Neff, Jacob (1757–1818). Harmony Society hymnal. [Lancaster, Pennsylvania], 1804–06. Manuscript. 88 pp. of German verse with musical annotations. Small 4to, contemporary sheep-backed boards, decorated paper pastedowns. Binding loose; some shallow wear to edge of pages with minimal loss. Housed in a custom clamshell case.

Long lost, this manuscript written by one of the most important figures in the early history of the Harmony Society, the utopian movement led by the prophet George Rapp (1757 – 1847), represents the earliest cultural production of the community in America. Combining published hymns and with original poems and sacred verse, the volume includes key texts, some of which are unknown, and others available only through incomplete and unreliable transcriptions.

See also our offering of a 1817 Harmonist hymnal by Adam Schüle.

Neff’s Harmonist Hymnody

Jacob Neff’s personal hymnal, written in Swabian dialect with non-standard orthography, bears testimony to his faith, combining both an intensely Pietistic Christology with a deep commitment to the Harmonist millenarian vision predicated on the imminent return of Jesus and the promise of the United States as God's new Israel.

Neff’s notebook represents the earliest Harmonist hymnal produced in the United States, and perhaps the earliest extant for the Society. Richard Wetzel’s census of manuscript hymnals identifies one dated 1801, but he notes that most of the pieces in that text date from after 1816; he identifies a manuscript dated 1811, as “a more distinctive and reliable example of early Harmonist hymnody” (Wetzel 1976, 39-40). The present offering is significantly earlier.  It is comprised primarily of Lutheran and Pietist hymns culled from several published sources, most notably Johann Caspar Bachofen’s Musicalisches Hallelujah, a popular collection of over 600 sacred songs that appeared in twelve editions between 1727 and 1803. The intense Christology of many of the texts in the manuscript mark it as an intriguing transitional volume as the Society’s theology evolved from more traditional Pietism towards the mystically allusive language characteristic of the Harmonisches Gesangbuch (Müller 1820). 

There are many subtle treasures here for the student of hymnody, and of American communal experiments. While many of the texts here have published antecedants, others appear to be original, or at least precede their published versions. For example, the song “Brüderliebe,” which takes as its text a passage from Schiller’s 1783 poem, “Hochzeitgedicht” (“Wie schön ist doch das Band der Liebe!”) does not appear in a printed musical setting until 1822 (Gerhart & Eyer 1822, p. 116), and the tune in Neff’s manuscript differs from the later published version. The selection of traditional hymns is also quite telling. There are none celebrating the infant Jesus, for example, and many celebrating the suffering Christ (“Dies sind die bangen stunden”), the promise of salvation, and the experience of spiritual pilgrimage:

Ich singe hin du hebst mich auf,

mein heil in meinem wallen

Ich suche nur im pilgrims lauf,

dir Jesu ze gefallen.

Although most of the hymns here are written in careful Fraktur, with musical notation, there is a late addition. Hastily scrawled in kurrentschrift on the title page verso and recto are a short prayer and the Lutheran hymn “O ihr auserwählten Kinder.”

Pennsylvania, the Promised Land

Most exciting from an American studies perspective are the original compositions in this manuscript expressing the immigrant community’s prophetic expectations for their life in America and narrating their circumstance of their passage. Among these are Auswandererliedes (emigration songs), some of which appear to have been inspired by verses in Christian Friedrich Daniel Schubart’s Kapleid (see Moltmann 1987, 29-30). One begins:

Auf auf brüder, es ist da, die zeit,

das wir abreisen für nach Nord America,

in das gelobte Land.

Another, which Arndt calls “Reiss leid der Zioniten ins Land Silva,” but which is here untitled, heralds Silva (i.e., Pennsylvania) as the promised land:

Brüder, theure bundes brüder, freuet euch

In America aufrichtet,

Und Europa gantz zernichtet, brüder eilt.

Singt dem Herren neue Lieder, der sein Reich

In America aufrichtet,

Und Europa gantz zernichtet, brüder eilt.

. . .

Lasset euren muth nicht sinken, haltet aus

Wan ihr werdet über winden

In dem Strauß So solt ihr in ruhe sitzen

Das verheisne land besitzen, Silva!

Included here also is a manuscript version of George Rapp’s “Kinder seyd nun alle munter," a mystical hymn written in 1806 while he was in Washington petitioning Congress for additional lands (Arndt 1980a, 148-53):

Kinder seyd nun alle Munter,

weil der innere Liebes zunder,

freunde Jesu wider paart,

und der lenz sich offenbart,

Sonne blicke, Lichtes Stralen,

Lassen geistes functen fahren,

Auf die paradises Saat.

. . .

Gott wie lange sind die jahre,

In der grosen homosphare,

Da der plan verborgen liegt,

Doch wird es nun jetzt geschehen,

Das zion die braut wird sehen,

Das die zahl bekommt ihr gewigt

Ach was haben wird gefühlet,

was hat uns vor schmertz durchwület,

In den tagen babilons, Gib die sonn nun heitre blicke,

macht die vorsehung ihr gschicke,

kommt der freund und seegnet uns.

Another song, "O wunderbare zeiten," one of many hitherto unknown verses included here, appears to have been written during the journey. It includes a stanza framing conflict among the migrants in gendered terms:

Vernunft und eigen leben Und die bedenklichkeit, 

will sich Gott nichtergeben, Drum gibt es so viel streit,
besonders auf der reise, nach nordamerica;

wo ein verstocktes weibe, zum man spricht bleib doch da.

In addition to these prophetic lyrics, there is a superb narrative song recounting the migration of one group of Harmonists to the United States titled “Reis-lied der zweiten Colone nach America, Anno 1805.” The verses, set to music, offers a detailed description of the difficult voyage from the Germany, recounting their flight in biblical terms grounded with prosaic details. Their emigration from Europe is like that of the Israelites fleeing Egypt, Babylon, and Sodom; like Lot, they leave Europe without a backwards glance:

Wir hingegen nicht mit eilen nach und nach

Und mit verweilen,

Unsre reiss gefangen an.

Lott darf vormals nicht verziehen,

sondern mus mit eilen fliehen,

Das Gott sodom strafen kan.

Sailing down the Rhine, the travelers stayed at Meiden, near Leiden. After a difficult voyage with setbacks, including detention in England, rough weather, and several fatalities, which the writer regards with a stoical fatalism:

Ausser sieben kleine Kinder

An die auf dem Land nicht minder

Auch der Tod gehabt ein Recht,

Die ihr zeitlich Leben borgten,

Und nun unter uns gestorben.

The journey ends with the appearance of a dove signaling to the passengers, as to Noah, the presence of land. The hymn ends with an oddly self-deprecating final verse:

Wie es künftig noch wird gehen,

Kann ich zum Voraus nicht sehen,

Dann ich bin ja kein Prophet,

Aber wie es uns ergangen,

Ist gemeld, nach dem Verlangen,

Bin deswegen kein Poet.

The “Reis-lied” has not been published elsewhere, but it has been known to writers on the Harmony Society since the turn of the 20^th century. John Archibald Bole, who surely must have had access to this manuscript and who worked with direct descendants of the founding generation, identified Neff as the author (Bole 1904, 69, 161; see also Duss 1914, 54-55). Neff's claim to the authorship of the "Reis-lied" -- and presumably the other Harmonist songs here -- is bolstered by the fact that most appear to be unique to this manuscript.

Arndt did not reproduce the “Reis-lied” in any of his documentary histories of the Harmony Society, and never mentions it. He did, however, publish versions of some of the other emigration songs as well as "Kinder seyd nun alle munter” -- the lyrics only, not the melodies. Regrettably Arndt seldom cited his sources, so we do not know whether he used Neff's manuscript or found another manuscript that duplicated some of the content here. If the latter is true, it has not surfaced since. Despite his culling through all the early manuscript hymnals he could find, Wetzel does not appear to have seen the present texts. His monograph suggests that he was aware of the existence of these hymns only through Arndt’s published work (Wetzel 1976, 39, citing Arndt 1972, 58-59).

In any case, Arndt did not include the musical notations offered here and his transcriptions are flawed. He often diverged from the texts – at least as given in this manuscript – and modernized the spelling. The source he relied upon for the text of “Kinder seyd nun alle munter” was faulty and he missed the ends of several lines (see Arndt 1980a, 151). Arndt's original research on the Harmony society was conducted in the 1940s (Arndt 1953). We hypothesize that he may have been working from a poor photocopy of selected pages from Neff's hymnal.

Jacob Neff: Benefactor of the Harmony Society

Although he was not received formally into the Harmony Society until 1808, Jacob Neff had long been a pillar of this Pietistic religious community. According to an early history of the Harmony Society, he was one of the passengers on the Margaretha, the last of the three ships that transported Rapp's followers from Württemberg to the United States in the summer and fall of 1804 (Bole 1904, 69). Scattering to Philadelphia, Baltimore, and elsewhere, the Harmonists did not have a home until December 1804, when Rapp purchased land in Butler Country, Pennsylvania, about 25 miles from Pittsburgh. In February 1805, the community reassembled to establish the town of Harmonie along the Connoquenessing Creek. But during the months between his arrival and the establishment of Harmonie, Neff, like several other Harmonist migrants, settled in Lancaster Country. When the call went out to gather the tribe, then some 1,400 strong, Neff elected to stay.

While Neff did not move to Harmonie in 1805, he continued to support the community. He and Rapp corresponded regularly – their letters are preserved in the archives – and Rapp regularly tapped his entrepreneurial friend for funds (Arndt 1980a, 178-87, 195-98, etc.). Both Rapp and his successors would credit Neff with providing the Harmony Society the capital to build its industries (see Arndt 1972, p. 103). Rapp and his followers also continued to proselytize Neff from afar, writing florid letters rich in the mystical language of Jakob Böhme and the Berleburg bible. Take for example, this passage from a letter of 1806:

Our hope in the imminent appearance of Jesus and the Revelation of his Kingdom is becoming firmer and firmer. No time is left. The figure, in which the cherub is standing, will through revolution break everything that does not bear the symbol of the cross, for judgment has been spoken by God over the beast and whore, and will be speedily executed by men. (Arndt 1972, 100-101)

On 18 February 1808, Rapp’s adopted son Frederick wrote to Neff to lay down the law:

Harmonie will quickly cast out all filth in order that the body may be cleansed and purified of all foreign substance. . . . Whoever has been in the Harmonie and has left it again, be it for whatever cause it may, is not worthy of the Kingdom of God, and is a despiser of the suffering of Jesus. . . . This year still a judgment will be visited upon them . . . [I]f you would be saved then sell all that you have and give it to the poor . . . This is our last admonition to you.” (Arndt 1972, 102; 1980a, 275)

Neff got the message. By May 6th, he had moved to Harmony and signed the Articles of Association (Arndt 1992, 158; English 2011, 199). Because the Harmonists held property in common, joining the Society required Neff to surrender his considerable personal wealth to the community, including all of his “estate and property, consisting of cash, land, cattle, or whatever else may be.” His house in Harmony is today a creamery.

Jacob Neff's house in Harmony, Pennsylvania is now an ice cream parlor. (Photo from TripAdvisor)

Neff may have rejoined the Harmonists under pressure, but he did so willingly and he and Rapp remained close. When the Harmony Society moved to New Harmony, Indiana in 1814, Neff and his wife stayed with the Rapps, living in their attic. “Both of us have much furniture and it is very crowded,” wrote the prophet to his son. “But they are quite well satisfied and are reasonable. Before winter we want to build him a house.” (Arndt 1975, 1: 59)

Eminently Publishable

A wide range of scholars have studied the hymns of the Harmony Society. They are of course key texts for scholars of American millennialism and utopianism (e.g. Pitzer 1997, Taylor 1987). They are also cited in the work of music historians (e.g. Moltmann 1987, Wetzel 1976). Finally, they are important for scholars of German cultural history who study such topics as the diffusion of German Pietism (e.g. Lächele 2001, Hermle 2001), the development of Viennese literature (i.e. Nikolaus Lenaus – see Roček 2005, 196), and the reception of American revolutionary ideology (e.g. Ludescher 2020a and 2020b, G313-G316).

Jacob Neff’s manuscript, the earliest American literary production yet identified of this influential utopian community, restores the poetic voice of a lost founding figure, and offers both newly-discovered lyrics and authoritative versions of remarkable texts that hitherto have circulated only in incomplete or corrupted form, as well as melodies that have been long forgotten.

Selected References

Arndt, Karl J. R. 1953. The Harmony Society from its beginnings in Germany in 1785 to its liquidation in the United States in 1905. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society.

-----. 1972. George Rapp’s Harmony Society, 1785-1847, Revised edition. Madison: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press.

-----. 1975. A Documentary history of the Indiana decade of the Harmony Society, 1814-1824. Indianapolis: Indiana Historical Society

-----. 1980a. Harmony on the Connoquenessing, 1803-1815 : George Rapp's first American Harmony : a documentary history. Worcester: Harmony Society Press.

-----. 1980b. George Rapp's Separatists, 1700-1803: the German prelude to Rapp's American Harmony: a documentary history. Worcester: Harmony Society Press.

-----. 1992. George Rapp's disciples, pioneers and heirs: a register of the Harmonists in America. Evansville: University of Southern Indiana Press.

Bole, John Archibald. 1904. The Harmony Society: a chapter in German American cultural history. Philadelphia: Americana Germanica Press.

Cherry, Conrad, ed. 1998. God’s new Israel: religious interpretations of American destiny, revised edition. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.

Duss, John S. 1914. George Rapp and his associates (the Harmony Society). Indianapolis: Hollenbeck Press, 1914.

English, Eileen Aiken. 2011. Demographic directory of the Harmony Society. Clinton: Richard W. Couper Press.

Gerhart, Isaac and Johann F. Eyer. 1818. Choral Harmonie: enthaltend Kirchen-Melodien … Harrisburg: John Wyeth, 1822

Hermle, Siegfried. 2001. Kirchengeschichte Württembergs in Porträts: Pietismus und Erweckungsbewegung. Holzgerlingen: Hänssler.

Lächele, Rainer. 2001. Das Echo Halles: kulturelle Wirkungen des Pietismus. Epfendorg: Bibliotheca Academica.

Ludescher, Ladislaus. 2020a. Die Amerikanische Revolution und ihre deutsche Rezeption Studien und Quellen zum Amerikabild in der deutschsprachigen Literatur des 18. Jahrhunderts. Berlin: De Gruyter.

-----. 2020b. Digitale Anthologie to accompany Ludescher 2020a. https://www.degruyter.com/publication/isbn/9783110644739/downloadAsset/9783110644739_Digitale_Anthologie.pdf

[Müller, Johann Christoph, ed.] 1820. Harmonisches Gesangbuch . . . Allentown: Heinrich Ebner.

Moltmann, Günter. 1987. “Schubarts Kapleid von 1787 und die Ensthung des weltlichen Auswanderliedes in Deutschland,” Yearbook of German-American Studies 22: 21-37

Pitzer, Donald E. 1997. America’s Communal Utopias. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.

Roček, Roman. 2005. Dämonie des Biedermeier: Nikolaus Lenaus Lebenstragödie. Vienna: Böhlau.

Taylor, Anne. 1987. Visions of Harmony, a Study in Nineteenth-Century Millenarianism. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Wetzel, Richard D. 1976. Frontier Musicians on the Connoquenessing, Wabash, and Ohio; a History of George Rapp’s Harmony Society, 1805-1906. Athens: University of Ohio Press.