The Most Musical People: Moravian Music-Making in North America and the Beginnings of the German American Experience

Abstract As a central component of Moravian identity, both culturally and spiritually, music- making flourished in the settlement communities of North America, continuing the musical legacy established in Europe. Often within just a few years of settlement, a collegium musicum would be formed to train musicians and provide a “wholesome” pastime for the performers. This paper explores the collegium musicum as a continual site of cultural exchange within the North American Moravian communities that served to both internally and externally define the community. This became progressively more important as German-speaking immigration grew in the nineteenth century and Germans increasingly saw themselves as the people of music. Swept up in the ensuing debate over Germanness and the place of these new immigrants in the United States, Moravians foreshadowed what would happen to other German-speaking communities as they used music to create a shared sense of identity, while also interacting with those outside.