Feyering…’ The writer felt the instrument did ‘great honor to its maker’ and that it would ‘doubtless recommend him to all who are desirous of having work of that nature.’Īnd so it did. David Tannenberg…is much superior in workmanship and sweetness of sound to any made by the late celebrated Mr. To a correspondent from a Philadelphia newspaper, ‘The organ…made by Mr. In 1770, he created a 15-stop organ for the German Reformed Church in Lancaster.
The outstanding quality of the instruments the new organ builder was creating soon made him well known and created an increasing demand for his instruments. Undeterred by this list of caveats, Tannenburg moved his family right into the center of town and over the years became a leader in both the religious and secular life of the village. Life seemed to be very serious in the little town as the rules also proscribed ‘Dancing Matches, Taverning, Beer Tappings, Feastings at Weddings, Christenings or Burials.’ ‘Common Sports and Pastimes’ were also banned as well as the ‘playing of the Children in the Streets.’ The document then emphasized that ‘They that have Inclinations that Way bent cannot live in Lititz.’ When Tannenberg settled there, he was required to sign the village’s 45 Town Regulations that stipulated, among other things, that no one should a give even a night’s lodging in their house to anyone without first notifying the committee and obtaining its approval. At any rate, in their august opinion, it was thought better for Tannenberg to return to Bethlehem and to his former work as a joiner.įortunately, the strong-minded craftsman ignored these suggestions and continued his work as an organ builder.įive years after Klemm’s death Tannenberg moved his family to Lititz in Lancaster County, which at the time was a community for Moravians only. Upon Klemm’s death, despite the work the two men had done for the Moravians in Bethlehem and Nazareth, the church elders thought Tannenberg should give up organ building because ‘it was tied with a good deal of disorder.’ It is difficult to determine what constituted ‘a good deal of disorder,’ unless they feared that making organs for other denominations would bring Tannenberg into too much contact with the outside world. During that time, the men had built five organs for Moravian chapels, including one in North Carolina. The apprentice remained with the master until the latter’s death in 1762. The group docked in New York on May 12, 1749, and nine days later arrived in Bethlehem. As he wrote later, it was the will of the ‘Little Lamb’ that he become part of a large group of members who were being sent to the church’s new settlement in the town of Bethlehem in Pennsylvania.Īs a rule, immigration to America in the 18th century was a severe hardship in which passengers, labeled as freight by the ship’s owner, where jammed cheek to jowl in the hold for a journey that could take as a long as six weeks.īecause the Moravian Church owned its own ship, the passengers’ 70-day crossing of the Atlantic was made under much better circumstances but, nevertheless, it was a dangerous trip. His parents, members of the Moravian Church, fled their Moravian homeland, in what is now the Czech Republic, because of religious persecution, and went to live in Saxony where their religion was tolerated.Īs a young adult, Tannenberg joined the church, and that is why he immigrated to America. The son of Johan and Dorothea Tannenberg, he was born March 21, 1728, in Berthelsdorf, Saxony, in eastern Germany. It is this importance that led Zion’s leaders in 1790 to commission David Tannenberg, a man considered today as being one of early America’s finest organ builders, to create an organ for their church. For 260 years it has been nurturing the spiritual life of its members.įor Lutherans, like followers many other religions, music has always played an important role in their services. EAST PIKELAND – Zion Lutheran Church, founded in 1753 near Spring City, has the distinction of being the oldest Lutheran Church in Chester County.
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