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.
Fascinating story. Thank you for sharing the important history.
Colonial america: Be proud america. White men can't dance but they sure can shoot
Anne Dudley Bradstreet, Massachusetts's Bay Colony - Winthrop Fleet 1630. America's first woman poet.
who cares colonial women had slaves.