communication and sharing of information has been maintained among the various Moravian centres worldwide. The 10,000 music manuscripts and printed works that survive in American Moravian archives and the substantial collections preserved at Zeist in the Netherlands and at Herrnhut in Germany testify to a highly developed musical culture. These sources include orders of service (from the 1700s onwards); instruction books; an extensive manuscript corpus of 18th- and early 19th-century sacred works in an early Classical style, written mostly by Moravians, for chorus and chamber orchestra; instrumental works, ranging from solo sonatas to symphonies (some of them the sole surviving copies), by European composers; and bound collections of sheet music dating from the mid-19th century onwards. After a discussion of the Moravian Church’s origins and its worship services, this article focusses particularly on the musical tradition of the American Moravians.
2. The Renewed Moravian Church.
3. ‘Moravian’ and other liturgical music.
4. Instrumental music, music education.
NOLA REED KNOUSE
Spiritually, the Moravians are descendants of the Czech priest Jan Hus, whose attempts at reform led to his martyrdom in 1415. In 1457 some of his followers founded a church body consecrated to following Christ in simplicity and dedicated living (see Bohemian Brethren). This newly constituted church, officially called Jednota bratrská or Unitas fratrum (The Unity of Brethren), developed a rich and orderly ecclesiastical life during the 15th and 16th centuries and also made significant musical and literary contributions to the Protestant movement. What is thought to be their first hymnal was published in 1505 (an earlier kancionál, a ‘little book of songs’, had appeared in Prague in 1501, but it is not certain to what extent the Unity was involved in this publication). A revision of the 1505 hymnal was issued in 1519, edited by the prolific hymn writer Lukáš of Prague (d 1528), who is also credited with steering the Unity’s course through difficult times of persecution and through theological discourse with Martin Luther and other reformers. Neither hymnal has survived (see Cantional, §1).
In 1531 Michael Weisse (d 1534), a hymn writer, composer, theologian and pastor, compiled Gesangbuch der Böhmischen Brüder for the German congregation of the Unity. During the 16th century Jan Roh (d 1547) and Jan Blahoslav (d 1571) oversaw the publication of several Czech kancionály, and other hymnbooks in Czech appeared frequently throughout the early 17th century. The 1566 Kirchengesang, compiled by Petrus Herbert (d 1571), contained 343 hymns and an appendix of 106 hymns by Lutheran authors; this hymnal was reprinted in 1590, with later versions in 1606, 1639 and 1661. The first Polish-language hymnal of the Unity appeared in 1554. Bishop J.A. Komenský (Comenius), who is credited with preserving the Unity’s rich heritage through his writings, edited the Czech kancionál of 1659 and the German Cantional of 1661. These hymnals (excluding the 1501 kancionál) contained tunes as well as texts; many of the melodies were of popular origin, demonstrating the Unity’s emphasis on congregational singing.
Jan Blahoslav’s translations of scripture into Czech led to the Unity’s production of the Kralice Bible (1579–94). In addition, Blahoslav’s Musica of 1558 is the earliest known music treatise published in the Czech language. It was followed in 1561 by Jan Josquin’s Muzika; ‘Jan Josquin’ may have been a pseudonym for Václav Solín, who collaborated with Blahoslav on the hymnals of 1561 and 1564.
During the 17th century the persecutions surrounding the Thirty Years War (1618–48) and its aftermath virtually destroyed the Unity. In the 1720s a few exiles of this religious heritage, along with various other seekers after truth, found refuge on an estate of the Saxon nobleman Nikolaus von Zinzendorf (1700–60). In its village of Herrnhut the ancient Moravian Unity experienced a rebirth, culminating on 13 August 1727 in a spiritual blessing, whereby its former diversity of purpose was welded into one. In 1732 the Renewed Moravian Church began to send missionaries afield, first to the West Indies, then during the next two decades to North America (via London, 1734), arriving in Georgia in 1735, Greenland, Suriname, South Africa and Algiers, among other countries. The first permanent American Moravian communities were established in Pennsylvania, beginning with Bethlehem in 1741; others followed in North Carolina, of which Salem (now Winston-Salem) was one of the most important (1766).
According to Zinzendorf and the Moravians of his time, every aspect of daily life, even its most mundane elements, could be regarded as ‘liturgical’, that is, as a type of worship to be offered to God, after the example of Christ himself. A significant addition to Moravian worship was the introduction in 1728 of the Losungen (Daily Texts). Originally collections of scripture in manuscript, these texts were first published in 1731 and have subsequently appeared in over 40 languages and dialects. They are used by Moravians throughout the world as a daily devotional guide, either in private worship or in the brief congregational morning or evening services. While the majority of the 18th-century texts were drawn from the scriptures, some also consisted of a hymn stanza or a portion thereof. Hymnody and music as a means of expressing theological truths have always been important within the Moravian Church. Zinzendorf encouraged the development of hymn singing, and in the early days at Herrnhut, when the community did not yet enjoy a large hymn repertory, he conducted singing classes in which the faithful would learn not only the hymns but also something of the life and purpose of the author. A large hymnal was produced in 1735, and many more texts were added in its numerous appendixes; slightly more manageable collections were made in 1754 and 1767. In 1778 the influential hymnbook of C.F. Gregor (1723–1801) appeared, containing 1750 hymns, 308 of them written or reworked by Gregor himself; this book remained in use among the German-speaking congregations for about a century. The hymnal (Gesang-Buch) contained texts only but was supplemented by a music book (Choral-Buch) in which the tunes were arranged by metre.
Gregor’s procedure of recombining and adding to the stanzas of hymns, mixing new and old in creative ways, was central to that most characteristic of Moravian services, the Singstunde. The brother or sister presiding at the service would select individual stanzas from various hymns so that a particular Christian truth could be developed as the singing progressed; the congregation, whose members possessed an unusual command of the hymnal, would join in, singing by heart, before the end of the first line of each stanza. No sermon was necessary. The preface to the 1735 hymnal indicates that rarely, if ever, was a complete hymn of 10 or 20 stanzas used: rather, half and whole stanzas were selected as desired. Moravians took the Singstunde practice with them wherever in the world they formed communities, and such services were held regularly in their churches.
The Singstunde also greatly influenced the structure of two other worship services: the Abendmahl (Holy Communion) and the Liebesmahl (Lovefeast). In the Abendmahl, a form of Singstunde incorporating the sacrament, hymns are sung during the distribution of the elements; selected stanzas focus on themes of redemption, Christ’s sacrifice, and the heavenly banquet to be shared by the faithful at the end of time. The non-sacramental Liebesmahl, perhaps the most widely known of the special services, is essentially a Singstunde with a fellowship meal included. Its origins lie in the renewing experience of 13 August 1727, when the assembled company gained spiritual nourishment through the sharing of a simple common meal; the Moravians quickly came to recognize the value of continuing such an experience in the context of worship. By 1756 this service was often the high point of the Church’s major festivals. To enrich the sense of celebration the hymn stanzas selected to develop the day’s theme would be supplemented by anthems. Apart from hymns, most of the pieces known today as ‘Moravian music’ are the anthems written for these special services.
Thousands of vocal works in an early Classical idiom were written by European and American Moravian composers for use in worship (works by non-Moravian composers were also widely used, although their texts were often adapted to make them more appropriate to the specific occasion). In most cases the accompaniment is for organ and orchestra, either strings alone or with paired woodwinds and some brass. A few Moravian anthems have independent organ parts that do not double the other instrumental lines, but in most cases the organ either serves as a continuo instrument or follows the orchestral and vocal lines. Composers such as C.F. Gregor and J.F. Peter (1746–1813) used figured bass extensively in their organ parts, also adopting on occasion a form of numeric shorthand that functioned like a ‘figured melody’, where numbers placed below the treble staff indicate intervals below the melody line, for example, when the first and second violins move in parallel 3rds or 6ths. Peter, in particular, often included instrumental cues as well as a part or even the whole of the text. Thus, where they exist, organ parts are an extremely practical performance resource.
The organ was rarely used as the sole instrument of accompaniment, except to support the congregation in hymn singing; and solo organ music is not commonly found in Moravian collections before the late 19th century. Preludes were generally based on chorale tunes, with interludes played between phrases of the chorales. In time the interludes became increasingly ornate and were eventually discarded because they were too liable to distract: the organist’s essential purpose was to serve and enable worship, and any sort of behaviour or performance style that attracted attention to him as a soloist was regarded unfavourably. In America the organ builder David Tannenberg (1728–1804) constructed some 50 instruments in Moravian, Lutheran and German Reformed churches; the organ at Lititz, Pennsylvania, is one of the few to have survived.
In addition to choral anthems (SATB, SSAB, double choir), many works were written for solo voice or duet, primarily for sopranos, with orchestral accompaniment. The texts are mostly derived from scripture, but hymns are also set. Both vocal and instrumental parts require able performers, but while the music is neither insignificant nor simplistic, it is also not ‘virtuoso’ in style, for attention would then be drawn away from the message of the text. Textures are predominantly homophonic rather than contrapuntal, but in passages where the voices rest the instrumental writing can be somewhat more complex. Instrumental introductions, interludes and concluding passages are also common.
Among the most notable and prolific composers of anthems with orchestral accompaniment were C.F. Gregor, J.C. Geisler (1729–1815) and J.L. Freydt (1748–1807). Gregor was influential in assembling festival day ‘odes’ (also known as ‘psalms’), which frequently contained an anthem setting of the Losung for the day, often so identified on the manuscript. J.F. Peter (1746–1813) wrote what is perhaps the best known of the festival Liebesmahle, the Psalm of Joy celebrating the end of the American Revolutionary War. On 18 June 1783 Alexander Martin, Governor of North Carolina, proclaimed that 4 July 1783 should be a ‘day of solemn thanksgiving’. However, the proclamation arrived in Salem only a short time before the appointed day, obliging Peter to craft a service using anthems already in the Salem Congregation’s collection, with appropriate hymn texts. Despite its hasty composition, the ode displays a high degree of musical craftsmanship and a striking harmonic and formal coherence. The texts of many other festival Liebesmahle are extant.
The only Moravian composer to achieve renown during his lifetime was C.I. Latrobe (1758–1836), who wrote anthems, solos, multi-movement cantatas and a set of three piano sonatas dedicated to Haydn, whose friend he was in England. Latrobe never worked in America, but a significant number of Moravian composers were active there during the 18th and early 19th centuries. Jeremiah Dencke (1725–95), who went to Bethlehem in 1761, wrote a number of concerted anthems that are considered to be the first such works composed in America, the earliest being a simple piece for chorus, strings and organ for the Bethlehem Provincial Synod in 1766. Other works by Dencke include three sets of sacred songs for soprano, strings and organ. Simon Peter (1743–1819), J.F. Peter’s brother, served in Pennsylvania and North Carolina as a minister and teacher; the few surviving works bearing his name indicate a remarkable talent. G.G. Müller (1762–1821) arrived in America in 1784 and served as a minister in Pennsylvania and Ohio. More than 100 anthems were written by J.A. Herbst (1735–1812), whose private collection of some 1000 vocal works by over 60 composers – most of them Moravians – is an unequalled resource for the study of Moravian music. D.M. Michael (1751–1827) served in America from 1795 to 1815, during which time he wrote over a dozen anthems, 14 woodwind suites, two larger ‘water music’ suites and an extended setting of Psalm ciii for soloists, chorus and orchestra. J.C. Bechler (1784–1857) arrived in America in 1806, where he became one of the first professors at the Moravian Theological Seminary in Bethlehem (founded 1807); his interest in music was lifelong and he is known to have composed some 60 choral and liturgical pieces. Composers who were born in America and received their musical training there include Jacob Van Vleck (1751–1831) and J.C. Till (1762–1844); both of them wrote anthems, hymns and liturgies, and Till was also a prolific copyist. Peter Wolle (1792–1871), a student of Michael and Bechler, edited the first Moravian tune book published in America, Hymn Tunes Used in the Church of the United Brethren (1836), and wrote over a dozen anthems and sacred songs.
In the later 19th century, Moravian settlements in America gradually became more ‘Americanized’, with a language shift from German to English and greater assimilation of contemporary American culture. The number of compositions diminished and the musical style lost some of its distinctiveness, but a number of notable composers were nevertheless active at this time. F.F. Hagen (1815–1907), like so many Moravian composers, spent his professional life primarily as a teacher and pastor; his music reflects 18th-century Moravian roots and shows the influence of 19th-century Romanticism. E.W. Leinbach (1823–1901), who served the North Carolina Moravians as organist and choir director and taught music at Salem Female Academy (now Salem Academy and College), was regarded as the most influential composer in Salem in the second half of the 19th century; his best-known anthem is a double-choir setting of the Hosanna.
Although the earlier German music fell out of favour in American culture during the 19th century, it was nevertheless preserved in the church’s archives. In the mid-20th century interest in this rich heritage was revived, and in 1950 the first Early American Moravian Music Festival was held in Bethlehem under the direction of Thor Johnson, who was to conduct the first 11 festivals. The Moravian Music Foundation was established in 1956 to preserve and care for this musical culture.
Moravians encouraged instrumental music as a way to hone skills for playing worship music but also as a harmless pastime to help train the heart, mind and body. While Moravian composers preferred to expend their compositional talents on sacred vocal music, a few wrote instrumental works. In addition, huge numbers of instrumental works were copied for the Collegia Musica in Bethlehem, Nazareth and Lititz in Pennsylvania, and for Salem, North Carolina. The term ‘Collegium Musicum’ was used to refer to musicians of the community, in whatever venue they were performing; to judge by the surviving music and instruments, such groups must have been quite versatile. In Nazareth the ‘Register of Music Performed in Concert’, an impressive document providing a list of music performed in the town between 14 October 1796 and 30 January 1845, indicates that actual ‘concerts’ took place. (The absence of any specific listings for Bethlehem, Lititz or Salem, however, does not necessarily mean that such performances did not take place outside Nazareth.)
The instrumental music in American Moravian collections ranges from unaccompanied violin sonatas to full late-Classical symphonies and large-scale oratorios. Many works in the Collegia Musica holdings were purchased as printed music, usually quite soon after their publication, and others were copied by Moravians, notably J.F. Peter, whose copying activity greatly benefited all the American Collegia Musica. Of the hundreds of works in these collections, several dozen are currently thought to be the only surviving copies, including two symphonies and two trio sonatas by J.C.F. Bach, three symphonies by Joseph Riepel and several cantatas by J.D. Grimm.
Composers of purely instrumental music include J.F. Peter, John Antes (1740–1811) and D.M. Michael (1751–1827). Among the unique works in the Bethlehem collection is the set of six string quintets that Peter wrote during his years in Salem. The manuscript score and parts bear the date 1789; not only are they Peter’s only known instrumental works, they are also among the earliest (if not the earliest) instrumental chamber music to have been composed in America. The three string trios by John Antes were published in London in about 1791. Antes is also known to have written string quartets, but no copy survives. In addition to his 24 sacred vocal works, D.M. Michael wrote 14 woodwind parthien and two larger ‘water music’ suites, all of them charming and inventive in character.
Brass music played a special role in Moravian settlements, even though the repertory was mostly limited to chorales (pieces written specifically for brass are surprisingly rare in Moravian collections). Moravian brass ensembles – a continuation of the German Stadtpfeifer tradition – announced special services and deaths, welcomed visitors, accompanied hymn singing at outdoor services and funerals and marked events of note throughout the community. For a number of years the trombone choir, consisting of four sizes of instrument, was widely employed; this tradition still persists in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and has been revived in other areas. In the later 19th century the ensembles became more diverse, and by the end of the 20th some of the functions formerly performed by brass alone were fulfilled by a full-scale band, including woodwinds, though still playing four-part chorales.
The extensive and varied musical life of Moravian communities was supported and enhanced by musical training in the home and, especially, in the school curriculum. Such training not only embraced hymns and sacred vocal works but also reflected the more popular elements of the surrounding culture. Although the Moravians chose to live apart, they were not completely isolated from, or indeed ignorant of, the world at large. Manuscript books belonging to students and teachers at Moravian schools contain an astonishing variety of genres, from love songs to virtuoso sets of variations; some of the music in these books appeared quite soon after being published elsewhere in the world.
In the late 18th and early 19th centuries the Moravians used a wide range of musical forms, and their legacy, which is preserved to a remarkable degree, represents a significant contribution to American musical culture. Their careful record-keeping provides musicians and scholars with a wealth of information and repertory not available from any other source.
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