Date of Award
1-1-2012
Document Type
Campus Access Thesis
Department
School of Music
Sub-Department
Music Performance
First Advisor
Larry Wyatt
Abstract
The central objective of this document is the production of a scholarly performance edition of a set of anthems dated 24 December, 1767 by Johannes Herbst. The editing was accomplished by careful examination of the primary manuscript (the Herbst Collection) located at the Moravian Archives in Winston-Salem, as well as consideration of other secondary manuscripts from Moravian congregations in Bethlehem, Lititz, and Nazareth.
Johannes Herbst (1735-1812) was a pastor and bishop in the Moravian Church. He served in Lititz for twenty years, as well as brief appointments in Nazareth and Salem. Herbst viewed himself as a pastor and servant first and a composer second, as was typical of Moravian composers. His memoirs contain only brief references to his musical activities, although he composed several hundred anthems. He is best known today for his personal collection of manuscript scores, known as the Herbst Collection.
When Herbst died in 1812, the entire collection was passed on to the Moravian Archives in Salem. In 1812, the collection consisted of 464 manuscripts containing scores of approximately one thousand anthems (180 by Herbst) and arias for use in Moravian worship services, as well as keyboard works, opera excerpts, and scores and parts for fifty oratorios. It is a comprehensive collection of Herbst's work, and it spans sixty years of the Moravians' most vigorous musical growth. In it are works by many Moravian composers, as well as representative works by important European composers of the period. The Herbst Collection is the single most important collection of extant manuscripts for current Moravian musical scholarship.
The document includes a brief history of the Moravian Church, its unparalleled and vigorous musical culture, a biography of Herbst, a detailed description of the manuscripts and editorial practices used in this study, and the full scores of the anthems themselves. Appendices include alternate versions, translations, an editorial log, and a transcription of Herbst's memoir.
Rights
© 2012, Daniel Kreider
Recommended Citation
Kreider, D.(2012). A Scholarly Performance Edition of Selected Anthems, 24 December 1767, by Johannes Herbst, Moravian-American Composer. (Master's thesis). Retrieved from https://scholarcommons.sc.edu/etd/1648