You Will Delight in the Lord

Johann Friedrich Peter (1746-1813) was born in Heerendijk, Holland, to German Moravian parents. He was educated in Holland and Germany, and, with his brother Simon, came to America in 1770. Peter appears to have begun composing very shortly after his arrival in the new world. He served the Pennsylvania Moravians in Nazareth, Bethlehem, and Lititz, and was sent to Salem, NC, in 1780. There, among other duties, he assumed the position of music director for the community. Under Peter’s energetic and capable leadership a musical tradition was established in Salem which benefited the community long after his departure in 1790. He afterwards served Moravians in Graceham, MD; Hope, NJ; and Bethlehem, PA. J. F. Peter’s many works have earned him the reputation of being the most gifted of Moravian composers in America. His six string quintets, written in Salem and dated 1789, are the earliest known chamber music written in this country. He died in Bethlehem on July 13, 1813, almost literally at the organ bench, shortly after playing for a children’s service.

You Will Delight in the Lord was edited from the multiple manuscript parts in the Bethlehem and Lititz Congregation Collections. The work is scored for two flutes, strings and organ. Full score and parts are available from the Moravian Music Foundation.

The publication of this anthem has been made possible by the members of Raleigh Moravian Church in honor of their Senior Pastor, the Reverend Doctor Craig S. Troutman, and his wife, Anna Troutman, for their thirty years of dedicated service to the congregation, to the community and to the Moravian Church as a whole.