Music has been part of life at Genadendal from the first year of the mission. Hymns were taught under the pear tree in 1737, brass instruments were part of the teachers’ college from 1838, and a brass band has played in the village since at least 1856 [MS]. The Mission Museum holds what is described as South Africa’s oldest playable pipe organ, and a large collection of music written and copied in the valley [IC]. This page brings that story together.
What the letters in square brackets mean
Facts on this page are followed by a tag that shows where they come from.
- [IC] Independently Corroborated. Confirmed by at least two sources that do not depend on each other, or by an official record.
- [MS] Mission-Sourced. Comes from Moravian Church or museum sources, or from one organisation’s own account. It has not been checked against sources that do not depend on them.
- [TBV] To Be Verified. Seems likely, but nobody has confirmed it yet.
At a glance
| Year | What happened |
|---|---|
| 1737 | Georg Schmidt teaches sacred songs as well as reading, with Africo as interpreter [MS] |
| 1792 | The missionaries of 1792 teach hymn singing [MS] |
| 1830 to 1832 | A gift of 100 rixdollars buys a used pipe organ in England, and it is in use at Genadendal by 1832 [MS] |
| 1838 | The teachers’ training college opens. Music, including brass, is part of what it teaches [IC] |
| Easter 1856 | The Genadendal brass band plays its first recorded performance [MS] |
| 1893 | A new organ from Rixdorf, Germany, is played at the consecration of the present church, and the old organ is retired [MS] |
| 1880 | A Dutch hymnal of 1773 is revised at Genadendal, with about 800 hymns [TBV] |
| 1951 | The Moravian Brass Band Union of South Africa is founded [IC] |
| 1995 | The Genadendal band plays for President Mandela during his visit [MS] |
| 2020 | The Genadendal Music Archive begins cataloguing and digitising the museum’s music [IC] |
Hymns and singing
Music came to the valley with the first mission. Georg Schmidt taught sacred songs alongside reading and writing from 1737, with Africo interpreting [MS]. Schmidt also wrote hymns of his own [MS]. When the missionaries of 1792 reopened the mission, they began teaching hymn singing again [MS].
People at the mission copied out by hand the music the missionaries gave them, and this became a lasting tradition [MS]. In 1880 the Moravian Church’s Dutch hymnal, first printed in 1773, was revised at Genadendal, with about 800 hymns [TBV].
The organ
In 1830 a French woman, Juliana Tate, gave the mission 100 rixdollars, and the missionaries used it to buy a second-hand organ from the late 1700s in England [MS]. It was in use by 1832, when the doctor Edward Lees became one of its organists [MS]. It was played in the church until 1890, and in 1893 a new organ from Rixdorf, in Germany, was played at the consecration of the present church [MS]. Balie’s history calls the organ of 1830 the oldest pipe organ in South Africa [MS]. The Mission Museum holds what the museum and music researchers describe as the oldest playable pipe organ in South Africa [IC]. A 2023 article in the Journal of the Musical Arts in Africa studies its pipework and history [IC]. Whether the organ in the museum is the one that arrived in 1832 has not yet been confirmed for this page [TBV].
The teachers’ college and music
The teachers’ training college founded by Hans Peter Hallbeck in 1838 taught music as part of its course [IC]. Students learned violin, piano, organ, singing, and choir, and brass instruments were taught with energy [MS]. The college’s first director, Francke, was a gifted musician who set up church choirs [MS]. A music instruction book from the college, dated 1853, survives [MS]. Moravian sources credit Hallbeck and especially Benno Marx with fostering the musical talents of the students [MS].
Balie’s history says that a student could qualify as a teacher only if he could play the harmonium, the violin, and a brass instrument [MS]. Because the students worked in the mission press in the afternoons, the press could print music, including tonic sol-fa, which a report of 1906 says no other press in the colony could do [MS]. For decades it printed a music periodical, De Kleine Zang Vriend [MS].
Some sources give 1840 for the start of the college’s music teaching [TBV].
The brass band
Brass playing came to South Africa with the Moravian Church, and Genadendal was where it started, with the training school of 1838 [IC]. The Genadendal brass band gave its first recorded performance at Easter 1856 [MS]. It has played ever since [MS].
In Moravian villages, brass bands are part of church life [IC]. The bands played at the consecration of churches, on the church square during festivals, and on New Year’s Day and other festive days [MS]. At Easter, Moravian sources say, the procession to the graveyard at dawn without the brass band “was unthinkable” [MS]. The Genadendal band still plays at services, funerals, and weddings, and gives an end-of-year Christmas concert in the Moravian church [MS]. Several of its members have played for more than 50 years [MS]. It played for President Mandela during his visit in 1995, and has worked with musician Abdullah Ibrahim’s M5 Jazz Academy [MS]. Balie’s history says that in the 1970s the German minister Karl Schiefer made it one of the best youth brass bands in the country [MS].
Genadendal was one of the first bands in a movement that spread to Moravian congregations across the Western and Eastern Cape [IC]. In 1951 the bands formed the Moravian Brass Band Union of South Africa, which celebrated its 70th anniversary in 2021 [IC]. The union’s history names Genadendal among the historic bands of the Overberg, with Elim, Groenland, and Karwyderskraal [MS]. Brass bands meet each year at a Basuinfees (trombone festival), named after Psalm 150’s call to praise “with the sound of the trumpet” [MS].
Composers
The mission’s musical life produced composers of its own [MS]. Music researchers name Sacks Williams, Dan Apolles, and Daniel Ulster among them [MS]. Daniel Ulster (1926 to 1986), born at the Moravian station of Clarkson in the Eastern Cape, was an organist and choir leader who wrote new tunes for the church’s hymns [MS]. More research is needed on the composers who lived and worked in this valley.
The Genadendal Music Archive
The Mission Museum keeps printed and handwritten scores of sacred and secular music, portraits of composers, photographs, newspaper articles, and instruments, including small pipe organs, harmoniums, brass and string instruments, and pianos [MS]. The collection includes works by Mozart and Handel as well as chorales, hymns, and music by Moravian composers such as C.I. Latrobe [MS].
In 2020 the Genadendal Music Archive began cataloguing and digitising this collection, with funding from the German Federal Foreign Office and Stellenbosch University [IC]. It was first hosted by the Africa Open Institute at Stellenbosch University, and now works with the Moravian Knowledge Network at the Technische Universität Dresden [MS]. Digitised items are published on Stellenbosch University’s SunDigital platform [IC]. The archive’s aim is to support research into the role of music in the Moravian mission [MS].
Why it matters
The valley’s music is one of the clearest examples of what began here and lasted. It was carried by households and congregations through every hard period, from the 48 years without a missionary to the closing of the college in 1926 [MS]. It is still played and sung today. See What Began Here.
What is still open
- Whether the museum’s organ is the one bought in 1830 and in use by 1832, and who built it. Balie’s history suggests it is.
- The history of brass bands and choirs in Bereaville, Voorstekraal, and Greyton.
- The lives of the valley’s own composers, and where their music is kept.
- The history of choirs in the valley’s churches and schools.
- The year the college’s music teaching began: 1838 or 1840.
Have your say
If you play in a band or sing in a choir in the valley, or hold music, photographs, or stories, contact the moderators via How to Submit.
Related
- Valley History
- What Began Here
- History of the Valley
- Genadendal Mission Museum
- Moravian Church Genadendal
- Hans Peter Hallbeck
- Benno Marx
- Genadendal: A Long Walk
References
- Genadendal Music Archive. About Genadendal. Schmidt’s songs, the hymns of 1792, the training school’s music teaching, the organ, the Basuinfees, and the museum’s collection.
- Balie, I. (2023). Genadendal, The Valley of Grace: A Long Walk Through the History of the First Mission Station in South Africa. AuthorHouse. First published 2020. The organ’s purchase in 1830 and use to 1890, the Rixdorf organ of 1893, music at the college and the press, and the band in the 1970s. Page numbers are on Genadendal: A Long Walk.
- Genadendal Music Archive. About GMA. The archive’s start in 2020, its funders, and its partners.
- Froehlich, A. and Engelbrecht, I. Essay in Herri, issue 5. The training school’s music teaching, the instruction book of 1853, hand-copied scores, and the composers Sacks Williams, Dan Apolles, and Dan Ulster.
- Boonzaaier, D. and De Villiers, A.C. (2019). “The Moravian heritage of community musicking”. The Journal for Transdisciplinary Research in Southern Africa 15(1). The organ of 1832, Francke and the choirs, the hymnal of 1880, and Daniel Ulster.
- “Addressing the pipework in South Africa’s oldest playable organ: a materialist-political history”. Journal of the Musical Arts in Africa 20(1), 2023. Not yet read in full.
- Moravian Bands. Overview. The start of brass playing with the training school of 1838, Hallbeck and Marx, Easter morning, and the band union of 1951.
- Moravian Bands. Bands in the union. Genadendal among the historic Overberg bands.
- Moravian Music Foundation. Brass Band Festival South Africa. The union’s 70th anniversary in 2021.
- Hermanus Times. Genaal band nearly 200 years old (December 2024). The band’s first performance at Easter 1856, its playing today, and the Mandela visit.
- Matie Media. Genadendal Music Archive: digitising history. Digitisation from 2022 and the SunDigital platform.
- Genadendal Mission Museum. Genadendal Mission Museum entry. Stellenbosch University’s directory of South African music collections.