Strengthening the Unity Through Music

The Moravian - April 2005

One of the elements of Moravian identity throughout the world is our music. Not only do the Gregor chorales and anthems of the eighteenth century attract musicians and cultural historians far beyond our denominational boundaries, but the hymns, anthems, and instrumental pieces of the provinces are shared and new understanding and vision are gained by this interchange. The presence of hymns from many areas of our worldwide church in the Moravian Book of Worship is a good example of this in our congregations today.

The Moravian Music Foundation (MMF) has begun to find new ways to assist other provinces and broaden our service to the entire Unity in our work. While the North American provinces, and for some years the British Province through the work of Frances Blandford, have a working relationship through the MMF, this is now expanding.

In our European Continental Province, the Foundation has provided music for conferences and for the Herrnhut congregation. The staff has provided information about favorite hymns for consideration in the production of an international Moravian hymn booklet that will be useful for Unity events such as youth conferences, Unity Synods, Women’s Conferences, and Unity Board meetings. Research in the Herrnhut archives has led to new editions of works by Jaeschke and Lonas. The Neuwied congregation has shared its catalog with the Foundation now to further studies in the work of David Moritz Michael and Heinrich Lonas, and the works of Wilhelm Wauer are starting to be recognized for their value at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. The published Zeist catalog has been on hand for over a decade.

The musical collection from Niesky had been sent to Gnadenfrei to be cataloged during the pre-war years. The intervention of the war and loss of the former Silesian congregations as boundaries were redrawn left unanswered questions about the Niesky manuscripts. In recent years, they have been discovered at the University of Warsaw from which it is hoped that they may eventually be returned to Niesky or Herrnhut for study.

The recent connections with the Brass Band organization of the South African Moravian Church has drawn the MMF into a new partnership. The acting director will be one of two advisors to meet with the South African musicians in May 2005 to discuss planning for a Unity-wide brass festival in South Africa in 2007. It is hoped that the 2005 trip will allow an opportunity to look at some of the musical collections in the older congregations to further the cause of understanding and common heritage elements.

And there is manuscript music in Labrador, as well as numerous new things all throughout the Unity that continue to provide vision and new understanding of work yet to be done.

The Rev. Dr. Albert H. Frank is Acting Director of the Moravian Music Foundation, which has offices in both the Northern and Southern Provinces (located in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and Winston-Salem, North Carolina).