The Music of the Moravian Church in America

Nola Reed Knouse is director of the Moravian Music Foundation.

The Moravians, or Bohemian Brethren, early Protestants who settled in Pennsylvania and North Carolina in the eighteenth century, brought a musical repertoire that included hymns, sacred vocal works accompanied by chamber orchestra, and instrumental music by the best-known European composers of the day. Moravian composers -- mostly pastors and teachers trained in the styles and genres of the Haydn-Mozart era -- crafted thousands of compositions for worship, and copied and collected thousands of instrumental works for recreation and instruction. The book's chapters examine sacred and secular works, both for instruments -- including piano solo -- and for voices. The Music of the Moravian Church demonstrates the varied roles that music played in one of America's most distinctive ethno-cultural populations, and presents many distinctive pieces that performers and audiences continue to find rewarding.

The Moravians and Their Music - Nola Reed KnouseMoravian Worship: The Why of Moravian Music - C Daniel CrewsHymnody of the Moravian Church - Albert H Frank and Nola Reed KnouseMoravian Sacred Vocal Music - Alice M. CaldwellThe Organ in Moravian Church Music - Lou Carol FixThe Role and Development of Brass Music in the Moravian Church - Paul M PeuckerThe Collegia Musica: Music of the Community - Nola Reed KnouseMusic in Moravian Boarding Schools through the Early Nineteenth Century - Pauline M FoxThe Piano among the Moravians in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth centuries: Music, Instruction and Construction - Jewel SmithMoravian Music: Questions of Identity and Purpose - Nola Reed Knouse