“Early American Moravian music receives plaudits” from the June 24, 1971 Door County Advocate
Early American Moravian music receives plaudits
By HENRY SHEA
A sampling of Early American music, mostly of Moravian origin or brought to America by Moravians, was the joint presentation last Sunday night of Thor Johnson, commentator, and the local Choraliers, directed by Merle Colburn, Algoma. The concert took place at Ephraim Moravian church whose organist, Mrs. Emery Koehler, assisted in the program. Loprenz Heise was chairman for the event, acting for the Peninsula Arts association. The invocation was by the Rev. John Rhind in the absence of Rev. Charles Harberg, temporarily suffering from a baseball backlash.
Opening the evening the audience joined Festival Director Johnson in exploring a hymn “What Splendid Rays of Truth and Grace” by Christian Gregor, whose life span, covered the beginning years of American independence. Gregor was the first to create a hymnbook system for Moravians and was considered the “dean” of Moravian music.
A group of anthems presented by the Choraliers began with “Lord God, Merciful and Gracious” with music by Gregor. Two anthems, the musical portion by John Antes, followed. One, titled, at least, in a surprisingly modern way “Go, Congregation, Go” featured a soprano solo by Doris Ullsperger. The solo presented the theme of human witnesses to the sufferings of Christ. A second anthem by Antes “Surely He Hath Borne our Grief” brought the choral group into full play in handling the melodic line of the music.
“Lamb of God Thou Shalt Remain Forever,” the music by George Mueller, ended the group of anthems with a dynamic, full swelling rendition.
Commentator Johnson noted that Mueller’s work now seemed to have returned full circle. Explaining this, he described the composer as an active missionary translator of chorales into Indian dialects, frequently accompanied by guitar, the only instrument available. Recently “Lamb of God” was performed in concert with a guitar ensemble.
Examples of secular music by Moravians next presented were a recorded fragment of a string quintet by John Fredrick Peter and a sonata by Christian LaTrobe. John Peter was an enthusiast for the work of Mozart and Haydn and introduced many of their compositions to the Americans. Strangely, Bach was at this time considered out-of-date and was not given much room in the portfolios of emigrating Moravian musicians.
Carol Winborne, member of the music staff of Oshkosh state university, delivered a firm performance of the LaTrobe Sonata No. 3 in C major for piano. Johnson’s comment on this group of pieces was that much of the known secular music by Moravians was never performed until recently, apparently because of the composer’s sense of duty in putting their church music first.
Further anthems by the Choraliers followed. “Thy Guiding Hand,” music by Karl Reissiger, traced the development of Moravian music in its middle period. Later composition was represented by “All the World Shall Sing,” music by Francis Hagen who is best known for the traditional “Morning Star” sung at Christmas services in Moravian churches.
Because the reviewer had to leave before the final hymn he would like to end with an impression received by an 11 year old, exposed for the first time to Moravian church music. Asked if she enjoyed it, she answered — Yes, especially that “one.” Questioned as to which “one” she meant, she replied “Well, Swinging with Ebenezer.” Conductor Thor Johnson might not approve of the little girl’s version but he would have to applaud her enthusiasm.
If applause were usual for sacred concerts it is certain that Sunday’s hearers would have thus extended their thanks to Thor Johnson, the Choraliers and the Peninsula Arts association.
Courtesy of the Door County Library Newspaper Archive
[“What Splendid Rays of Truth and Grace”: https://hymnary.org/hymn/Mor1995/596
“Go, Congregation, Go”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1IjyjtIYp4
“Lamb of God Thou Shalt Remain Forever”: https://archive.org/details/hymnalliturgiesomoravi/page/168/mode/2up
“All the World Shall Sing”: https://gemmell-posts.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/moravianmusicsundaybulletin.pdf#page=5
“Morning Star”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmCcj8-fzhs ]
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