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When the subject of 18th-century music comes up, the United States is rarely considered any sort of creative artistic bastion. But this collection of Moravian religious music reveals how deep a fallacy it is to write off the U.S. as unimportant in vocal music history. The Moravian Church, founded on the cusp of the 14th and 15th centuries, would generate a distinctly musical worship tradition in the 1700s, just prior to the first Moravians settling in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Once in Pennsylvania, the music flowed at a brisk pace, comprising significant sections of worship ceremonies. Composers included in this collection reflect two particular facets of the music: its harmonic simplicity and its abiding spiritual values. Of course, "simplicity" is an easily derogatory descriptive, but that is not at all the case here. These choral works display tremendous richness and depth, with traces of J.S. Bach's cantatas as well as works by Haydn and even Mozart, who developed on a parallel musical track to the Moravians. And there are pop smarts here, too: One of the songs even quotes the Star Spangled Banner, then a ditty for the masses. The period instruments create a fine chamber background--music that floats without weighting the vocals or tearing ears away. A second bonus CD contains an extended discussion with Martin Pearlman, whose discussion of the music is more than enlightening.
--Andrew Bartlett
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