Typescript (photocopy). / Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

The purpose of the lecture was to investigate the historical and musical heritage of the Moravian Church, with a particular interest in the works and players of the American Moravian Trombone Choir. The historical overview of people, customs, and practices is traced from its beginnings with the Unitas Fratrum in Bohemia through the Northern Germany settlement of Herrenhut and the establishment of the American Moravian colony at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. The musical life of the church is represented by a discussion of the early hymns of the founding fathers in Bohemia and the subsequent instrumental music of the Moravian trombone choir in America. The trombone choir played chorales that were used to call the congregation to order, announce important visitors to the town, and provide music at special occasions. Anthems were played by trombones (when players were available) in regular church services, or outside when it was necessary to double voice parts. Concerted music was played in the Bethlehem Collegium Musicum. Biographies of the players of the 18th and 19th century trombone choirs provide information attesting to the proficiency and dedication of these musicians. A list of players who contributed to the trombone choir movement since the 19th century is included, as well as information about the popularity and function of the Moravian Trombone Choir today.

This thesis is a musical reconstruction of the primary services held on 13 August 1837, for the fiftieth anniversary of the dedication of the Moravian church at Lititz, Pennsylvania. The work includes general background on the Moravians and interprets information from contemporary sources to place the music in its accurate historical context. The edition of music comprises more than one half of the paper, and is taken from the original manuscript scores used. Included in the edition are five concerted anthems for choir and orchestra, and eighteen hymns from eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Moravian tunebooks. The special texts come from an original set of orders of service.