The Easter Cantata was composed by Ernst Wilhelm Wolf (1735-1791) in Weimar, Germany, in the early 1780s based on a libretto by Johann Gottfried Herder.

Ernst Wilhelm Wolf was born in Grossen Behringen, Germany in 1735. He attended schools in Eisenach and Gotha, and in 1755, at the age of 20, he attended the University of Jena, where he led the collegium musicum at Jena. Wolf arrived at Weimar in the late 1750s or 1760, to serve as a music teacher, and later as Konzertmeister, Organist, and Kapellmeister. He was himself a composer of operas, keyboard sonatas, and various other vocal works.

EASTER CANTATA – Ernst Wilhelm Wolf (1735-1791)

Historically significant to the Moravian settlers of Wachovia, the Easter Cantata was composed by Ernst Wilhelm Wolf (1735-1791) in Weimar, Germany, in the early 1780s based on a libretto by Johann Gottfried Herder. The Easter Cantata was evidently quite popular among the Moravians in America, as evidenced by the number of copies of the complete work as well as of individual movements from it.

The two sources used for this edition were both by Moravian Bishop, Johannes Herbst (1735-1812) from Salem’s archival collections. Manuscript parts are found in Moravian congregation collections from Bethlehem PA, Lititz PA, Nazareth PA, and Salem NC