CD  MMFR2101                   Sample Excerpts
© 2021 Moravian Music Foundation

Barbara Lister-Sink, piano

Warwick Lister, violin

Uniquely evocative, impressionistic, and enjoyable American music!

Charles Vardell (1893-1962) was a nationally celebrated composer, an accomplished organist, a beloved teacher, an able and respected administrator, and an arts visionary.

Dean of the School of Music, Salem College (Winston-Salem, NC, USA) from 1928 to 1951.

Dean of the School of Music, Flora MacDonald College (Laurinburg, NC, USA) as it became St. Andrew’s College.  1952 – 1962

THE MUSIC

From a Mountain Walk, six sketches for piano

The Cherry Grove Suite

Nocturne for piano

Sonata for Violin and Piano in A Major

Recorded in Shirley Recital Hall, Salem College

Some recordings were completed in 2019, others, during the pandemic in 2020, as witnessed by these photos, with the producer connected remotely.

This edition is the real thing, edited from the first edition published in London in last decade of the 18th century!

John Antes (1740-1811) was born and raised in Pennsylvania. After working for a few years as an instrument maker in Bethlehem, PA, he was invited to come to Europe, where he undertook several kinds of business with little success. Called to serve the church as a missionary in Egypt beginning in 1769, he survived many adventures both in travel and in his work there. He was tortured and nearly killed by followers of Osman Bey, a local official of the Ottoman Empire. After undergoing the bastinado (beating of the soles of the feet), he was finally released.

It was sometime during this Egyptian period of his life that Antes wrote the trios (identified as Opus 3) and a set of string quartets (which are missing); in fact, a letter to Benjamin Franklin with which he sent a copy of the quartets is dated some four months before his torture. The trios may have been written earlier as well, or they may have been written during his convalescence. As C. Daniel Crews notes in his biography of Antes, “The global sweep of this little episode is amazing: here we have an American-born missionary in Egypt sending copies of his quartets to an American diplomat in France, quartets which he had written for an English nobleman and his associates in India! This makes his dedication of the Three Trios to the Swedish ambassador in Constantinople almost an anti-climax.” (Moravian Music Foundation, 1997, p,13)

This same letter to Franklin also illuminates another side of Antes: in this letter he interceded for the American Moravians in their hardships during the American Revolution. Antes was recalled to Germany in 1782, and beginning in 1785, served as a business manager in Fulneck, England. His composition of sacred concerted vocal works (some three dozen in all) began during the 1780’s, and he retired to Bristol, England, in 1808, and died there on December 17, 1811.

The trios were published in London by John Bland in the early 1790’s, with the following notations on the title page:

Tre Trii, per due Violini mid Violoncello, Obligato Dedicati a Sm Excellenza il Sigre G. J. de Heidenstam, Ambassatore de Sa Maj il Ri de Suede a Constantinople, Composti a Grand Cairo da/ Sigre Giovanni A-T-S. Dillettante Americano. Op. 3. London, Printed & Sold by J. Bland at his Music Warehouse No. 45 Holborn

They found their way to America, with a nearly complete copy (lacking the first page of the cello part) surviving in the collection of the Salem (NC) Collegium Musicum. One other partial copy (lacking the first violin part) was purchased in 1941 by the Eastman School of Music. No other copies are known to exist.

Each of the trios (No. l in Eb major, No. 2 in D minor, and No. 3 in C major) has three movements. Formal structures are marked by classical balance, with sections delineated not by sharp thematic contrast but rather by key area; most of the movements are in a rounded binary or sonata-like structure, but quite often in his recapitulation Antes omits the opening melodic material entirely, or just alludes to it, rather than making a literal restatement. Later themes, stated in the first half of the movement in the dominant (or, in the case of the D minor trio, in the relative major) are clearly restated in the tonic in the recapitulation. At least in Antes” practice, then, the form is based upon harmonic balance and articulated by the fact that all of the primary themes are eventually stated in the tonic key, be it in the exposition or in the recapitulation.

Antes writes for three instruments of equal importance in the texture, which remains consistently dense; rarely does anyone have a full measure of rest. Antes also shows careful control of register, for instance in the development section of the Adagio of Trio I, where he places the three instruments in very close proximity and then moves first violin up and cello down, before closing the section in dramatic octaves.

Antes’ string quartets may yet be rediscovered. Given the beauty and grace of the Antes Trios, and the majesty and expressiveness of his vocal works, the very possibility of finding more music by this gifted composer is intriguing and exhilarating.

This edition is the real thing, edited from the original manuscripts signed by Peter himself!

Johann Friedrich Peter (1746-1813) was born in Heerendijk, Holland, to German Moravian parents. He was educated in Holland and Germany, and, with his brother Simon, came to America in 1770. Peter appears to have begun composing very shortly after his arrival in the new world. He served the Pennsylvania Moravians in Nazareth, Bethlehem, and Lititz, and was sent to Salem, NC in 1780. There, among other duties, he assumed the position of music director for the community. In 1786 he married Catharina Leinbach, a leading soprano in the church choir. Under Peter’s energetic and capable leadership a musical tradition was established in Salem which benefited the community long after his departure in 1790. He afterwards served Moravians in Graceham, MD, Hope, NJ, and Bethlehem, PA, where he was clerk, secretary, and organist at the Central Church.

His six string quintets, written in Salem and dated 1789, are among the earliest known chamber music written in this country. He died in Bethlehem on July 13, 1813, almost literally at the organ bench, shortly after playing for a children’s service. All of Peter’s known compositions (nearly one hundred in all), with the exception of the string quintets, are sacred concerted vocal works. Of these, most are known to have been written for a specific occasion, often using a Scriptural text assigned for the day. In keeping with Moravian compositional practice, Peter’s vocal works are marked by clarity and simplicity. The text is always of primary importance, and the instrumental writing highlights the text, never over-shadowing the vocal parts. In the vocal works, his writing for strings in particular shows that the instrumentalists at his disposal were accomplished players; the writing is consistent with Classic-era style and technique. Peter’s works have earned him the reputation of being the most gifted of Moravian composers in America.

Peter’s compositional gifts brought him great joy and satisfaction; they also gave him cause for concern. In his Lebenslauf (spiritual autobiography) he wrote that his musical gift was troubling to him; he saw that this was valued by “the world”, and he questioned his own motivation for composing music. (It is interesting to note that he wrote this section of his Lebenslauf before composing the quintets-his only known “secular” works!)

Johann Friedrich Peter’s Six String Quintets survive in both full score and parts in Peter’s hand, in the collection of the Philharmonic Society of Bethlehem, housed in the Moravian Archives in Bethlehem, PA. (The Viola 1 part is missing, and for this edition has been  extracted from the full score.) The full score of Peter’s six string quintets is dated 9 January 1789, and the parts are dated 28 February 1789, indicating the probability that these works were composed during his later years in Salem. This in itself is a curious circumstance, since it indicates that Peter took the quintets with him when he left Salem, leaving no copy behind. (The sacred vocal works would be assumed to be the property of the congregation; if he took copies with him to use at his new post, he would have been expected to leave the Salem copies behind.) Peter kept no personal diary as such; there is thus no evidence as to why he wrote these works, nor over how long a period of time he worked on them. Their very existence is a mystery, as these would not have been seen as “necessary” to the life of the church. Were they written simply out of the compulsion to compose, the need to use his gift for instrumental writing without the restrictions of text and occasion? Was Peter “experimenting”?

The string writing in the quintets is, not surprisingly, more virtuosic than in the vocal works. The formal structures adhere to Classic principles of statement, digression, and return, often within a clear sonata-like structure. In Quintet #4, however, he stretches the norms by introducing a foreign key (major submediant) and new thematic material in the development of the first movement, and by using asymmetrical phrase structures in the third movement. Throughout the quintets, Peter shows admirable facility in writing for the instruments, varying textures by using pairs or trios (themselves varied in recapitulations; what began as first and second violins in opposition to first and second violas may be repeated as first violin and viola in opposition to second violin and viola).

Johann Friedrich Peter’s string quintets, then, are lovely and compelling examples of the genre in their own right, worthy of careful attention and rewarding to performer and listener alike. They also provide a foil to his sacred vocal works, showing a facet of his musical gift that is not always readily apparent in the vocal works: a gift for sustaining a larger-scale form, with variety and interest, while maintaining coherence and unity.

This edition is the real thing, edited from the original manuscripts signed by Peter himself!

Johann Friedrich Peter (1746-1813) was born in Heerendijk, Holland, to German Moravian parents. He was educated in Holland and Germany, and, with his brother Simon, came to America in 1770. Peter appears to have begun composing very shortly after his arrival in the new world. He served the Pennsylvania Moravians in Nazareth, Bethlehem, and Lititz, and was sent to Salem, NC in 1780. There, among other duties, he assumed the position of music director for the community. In 1786 he married Catharina Leinbach, a leading soprano in the church choir. Under Peter’s energetic and capable leadership a musical tradition was established in Salem which benefited the community long after his departure in 1790. He afterwards served Moravians in Graceham, MD, Hope, NJ, and Bethlehem, PA, where he was clerk, secretary, and organist at the Central Church.

His six string quintets, written in Salem and dated 1789, are among the earliest known chamber music written in this country. He died in Bethlehem on July 13, 1813, almost literally at the organ bench, shortly after playing for a children’s service. All of Peter’s known compositions (nearly one hundred in all), with the exception of the string quintets, are sacred concerted vocal works. Of these, most are known to have been written for a specific occasion, often using a Scriptural text assigned for the day. In keeping with Moravian compositional practice, Peter’s vocal works are marked by clarity and simplicity. The text is always of primary importance, and the instrumental writing highlights the text, never over-shadowing the vocal parts. In the vocal works, his writing for strings in particular shows that the instrumentalists at his disposal were accomplished players; the writing is consistent with Classic-era style and technique. Peter’s works have earned him the reputation of being the most gifted of Moravian composers in America.

Peter’s compositional gifts brought him great joy and satisfaction; they also gave him cause for concern. In his Lebenslauf (spiritual autobiography) he wrote that his musical gift was troubling to him; he saw that this was valued by “the world”, and he questioned his own motivation for composing music. (It is interesting to note that he wrote this section of his Lebenslauf before composing the quintets-his only known “secular” works!)

Johann Friedrich Peter’s Six String Quintets survive in both full score and parts in Peter’s hand, in the collection of the Philharmonic Society of Bethlehem, housed in the Moravian Archives in Bethlehem, PA. (The Viola 1 part is missing, and for this edition has been  extracted from the full score.) The full score of Peter’s six string quintets is dated 9 January 1789, and the parts are dated 28 February 1789, indicating the probability that these works were composed during his later years in Salem. This in itself is a curious circumstance, since it indicates that Peter took the quintets with him when he left Salem, leaving no copy behind. (The sacred vocal works would be assumed to be the property of the congregation; if he took copies with him to use at his new post, he would have been expected to leave the Salem copies behind.) Peter kept no personal diary as such; there is thus no evidence as to why he wrote these works, nor over how long a period of time he worked on them. Their very existence is a mystery, as these would not have been seen as “necessary” to the life of the church. Were they written simply out of the compulsion to compose, the need to use his gift for instrumental writing without the restrictions of text and occasion? Was Peter “experimenting”?

The string writing in the quintets is, not surprisingly, more virtuosic than in the vocal works. The formal structures adhere to Classic principles of statement, digression, and return, often within a clear sonata-like structure. In Quintet #4, however, he stretches the norms by introducing a foreign key (major submediant) and new thematic material in the development of the first movement, and by using asymmetrical phrase structures in the third movement. Throughout the quintets, Peter shows admirable facility in writing for the instruments, varying textures by using pairs or trios (themselves varied in recapitulations; what began as first and second violins in opposition to first and second violas may be repeated as first violin and viola in opposition to second violin and viola).

Johann Friedrich Peter’s string quintets, then, are lovely and compelling examples of the genre in their own right, worthy of careful attention and rewarding to performer and listener alike. They also provide a foil to his sacred vocal works, showing a facet of his musical gift that is not always readily apparent in the vocal works: a gift for sustaining a larger-scale form, with variety and interest, while maintaining coherence and unity.

This edition is the real thing, edited from the original manuscripts signed by Peter himself!

Johann Friedrich Peter (1746-1813) was born in Heerendijk, Holland, to German Moravian parents. He was educated in Holland and Germany, and, with his brother Simon, came to America in 1770. Peter appears to have begun composing very shortly after his arrival in the new world. He served the Pennsylvania Moravians in Nazareth, Bethlehem, and Lititz, and was sent to Salem, NC in 1780. There, among other duties, he assumed the position of music director for the community. In 1786 he married Catharina Leinbach, a leading soprano in the church choir. Under Peter’s energetic and capable leadership a musical tradition was established in Salem which benefited the community long after his departure in 1790. He afterwards served Moravians in Graceham, MD, Hope, NJ, and Bethlehem, PA, where he was clerk, secretary, and organist at the Central Church.

His six string quintets, written in Salem and dated 1789, are among the earliest known chamber music written in this country. He died in Bethlehem on July 13, 1813, almost literally at the organ bench, shortly after playing for a children’s service. All of Peter’s known compositions (nearly one hundred in all), with the exception of the string quintets, are sacred concerted vocal works. Of these, most are known to have been written for a specific occasion, often using a Scriptural text assigned for the day. In keeping with Moravian compositional practice, Peter’s vocal works are marked by clarity and simplicity. The text is always of primary importance, and the instrumental writing highlights the text, never over-shadowing the vocal parts. In the vocal works, his writing for strings in particular shows that the instrumentalists at his disposal were accomplished players; the writing is consistent with Classic-era style and technique. Peter’s works have earned him the reputation of being the most gifted of Moravian composers in America.

Peter’s compositional gifts brought him great joy and satisfaction; they also gave him cause for concern. In his Lebenslauf (spiritual autobiography) he wrote that his musical gift was troubling to him; he saw that this was valued by “the world”, and he questioned his own motivation for composing music. (It is interesting to note that he wrote this section of his Lebenslauf before composing the quintets-his only known “secular” works!)

Johann Friedrich Peter’s Six String Quintets survive in both full score and parts in Peter’s hand, in the collection of the Philharmonic Society of Bethlehem, housed in the Moravian Archives in Bethlehem, PA. (The Viola 1 part is missing, and for this edition has been  extracted from the full score.) The full score of Peter’s six string quintets is dated 9 January 1789, and the parts are dated 28 February 1789, indicating the probability that these works were composed during his later years in Salem. This in itself is a curious circumstance, since it indicates that Peter took the quintets with him when he left Salem, leaving no copy behind. (The sacred vocal works would be assumed to be the property of the congregation; if he took copies with him to use at his new post, he would have been expected to leave the Salem copies behind.) Peter kept no personal diary as such; there is thus no evidence as to why he wrote these works, nor over how long a period of time he worked on them. Their very existence is a mystery, as these would not have been seen as “necessary” to the life of the church. Were they written simply out of the compulsion to compose, the need to use his gift for instrumental writing without the restrictions of text and occasion? Was Peter “experimenting”?

The string writing in the quintets is, not surprisingly, more virtuosic than in the vocal works. The formal structures adhere to Classic principles of statement, digression, and return, often within a clear sonata-like structure. In Quintet #4, however, he stretches the norms by introducing a foreign key (major submediant) and new thematic material in the development of the first movement, and by using asymmetrical phrase structures in the third movement. Throughout the quintets, Peter shows admirable facility in writing for the instruments, varying textures by using pairs or trios (themselves varied in recapitulations; what began as first and second violins in opposition to first and second violas may be repeated as first violin and viola in opposition to second violin and viola).

Johann Friedrich Peter’s string quintets, then, are lovely and compelling examples of the genre in their own right, worthy of careful attention and rewarding to performer and listener alike. They also provide a foil to his sacred vocal works, showing a facet of his musical gift that is not always readily apparent in the vocal works: a gift for sustaining a larger-scale form, with variety and interest, while maintaining coherence and unity.