Collegium Musicum

A couple weeks ago we went to an Amish church service. Last evening we went to a Moravian church. Don't worry, we're not church shopping. I saw an announcement for a music program being held in the Brothers House of the Moravian church in Lititz and thought it looked interesting. We decided to go and it was well worth the effort. 

The Moravians who settled in Lititz in the mid-18th century brought a strong musical tradition with them from Europe. In the 1760s they founded the Collegium Musicum for accomplished musicians.  It's hard imagine that this level of musical expertise and performance took place in Lititz at a time when it was a remote and essentially untamed wilderness. The Collegium was the core of what would become the Lititz Philharmonic Society and the Lititz Band in the mid-19th century. 

The all-new Lititz Moravian Collegium Musicum was established to perform live concerts from the church's library of printed scores and manuscripts from the mid-18th to early-19th century. The program began with several selections played on a pipe organ built especially for the Moravian church in Lititz in 1793 by David Tannenberg . While the organist played, another man pulled the ropes (left of the organ) that worked the bellows above the ceiling.

The orchestra began with two opera overtures and moved on through a variety of pieces. Some were played with wind instruments including clarinets, bassoons and horns. A trio played on 200-year-old violins. The Conductor played the piano and sang some hymns written by a Moravian pastor, Johannes Herbast (1735-1812). These were composed as meditations on a particular Scripture verse. The conductor sang one verse in the German in which it was originally written and then an English translation. The audience also joined in singing three familiar hymns throughout the program. We were seated right behind the bassoons and they were so loud I couldn't hear my own voice but I sang anyway.

You can hear some of the music on this video. It was recorded at the first concert last fall so it isn't the exact piece we heard but it will give you an idea of the music they play. 

Music is one of the ways to preserve our heritages. The Moravians have always used instruments in their worship services. They insist the instruments enhance the music. Mennonites have traditionally espoused acapella singing and a multitude of choruses and choirs train voices to sing in four parts without accompaniment. While I enjoy instrumental music, I still prefer acapella for worship. The message of the hymn is in the words and instruments damage the singing. People who use instruments in worship services forget how to sing in parts and the words are drowned out by the instruments. (I couldn't hear my own voice above the bassoons.)

That said, the Collegium Musicum will have another program in the fall and it would be well worth your time to go hear it.