Moravian Music Foundation

The Moravian Music Foundation was founded and chartered in North Carolina to preserve, study, edit, and publish the music retained in the Archives of the Moravian Church in America (Northern and Southern Provinces). The Moravian Music Foundation's mission is to preserve, celebrate, and cultivate the musical life of the Moravians. The Foundation is responsible for many first modern-day performances of music from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The Foundation serves as a resource for scholars, performers, and students worldwide as well as for church musicians. MMF collections contain some 10,000 manuscripts and early imprints of vocal and instrumental music, both sacred and secular, from the 16th - 21st centuries. Not all was written by Moravian composers, but was certainly used and enjoyed by them. Included in the collections are works by Haydn and Mozart, J. C. Bach, Abel, Johann Stamitz, and many more. A number of these are the only known copies in the world. The early Moravians (Unitas Fratrum) considered music as a necessity of life. Many Moravian clergy and lay people were well trained in music, and thus came to the New World fully conversant with the taste and practice of European classicism. In Moravian life there was no distinction between what we now call “sacred” and “secular”, nor between what part of life is musical and what is not. Each person’s gifts were used for the benefit of the entire community. While there was little emphasis given to music as a distinct profession — many of the composers were also teachers and pastors — music was an essential part of everyone’s education and daily life. Of the music written by Moravian composers, by far the greater portion is what is called today, “sacred” — anthems and solos for liturgical use. These all share one primary characteristic: the text is of overmastering importance. This does not mean that the music is insignificant, but rather only that the music serves to carry the text.