This list is neither complete nor exhaustive, but includes many of the more prolific and better known composers of the last 300 years. An exhaustive list would also include hymn composers, hymn text writers, and composers of spiritual songs.

The composers of Moravian music throughout history have been primarily people with other vocations. Moravian composers of the 18^th and 19^th century were also pastors, teachers, and administrators, with responsibilities far beyond composing and directing music. These Moravian composers wrote very few pieces of independent instrumental music, though the Moravians used instrumental music extensively for instruction and enjoyment.

Among the most influential, prolific, and/or enduring Moravian composers were:

• John Antes (1740-1811), Pennsylvania-born instrument maker, missionary, and composer of the earliest known instrumental chamber music by an American born composer;
• Johann Christian Bechler (1874-1857), German minister, one of the first professors at Moravian Theological Seminary, later elected bishop;
• Jeremias Dencke (1725-1795), German organist and composer of the earliest example of Moravian concerted church music in America;
• Johann Ludwig Freydt (1748-1807), teacher in Moravian schools, co-worker with Christian Latrobe;
• Johann Christian Geisler (1729-1815), German Moravian minister and member of the Unity Elders Conference;
• Christian Gregor (1723-1801), minister, organist, and church administrator and bishop; editor of the German Gesangbuch of 1778 and the Choralbuch of 1784, both highly influential for more than a century;
• Johann Daniel Grimm (1719-1760), musician and teacher of Johann Friedrich Peter; compiler of the 1755 manuscript chorale book of almost 1,000 tunes;
• Francis Florentine Hagen (1815-1907), American Moravian teacher, pastor, and evangelist;
• Johannes Herbst (1735-1812), bookkeeper, teacher, organist, pastor, bishop, headmaster of Moravian girls’ school in Lititz, Pennsylvania, and a prolific composer and copyist of other Moravian composers’ works;
• Christian David Jaeschke (1755-1827), descendant of early Czech immigrant family, teacher, organist, and copyist;
• Christian Ignatius Latrobe (1758-1836), English Moravian missions administrator, and friend of Franz Joseph Haydn;
• Heinrich Lonas (1838-1903), organist and teacher, editor of a Moravian chorale book used in Germany;
• David Moritz Michael (1751-1827), German Moravian teacher and worker with the single brethren in Nazareth and Bethlehem, leader of Bethlehem Collegium musicum and composer of wind ensemble music and sacred vocal works;
• Johann Friedrich Peter (1746-1813), pastor, teacher, music director, and composer of more than 80 sacred vocal works and 6 string quintets, possibly the earliest chamber music written in America;
• Simon Peter (1743-1819), brother of J. F. Peter, pastor and church administrator;
• Johann Christopher Pyrlaeus (1713-1785), first Moravian musician to serve in Native American missions; organizer of first Moravian Indian-language school and translator of many hymns into Mohican language; established Bethlehem Collegium musicum;
• The “Van Vleck sisters,” Amelia Adelaide (1835-1929), Lisette Marie Van Vleck Meinung (1830-1914); Louisa Cornelia (1826-1902), all teachers at Salem Female Academy and composers primarily of well crafted and sophisticated salon music for piano, voices, and guitar;
• Jacob Van Vleck (1751-1831), pastor and inspector of Bethlehem girls’ school, bishop and musician, grandfather of the Van Vleck sisters;
• H. M. H. W. Voullaire (1825-1902), teacher and pastor of several European Moravian congregations, composer in the style of Brahms;

Countless others who served the church through their musical abilities alongside their other vocations, include these and many more:

Christian Ludwig Brau
Theodor Lily Clemens
Ernst Immanuel Erbe
John Gambold Jr
Johann Gottfried Gebhard
Christian Gottfried Geisler
Christian Friedrich Hasse
Edward W. Leinbach
James Montgomery
Georg Gottfried Müller
Abraham Ritter
Johann Christian Till
John Frederick Wolle
Peter Wolle
John Worthington

This list just barely makes it into the 20th century.

Moravian composers today, like their forebears in the faith, are primarily trained musicians who may or may not be employed, but are certainly involved, in church music, music education, or music performance. Many will have non-music or non-church professions and still serve the Moravian Church through music.

SLIDESHOW

Celebrating Excellence

The achievements of the Moravian Music Foundation are a direct result of having the right people, with a high level of experience and expertise.
No two people better exemplify excellence than our director and assistant director,
who served 30 years and 15 years, respectively, before retiring in August of 2022.

Rev. Nola Reed Knouse, Ph.D.

Director
Winston-Salem office

Gwyneth Michel

Assistant Director
Bethlehem office

To the extent that time allowed, Nola Knouse has continued scholarly work, editing and writing:
The Music of the Moravian Church in America (published 2008),
and nearing completion of:
Preserving, Sharing, Celebrating;
A History of the Moravian Music Foundation.

Nola has affirmed that all of these things could happen only with a great staff and a supportive Board of Trustees, recognizing that it takes a group of dedicated and gifted people to do things like these, and MMF has been richly blessed, in both the staff members and the Board. The trustees also all agree with Nola that none of these things could have happened without our donors and friends.

As the sole staff member in Bethlehem, Gwyn has gracefully managed a variety of administrative responsibilities there, and cultivated a productive symbiotic relationship with the Moravian Archives (Northern Province), where the MMF office and collections reside, as well as with Moravian University, Theological Seminary, area arts and historical organizations, and with the leadership and agencies of the Moravian Church (Northern Province).

Why Attend Moravian Music on the Mountain?

Music on the Mountain is the annual Moravian Music Weekend at Laurel Ridge Camp, Conference and Retreat Center.

It is interesting that we don’t have a completely different group of participants each year; in fact, many come year after year, and I think there are a handful who haven’t missed a single one!

If you’ve been before, we hope you’ll come back again this March 10-12; if you haven’t been, then now’s the time to make your plans to come for the first time!

Who comes? Band players … choir singers … and listeners. No one need audition; no one will be singled out or embarrassed; everyone goes away encouraged, built up in faith and in musical experience, and in joy. And of course, there’ll be plenty of opportunities for conversation amongst the participants and time to talk to the Music Foundation staff about all those things you’ve been meaning to ask us …

Band players have a chance to play chorales and other music with a full band, under a different director each year, with a different experience than can happen in your church band. You’ll learn new techniques (and new jokes), and strengthen friendships. Pick up your horn, your chorale books, and your folding music stand and come along!

Choral singers have a chance to sing through a group of anthems and learn a few to sing in worship on the Sunday morning, also with a different director each year. You’ll learn music that’s new to you, gain insights into choral singing from your director, and sing with different people than you sit beside week after week. And if you don’t in a choir regularly, that’s just fine too!

Listeners are those folks who just love to be on the mountain, but don’t want to participate in the band or choir. Some have spouses or roommates who are participating; some just come to be present and hear all the music making.

We’ll gather in time for supper on Friday evening, and have initial playing and singing time, and devotions together. Saturday we’ll have time to play and sing together, several hours of free time in the afternoon, and then comes the evening! On Saturday evening we’ll have an informal talent show! “Acts” in the past have included folk singing with guitar and violin accompaniment; poetry recitations; gospel hymns on the piano; original compositions by weekend participants; a “special visitor from the east”; and many other wonderful presentations, some serious, some not so much. And also on Saturday evening, the weekend band and chorus will play and sing for each other, sharing the results of our time together.

Sunday morning we’ll have a little more time to play and sing, and then we’ll go to share worship at Mountain Laurel Moravian Fellowship, just a few miles away. They are now in their new worship space, so make sure you get the NEW DIRECTIONS. Our weekend concludes with a joyful time of musical worship with this lively community, and then safe travels home ‘til next year!

Let’s fill Higgins Lodge with music, this year!

See you on the mountain!

Notes from Nola … The Moravian Music Foundation celebrates …

Continuing my series on the Moravian Music Foundation’s mission statement, what do we mean by “celebrating”?

The Moravian Music Foundation preserves, shares, and celebrates Moravian musical culture.

What do we celebrate in our world? Anniversaries … birthdays … all sorts of special occasions … maybe a new job, or a promotion, or a retirement … all sorts of transitions. Accomplishments of many kinds merit acknowledgment and celebration. And a lot of these include music – from a family singing “happy birthday” to bringing in a dance band.

Celebrating is certainly part of Moravian history and culture. Think of the annual remembrances that are common to all Christian churches – the birth of Christ; the passion, death, and resurrection of Christ; ascension; congregational anniversaries. All of these are in our Moravian world, as well as several others. Think of the special Moravian commemorations – the martyrdom of John Hus (July 6); the renewal of the Moravian Church (August 13); the acknowledgment of Jesus Christ as the Chief Elder of the Moravian Church (November 13). Special services have been held for these Moravian festivals for many generations, and there is a wealth of hymns and anthems written especially for these days. And many Moravian congregations have special celebrations for groups within the church. Some have a “workers’ lovefeast”, acknowledging the many contributions of members to the life and work of the church throughout the year. The Southern Province has an annual Children’s Festival in August, and music is certainly a part of that every year. Some still celebrate the “choir festivals” – single brothers, single sisters, married people, and so on.

But what, especially, does the Moravian Music Foundation do to “celebrate Moravian musical culture?” Our “celebration” work covers a lot of activites. Some of these are …

• holding Moravian Music Festivals every four years. (Note: Due to the Covid 19 pandemic, the 2021 Festival was held online with a Part II set for July 26, 2022 in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania). Watch for updates, and plan to come …
• holding Moravian Music Weekends. We’ve now hosted 8 of these at Laurel Ridge Camp, Conference, and Retreat Center in the mountains of North Carolina, and we’d love to hold these at other locations as well. Interested in one in your area? Let’s talk about how to make it happen.
• sponsoring the Unitas Chorale in Pennsylvania and the Moramus Chorale in North Carolina. These two groups of singers rehearse and perform Moravian music and other music complementary to it – perhaps music by composers the Moravians knew and loved, or music written on Moravian tunes or texts. Both groups welcome new singers at any time, and our office can put you in touch with the directors (Gwyn Michel with the Unitas Chorale and Drake Flynt with the Moramus Chorale).
• providing music and programming assistance for other groups wanting to perform music from our collections. Many professional and amateur musical groups (and individual performers) contact our office each year asking about music, and we help by suggesting music to fit their programming wishes, their available musicians, and so on. We make the Lending Libraries available to all who contact us (a future post will say more!), or we sell our own publications. We’re happy to provide background information and program notes.
• helping Moravian congregations celebrate special occasions – providing music and liturgy suggestions for the services of dedication (or re-dedication) of or a building; for a special anniversary; for a vacation Bible school; for a children’s hand chimes group; for almost anything a congregation wants to celebrate with music!
• helping congregations, Moravian and many other denominations, who want to hold a Moravian lovefeast or candle service. We can send music suggestions, practical ideas for how to hold it, information about obtaining candles or lovefeast buns, suggested orders of worship, and so on.

When you think of celebrating, then, you may already think of music. And we hope that as your congregation or organization thinks of future celebrations, you’ll remember that the Moravian Music Foundation is here to help with music suggestions for almost any occasion!

Next time? The Music Lending Libraries managed by the Moravian Music Foundation – What’s in them, who uses them, and how can you use them?

Musically yours,

– Nola

The GemeinKat Project Update

I hope you’ve been keeping up with the good stories arising from GemeinKat – the Moravian Music Foundation’s project to convert the catalog to electronic records accessible world-wide! Let’s be clear – this project isn’t digitizing the whole collection; you’re not going to be able to download the  manuscripts themselves. But you do have growing access to the catalog records – you can see just what we have!

Barbara’s GemeinKat Blog

There are many, many steps to this project, and the results are growing in three areas:

1. GemeinKat is an online catalog, which includes records for all manuscript and printed music under custodial care of the Moravian Music Foundation. It is a component part of OCLC’s WorldCat Discovery family of online catalogs.
2. RISM: The International Inventory of Musical Sources – Répertoire International des Sources Musicales (RISM) – is an international, non-profit organization which aims for comprehensive documentation of extant musical sources worldwide. These primary sources are manuscripts or printed music, writings on music theory, and libretti. They are housed in libraries, archives, monasteries, schools and private collections. Cataloging musical sources is financed and carried out by various national and international institutions. RISM documents what exists and where it is kept. RISM documents reside in the RISM catalogue.
3. Finding aids describe a wide range of formats, including card indexes, calendars, guides, inventories, shelf and container lists, and registers. A finding aid is a single document that places the materials in context by consolidating information about the collection, such as acquisition and processing; provenance, including administrative history or biographical note; scope of the collection, including size, subjects, media; organization and arrangement; and an inventory of the series and the folders.

You can access GemeinKat right from this web page – start here… and follow the links.

Barbara Strauss has been GemeinKat Project Manager since December of 2014, but her involvement predates that by many years. A specialist in catalog conversion projects, Barbara has been leading the MMF staff and board in setting the vision and seeking funds for this project for nearly 20 years now, and it is a wonderful experience to see it coming true. She works with Project Cataloger (and now MMF Research Librarian) Dave Blum, setting project strategies, training and supervising part-time catalogers and incipit writers (we have 3 now – Jill Bruckart and Jan Harke in Bethlehem, Donna Rothrock in Winston-Salem; we have had quite a few more over the years, some of whom began as student interns and just stayed around!), and providing the long-term vision of the entire project. As of early in 2019, we have completed the cataloging of nearly all the major collections and a number of the smaller collections; incipits have been written for the majority of the Bethlehem holdings and a number of the Winston-Salem holdings; and I am faithfully writing the text of the finding aids.

An expected consequence is an increase in the number of research requests – and that’s happening indeed! For many researchers today, the thought of traveling to a library or archives just to see what they have is inconceivable; so that if it’s not accessible online, it’s often pretty well overlooked by many students and scholars. As we continue to bring more collections online, Dave is getting more requests – and that’s a good thing, as the Moravian Music Foundation continues to preserve, share, and celebrate Moravian musical culture!

For those who have contributed to GemeinKat, we thank you very, very much! We are still seeking contributions to help us reach the finish line of this very, very important project in MMF’s history and future!

The Moravian Music Foundation preserves, shares, and celebrates Moravian musical culture.

Online…

Due to the Covid Pandemic of 2020, the conference will be conducted online, April 20-24, 2021. More information at the Moravian Archives in Bethlehem site and the Conference site.

Conference Website

Register at www.MoravianConferences.org and you will receive the link to the concert and to all the sessions. You may also make a donation to help the conference offset its expenses!

2020 was the 250th year of the birth of Ludwig Van Beethoven, and so this concert honors “Beethoven in Bethlehem” (a few months later) by using a major work found in the Bethlehem collections!

The Bethlehem Conference on Moravian History and Music actually has its origins with the first Bethlehem Conference on Moravian Music that took place in 1995, focusing on the contributions of organ-builder David Tannenberg. This conference was such a success that another was held two years later, and another, and then it was decided to expand it into a joint conference on Moravian history and music every two years in the fall. This sixth such joint conference will explore Moravian history and music from the 15^th to the 21^st centuries, in Europe, the Americas, Asia, Africa, and Australia.

Conference tickets include all lectures, presentations, panels and performances; an opening reception on Thursday; and a concert presented by the Moravian Music Foundation on Friday evening; the Moses Lecture in Moravian Studies on Thursday and the Moravian Historical Society Lecture.

While the conference features many scholarly presentations of new research, most will also be of interest to the “non-scholar” who just loves history or music, and the conference attendees always include both academic and non-academic listeners.

The Moravian Music Foundation has several special offerings during this conference:

Yours Truly, MMF Research Librarian, Dave Blum, and Cataloger, Donna Rothrock, will all present papers.

FULL SCHEDULE:
17 Sessions, a Keynote, and the Moses Lecture in Moravian Studies

And on Friday night the Foundation is sponsoring what promises to be a wonderful concert of chamber music, much of it newly edited and just being introduced to listeners! (Note: This concert is open to the public, whether or not you are attending the whole conference.)

There will be nearly 4 dozen presentations, with speakers from a dozen or more countries around the world. The hardest part will be making your choices – concurrent sessions mean you can’t actually hear every single presentation of the conference! Although, having content online may make it easier to move between sessions. It promises to be a wonderful few days of listening, conversation, and learning!

Registration for the conference is now open at http://www.MoravianConferences.org. There are special rates for students and seniors.

We hope to see you in Bethlehem!

While I write this, MMF’s first self-produced CD, Joining Our Voices, is playing on my computer. I’m the only one in the building as yet (not unusual for before 8:00 a.m.), and the sound of the voices singing joyfully brings comfort.

Yes, the Winston-Salem office staff are working in the office these days; it’s a big building and we’re exercising our social distancing, and being careful not to answer the phone in anyone else’s office or share computers or anything like that. Hand sanitizer is at all the entrances. So we’re each working largely alone, but there’s some comfort in keeping the old routines of getting up, dressing, coming to work …

After reading below, come back and
check out this more recent article about
music ensembles and infection transmission.

(I was just jolted out of my peaceful mood by the obnoxious sound of the fire alarm. Oh yes, I did know that this morning would be the annual test of the fire alarm and sprinkler system. Turn up the volume, Nola.)

Spoiler alert:
This is closer to a sermon than to an informative musical post!

Why listen?

The hymns are a reminder of things that do not change – “The one eternal God, whom heaven and earth adore – for thus it was, is now, and shall be evermore” (Moravian Book of Worship, hymn 533, verse 3). Sometimes to listen to a hymn asserting God’s goodness and power is itself an act of faith – it may not feel like this now, but I choose to “keep the faith” – to hang onto the things I have known to be true, to cling to the God whom I have known throughout my life, even as the number of COVID-19 cases keeps rising, hospitals are facing shortages, too many people are suffering and dying …

God never promised that we would not go through hard times. God never told us we’d never suffer, never be sick, never die too young, never lose our job, never face hunger or homelessness. God does promise that we will never face those things alone, for God is with us. In this time of Lent, we remember what Jesus suffered – setting his face toward Jerusalem, knowing that anguish and death would soon come to him. Jesus suffered all the agonies of pain, loneliness, and death. And God the Father suffered the death of his only Son.

Friends – brothers and sisters – God has suffered, known in God’s own self, every pain and grief we bear. That is the source of my stubborn, resilient faith. I can cry to God with all my anguish, knowing that God can truly say, “Nola, I know how you feel.”

I close this not-very-musical meditation with two final words:

“Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me?
Hope in God, for I shall again praise him, my help and my God”

Psalm 42:11

The final word isn’t a word from me; it’s from Joining Our Voices.

Click the link and listen, and be uplifted.
The peace of Christ enfold you. — Nola (March 22, 2020)

Holy Trinity, We Confess With Joy

A message of hope and assurance for these uncertain times. Rev. Nola Reed Knouse, Ph.D., Director of the Moravian Music Foundation. Please support the mission of MMF to preserve, share and celebrate Moravian musical culture.

Considerations for musicians and worship leaders (5/21/20):

The Gebauer Duos for Flute and Violin with Cello accompaniment (hence, Trios) – with a performance from the 25th Moravian Music Festival! Rev. Nola Reed Knouse, Ph.D., Director of the Moravian Music Foundation, leads us on a journey through Moravian history and offers us a glimpse at a few of the treasures residing in the archives in Winston-Salem and Bethlehem. Please support the mission of MMF to preserve, share and celebrate Moravian musical culture.

Notes from Nola … The Moravian Music Foundation shares …

Continuing my series on the Moravian Music Foundation’s mission statement, what do we mean by “sharing”?

The Moravian Music Foundation preserves, shares, and celebrates Moravian musical culture.

Possession is, I think, a human instinct. When there’s something we like, we want to keep it, to own it, to know we can have access to it at any time. Possessing can be a good thing – I for one am very glad to possess a very fine flute – but it can also be mismanaged – think of a hoarding situation.

Do you remember learning to share as a child? or trying to teach your children to share? It’s not always easy! But with maturity, at our best, when we have something we like a lot, something we’re very proud of, we don’t want to keep it all to ourselves. We want others to enjoy that really cool thing. (I’ve enjoyed seeing talented students play my flute and enjoy its beauty.)

So along with the Moravian Music Foundation’s responsibility to preserve Moravian musical culture comes our delight and our obligation to share that wonderful heritage. We don’t want to keep it to ourselves; it’s much more fun to see other people light up with joy as they experience the breadth and depth and richness of Moravian music.

“Sharing”, then, is whatever we do that helps other people know and enjoy what we enjoy. To “share” a musical culture means to make its fruits available to others. That can happen through …

• Producing recordings (we’ve recently released Harmonious to Dwell, our fourth compact disc recording of the Moravian Lower Brass!)
• Writing and releasing publications: the Moravian Star Anthem Series, the new Moravian songbook Sing to the Lord a New Song, Moravian music for organ or for piano, a forthcoming set of three Moravian handbell pieces; publications of books and booklets on many topics relating to our music life
• Offering workshops and events: maybe you want to try your hand at writing a hymn. Maybe you want to have a chance to read through a whole set of Moravian anthems just to pick new ones for your choir to enjoy.
• Publishing the free Newsletter of the Moravian Music Foundation, and our monthly email newsletter, to help you know what’s going on
• Providing videos of concerts and lectures on our website, so you can enjoy these events from wherever you live
• Telling our story online through social media and our active website (www.MoravianMusic.org)
• Providing detailed program notes for concerts (whether or not we are the sponsor of the concert!) and “liner notes” for our recordings, so you can learn more about the composers and their music

So there’s a lot to this “sharing” verb. As we’ve noted, it’s no good having something great if you’re the only one who knows about it! And “sharing” is something you can do, too – tell your Moravian music story to others! Share the link to these blog posts with them. Call us up and invite us to come to your location with a workshop or reading session or other event.

It’s more fun if we do it together.

Next time? The Moravian Music Foundation celebrates …

Musically yours,

– Nola