The Ephrata Cloister in Lancaster County, Pa., created conditions for its inhabitants to become the first known female composers in America.The Ephrata Cloister in Lancaster County, Pa., created conditions for its inhabitants to become the first known female composers in America.Chris Herbert was in a hurry. The vocalist and musicologist was studying the Ephrata Codex — an 18th century music manuscript — in the Library of Congress, which meant he was on the clock.
, an album that includes the compositions of the female composers of the Ephrata Cloister. He selected an a cappella quartet, and recorded the music in the Meetinghouse at the cloister, the original building the music would have been intended for.Ephrata, located in central Pennsylvania near Lancaster, was home to a mostly-celibate religious commune that reached its peak in the mid-1700s, when Sister Föben, Sister Ketura and Sister Hanna lived there.
"By writing music, they were professing their faith," says Herbert, and that although the music is technically simple, that's where its beauty lies. Rules about worship changed frequently at Ephrata. At times devotees shaved their heads, at other times they slept only three hours a night. Treatises were written about what to eat in order to sing properly, and what to eat in general — no meat, no honey. Herbert speculates that these changes and the emphasis on creativity may have played a role in why those names were listed in the Codex.
I grew up 10 minutes from this place! I❤Lancaster County, PA. It's just gotten so overgrown over the years. I go back to visit, and it's sad...used to be so much beautiful farmlands...and now it's so over developed! Ugh!
Christianity is only kinda okay, as long as it's led by women and it's proto communist. Otherwise national Pravda radio will have nothing to do with it
if its not the second movement of Mahler's 5th then i want no part of it
Not listening to your dribble...
Now they’re DEcomposing.
Beautiful.
That looks like fun
You could have stopped after 'Women Rarely Receive Credit'
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