Pennsylvania Dutch Tune and Chorale Books in the Early Republic: Music As a Medium of Cultural Assimilation
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH TUNE AND CHORALE BOOKS IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC: MUSIC AS A MEDIUM OF CULTURAL ASSIMILATION by Daniel Jay Grimminger B.A., Mount Union College, 1998 M.T.S., Trinity Lutheran Seminary, 2000 D.C.M., Claremont Graduate University, 2002 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Music in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Pittsburgh 2009 UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH FACULTY OF ARTS AND SCIENCES This dissertation was defended by Daniel Jay Grimminger It was defended on March 25, 2009 and approved by Don O. Franklin, Professor of Music Mary Lewis, Professor of Music Don Yoder, Professor of Religious Studies and Folklife (University of Pennsylvania) Dissertation Director: Deane Root, Professor of Music ii Copyright © by Daniel Jay Grimminger 2009 iii PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH TUNE AND CHORALE BOOKS IN THE EARLY REPUBLIC: MUSIC AS A MEDIUM OF CULTURAL ASSIMILATION Daniel Jay Grimminger, Ph.D. University of Pittsburgh, 2009 The Pennsylvania Dutch Kirchenleute (Lutheran and Reformed “Church People”), who spoke a dialect of German (“Pennsylvania Dutch”), were the largest ethnic group in early America outside of the English-speaking population. Like all ethnic minorities, they went through a process of change in relationship to the dominant English-speaking society in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This sequential process (i.e., full ethnic retention, adaptation, acculturation, and amalgamation) is reflected in the Pennsylvania Dutch tune and chorale books that supported various stages of this evolution, depending on location and editor. Details of each music publication between the 1790s and 1850 contributed to this change linguistically, theologically, and musicologically through their content and appearance. Books that supported and promoted full ethnic retention retained the German language entirely, had a simple preface outlining the purpose of the book, employed a pure European repertoire, utilized unrealized figured bass or a harmonization on three staves, were printed from engraved or punched plates, and sought to retain German theology from the Reformation era. Some later examples of retention were not produced for ethnic reasons, but for theological reasons that resulted in the retention of traits of European chorale books. Tune books participating in ethnic change moved away from the use of the German language and European repertoire. They employed singing-school introductions and were resultant of the type-set printing process. iv Assimilating publications embraced revivalist theology and a type of consumerism that made the books and their users look more like their English-language equivalents than their European predecessors. All the while, Pennsylvania Dutch culture and all of its peculiarities were disappearing. This dissertation is a study of Dutch retention and assimilation, analyzing the tune and chorale books in the context of other folklife including visual art, food, manuscripts, and other publications. v TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE ................................................................................................................................. XIII CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................ 1 CHAPTER 2: IDENTITY AND CONFLICT IN PENNSYLVANIA DUTCH CULTURE: A FOLKLIFE APPROACH .......................................................................................................... 11 2.1 Background .................................................................................................... 12 2.2 Theological Identity ....................................................................................... 13 2.3 Two Dimensions of Dutch Religion .............................................................. 19 2.4 Social Identity ................................................................................................ 22 2.5 Unionism ......................................................................................................... 40 CHAPTER 3: ETHNIC RETENTION ..................................................................................... 45 3.1 Context of Retention ...................................................................................... 45 3.2 Pastor Helmuth, the Germanizer ................................................................. 54 3.3 Evangelisches Magazin .................................................................................. 58 3.4 Ethnic Retention and the Singing School .................................................... 62 3.5 The Miller Sketches ....................................................................................... 66 vi 3.6 Broadsides ...................................................................................................... 69 3.7 Denig’s Picture-Bible ..................................................................................... 72 CHAPTER 4: RETENTIVE TUNE AND CHORALE BOOKS ............................................ 81 4.1 Retentive Tune and Chorale Book Characteristics .................................... 81 4.2 1778 Die Ersten Früchte ................................................................................ 88 4.3 Doll’s Tune Book and Helmuth’s Chorale Book ........................................ 95 4.4 Theological Emphases ................................................................................. 107 4.5 The General Europeanizing Trend ............................................................ 109 4.6 Retention as Confession .............................................................................. 110 4.7 Liturgical Impact of these Late Influences................................................ 118 4.8 Philip Schaff and Mercersburg .................................................................. 122 4.9 1861/1868 Choral-Buch für die Orgel ......................................................... 127 CHAPTER 5: ADAPTATION AND ACCULTURATION .................................................. 138 5.1 Parochial Education .................................................................................... 139 5.2 Characteristics of Adaptation and Acculturation .................................... 143 5.3 Der Leichte Unterricht by Joseph Doll (Adaptation) ................................ 147 5.4 Choral-Harmonie by John Wyeth (Adaptation) ....................................... 152 5.5 Die Franklin Harmonie by John Rothbaust (Acculturation) ................... 155 5.6 The New Harmony by Michael Bentz (Acculturation) ............................. 160 5.7 Consumerism ............................................................................................... 165 vii CHAPTER 6: AMALGAMATION......................................................................................... 170 6.1 Earlier English Tune Books ........................................................................ 171 6.2 S. S. Schmucker (1799-1873) ...................................................................... 176 6.3 Characteristics of Amalgamation............................................................... 181 6.4 The Key-Stone Collection of Church Music (1856) .................................... 183 6.5 Boehm “Singing School Manuscript” (1854) ............................................ 198 6.6 Carmina Ecclesiae (1860) ............................................................................ 200 BIBLIOGRAPHY ..................................................................................................................... 211 viii LIST OF TABLES Table 1. Extant tune and chorale books of the Pennsylvania “Kirchenleute” ........................ 4 Table 2. Tune books of the ethnic retention stage of assimilation .......................................... 87 Table 3. Tune books of the adaptation stage of assimilation. ............................................... 146 Table 4. Tune books of the acculturation stage of assimilation ............................................ 147 Table 5. Tune books of the amalgamation stage of assimilation .......................................... 171 Table 6. Contents of the Boehm “Manuscript Book,” 1854 .................................................. 199 ix LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Eighteenth Century Blanket Chest ........................................................................... 26 Figure 2. Decorated Dutch Cupboard ....................................................................................... 28 Figure 3. Harvet Home postcard. .............................................................................................. 31 Figure 4. Scheidtholt ................................................................................................................... 37 Figure 5. “Wann ich heimkumm voll Bier”.............................................................................. 38 Figure 6. “Mani aldi Schwieggermulder” ................................................................................. 39 Figure 7. Engraving of Lancaster City ..................................................................................... 46 Figure 8. Pastor Heinrich Helmuth .......................................................................................... 53 Figure 9. Engraving of St. Michael’s Lutheran Church ......................................................... 55 Figure 10. “Die Schwalbe,” Evangelisches Magazin, 1813. ..................................................... 64 Figure