Abstract
One of the most important locales for J.S. Bach performances in nineteenth-century America was Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. The Bethlehem Choral Union, founded in 1883 under the direction of J. Fred Wolle, performed the first complete rendition in America of the St. John Passion (BWV 248) in 1888 and the _St. Matthew Passion (BWV 244) in 1892. After the dissolution of the Choral Union in 1892, Wolle led the Central Moravian Church Choir in an 1894 performance of Parts I and II of the Christmas Oratorio (BWV 248). Because all three performances occurred in the complex of buildings of the Central Moravian Church, .this led to a religious interpretation of the music by the audience through a Moravian theological framework. · Bethlehem's Moravian community was well suited to interpret Bach's music in a religious fashion because of similarities between the Moravian faith and the theology expressed ·in the libretti of these three works. The Lutheran Pietism movement of the seventeenth and eighteenth-centuries influenced them both. References to the core tenets of Pietism in the libretti such as the mystical marriage, worship of the blood and wounds of Christ and a heartfelt relationship with the Savior would have been familiar to the Moravian audience. The Bethlehem performances, therefore, shaped a unique moment in Bach reception history, providing an environment conducive to interpreting Bach's music in a theologically similar fashion to the original listeners of his music.