View full size

EIRNS/Steve Carr

Moravian “Psalm of Joy,” performed by the Schiller Institute Chorus of Virginia and directed by Kay Willett, June 27, in Leesburg, Virginia.

June 28—In April 1783, as peace negotiations proceeded between the former American colonies and their defeated enemy, Britain, after a preliminary Treaty of Paris draft was signed January 20, toward what would be a final signing later in the year, North Carolina Governor Alexander Martin issued an order to all state residents to mark the onset of peace with public ceremonies of thanksgiving. He set the date for the Fourth of July, in recognition of the Declaration of Independence, signed seven years earlier.

It took a while for word to travel throughout the state, and only in the final days of June was the governor’s order about the Fourth of July received in Salem, the main settlement of the Unitas Fratrum. This was a center in the Americas—along with Bethlehem in Pennsylvania—for that religious community also known as Moravians, from the area in Europe where they had concentrated decades after their founding in Bohemia in the mid-1400s as a Protestant Christian movement.

The year 2026 marks the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence by what would soon become the United States of America. That instrumental document laid down the principles of an anti-oligarchic republican form of government, and would go on to be the inspiration for countless other peoples around the world, forever changing the shape of history. Today, this history is either misunderstood or intentionally misconstrued, and the U.S. has nearly abandoned the outlook of its Founding Fathers. Over the course of this year, EIR will be publishing key articles on the true anti-oligarchic history of the United States in the hopes of contributing to the widest possible discussion of these principles, the rediscovery of which has enormous implications for whether the world can get out of its current state of turmoil today.

The Salem leaders, led by Johann Friedrich Peter (1746-1813), pastor and master musician, organized a day-long event of celebration, including prayers, beautiful music, bell ringing, processions, and also good food, as a Friedens Dankfest, or Thanksgiving for Peace. Calling their specially crafted music program the “Psalm of Joy,” they may rightly claim credit for holding the first “organized” Fourth of July celebration in the new nation.

In May this year in North Carolina, the Moravians once again presented the entire 1783 July Fourth Psalm of Joy, inviting singers and musicians from far and near to join them.

On June 27 in Virginia, one signature piece of the Psalm of Joy was performed by the Schiller Institute Chorus of Virginia and community friends, at a concert of the Leesburg Chamber Players.

Beautiful Music as a Way of Life

The German-speaking Moravians were renowned for their construction and use of musical instruments, and daily and special music-making, in particular for trombone choirs. They were a transmission belt for Bach, Handel and other composers, including contemporaries Mozart and Haydn, sometimes performing their works only months after they were written. Three definitive Haydn manuscripts were found in the North Carolina files.

For example, the Moravians were the first to perform Haydn’s Creation in the New World. This was done in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania in 1811, using instrumental parts copied out from the score by J. F. Peter, because the parts had not yet even been published. Peter had moved there from Salem, continuing his music leadership.

Peter himself composed prolifically and is credited with writing the earliest known chamber music produced in America. There were many outstanding Moravian composers from the earliest years onward, including John Antes, born in America, one of whose string trios was performed at the June 27 Leesburg, Virginia concert. Both Ben Franklin and George Washington visited Moravian communities, with praise for the music they heard.

Wikipedia

Profile of John Antes (1740-1811), one of the first American-born composers of chamber music. After growing up in Pennsylvania, his Moravian missionary travels took him to Europe, and to Egypt, where it is thought his string trios were written. The June 27 concert opened with his Trio in D Minor, Op. 3, No. 2.

Psalm of Joy for Peace

The Psalm of Joy featured 15 elements, including anthems, duets and solos, and parts for multiple choruses, both specially composed pieces and borrowings from known beloved melodies and hymns. Several well-known German chorales were re-purposed with special peace celebration words.

For example, the 10th selection in the Psalm of Joy features the “Passion Chorale,” with different words, giving thanks for peace. Many in the Virginia audience gasped at hearing this familiar chorale melody sung with words of peace, because it is so associated with words of lament for the death of Jesus on the cross—“O, sacred head, sore wounded”—as used by Johann Sebastian Bach in the St. Matthew Passion and St. John Passion. Paul Gerhardt (1607-1676), a Lutheran pastor and poet, composed those words toward the end of the Thirty Years’ War in Europe, and before long it was sung by Protestants and Catholics alike, and continued down through the centuries to today.

But in Johann Friedrich Peter’s borrowing of the melody, new, specially-set words are used instead: “O rest that softly cometh, so gracious and so blest; we hail it with rejoicing, for we in peace may rest. Redeemed from present sorrow, and trusting for tomorrow, secure from every foe, thy flock may come and go.”

Though records are incomplete from the 1783 Fourth of July Friedens Dankfest, enough descriptions and music were preserved, so that in the 1970s, the Psalm of Joy music program was reassembled by researchers with the Moravian Music Foundation, based in Winston-Salem. The Foundation generously makes this and other historic music available on loan.

In the historical notes provided by the Foundation for availability at the June Leesburg concert, a point is made about the way that peace was observed in 1783 in Salem that is instructive for today. “As ardent pacificists, the Moravians did not revel in a celebration of victory in war, but rather offered a service of gratitude for peace, with prayers that the residents may be able once again to resume their lives of quiet devotion and service to God and their neighbors.”

A quotation from the Salem Diary for Friday, July 4, 1783, was provided by the Moravian Music Foundation, describing how the day went:

According to the order of the government of this State we celebrated a day of thanksgiving for the restoration of peace. The congregation was awakened by the trombonists. At the beginning of the preaching service the Te Deum was sung…. At two o-clock there was a happy Lovefeast, during which a Psalm of Joy was sung with thankful hearts…. In the evening … the congregation again assembled in the Saal, and the choir sang…. Then the congregation formed a circle in front of the Gemein Haus, and from there passed in procession through the main street of town, with music and the antiphonal song of two choirs…. Hearts were filled with the peace of God, evident during the entire day and especially during the procession, and all around there was silence, even the wind being still.