Nazareth, PA—The Moravian Historical Society will hold its 165th Annual Meeting, Lecture, and Reception on Sunday, October 30, 2022 at the historic Whitefield House. The 165th Annual Lecture will be presented by Laurence Libin, the curator emeritus of musical instruments at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. The talk, entitled “John Clemm, David Tannenberg, and the Moravians’ role in establishing keyboard manufacture in America,” will outline early Moravian contributions to musical instrument production, drawing upon keyboard instruments uniquely preserved by the Moravian Historical Society.

Beginning shortly after the Revolution, southeastern Pennsylvania was the cradle of the American piano industry. The ground in which these seeds took root was cultivated during the colonial period largely by Moravian settlers. David Tannenberg and his mentor John Clemm pioneered this development by building organs, clavichords, spinets, and other keyboard types both for use in their community and for sale to outsiders. Locally-made instruments became available to music-lovers who couldn’t afford imported products. 

Laurence Libin is the author of American Musical Instruments in The Metropolitan Museum of Art (Norton, 1985). He retired after serving as curator for thirty-three years, holding a chair endowed for him. He is the editor-in-chief of the Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments (Oxford University Press), past-president of the Organ Historical Society, and honorary curator of Steinway & Sons. He has published more than 150 articles and monographs and was co-editor with Peter Williams of the 2008 and 2009 Organ Yearbook.

Libin has investigated Moravian instrument making for more than forty years and is no stranger to the Moravian Historical Society’s musical instrument collection. He has conducted on-site research numerous times. Perhaps his most notable discovery was when he identified David Tannenberg as the maker of the clavichord in the MHS collection, making it the oldest extant clavichord made in America.   

The Annual meeting for Moravian Historical Society members will be held at 2:30 p.m. The lecture, open to the public, will begin at 3:00 p.m. The event is free to attend but reservations are required in advance due to limited seating. Reservations can be made on our website: https://www.moravianhistory.org/

The Moravian Historical Society was founded in 1857 to preserve, interpret, and celebrate the rich culture of the Moravians. Its 1740-1743 Whitefield House Museum is open to the public seven days a week from 1-4 p.m. 

For more information, please contact Susan Ellis at sellis@moravianhistory.orgor at (610) 759-5070.

Information provided to TVL by: Moravian Historical Society