March/ April 2013

The String Trios of John Antes String Early American Composer and Renaissance Man

The famous English music publisher John  Bland caused himself to be made an accomplice in the perpetration of a unique mystery in  the annals of American music. Bland did so,  unconsciously perhaps, when he brought out an  edition of three string trios by one “Giovanni  A-T-S, Dillettante [sic] Americano.” In an atrocious Italian mixed with a bit of English, the  full title of the opus read:  “Tre Trii, per due Violini and Violoncello, Obligato Dedicati a Sua Excellenza it Sign G. J.  de Heidenstam, Ambassatore de Sa Maj it Ri de  Suede a Constantinopel, Composti a Grand  Cairo dal SigrP Giovanni A-T-S. Dillettante  Americano. Op. 3. London, Printed & Sold by  J. Bland at his Music Warehouse No. 45 Holborn.”  Just exactly who could be an Italian possessing  such a cryptic surname and calling himself an  "American dilettante?" And, as if this were not  enough, to be composing music in Egypt and dedicating it to a Swedish ambassador in Constantinople?  Clearly, this was a tantalizing riddle; it remained unsolved until  1941. In that year a copy of the curious edition was advertised by  Otto Haas, a leading dealer of rare music in London. Quite obviously neither Haas nor the American buyer, the Eastman School  of Music, knew the identity of the mysterious composer. Fortunately, the Haas catalog also reached the desk of the New York  Public Library's music division. It was Carleton Sprague Smith,  former chief of the division, who was the first to suspect that  “Giovanni A-T-S” was in reality none other than the first American missionary in Egypt, John Antes.

John Antes (1740-1811) was born of a second-generation German American family in Frederick, Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. He was reared in the same God-fearing tradition as  other Pennsylvania German farmers' sons of the day. His father  had been a leader in his church (German Reformed) and had also  been a leader in a movement to unify many of the divergent denominations in the Colony. When his mission failed, he joined  with the Moravian Brethren who had moved in to strive for the  same purpose.  Antes received the customary classical education in the Moravian  boys' school at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, which he entered in  1752. He evidently revealed at an early age an unusual talent for  precision craftsmanship, for he made a violin, certianly one of  the earliest violins made in America, in 1759. Several years later,  he also made a viola and a cello. The violin and viola are still in  performing condition.  Not long after this he emigrated to Germany. We know that from  1765 to 1769, he was an apprentice watchmaker at the Moravian  town of Neuwied on the Rhine. In 1769, he was ordained into the  Moravian ministry and was sent to Egypt to serve as a missionary, the first American missionary to be stationed there. His missionary service was fraught with intolerable hardships and peril,  climaxed by a ruthless flogging and imprisonment by an extortionist. While convalescing from this harrowing experience, Antes turned to composing music, the most important product of  this period being his Three Trios for 2 Violins and Violoncello,  Op. 3.  His health seriously impaired by his torture, Antes was obliged to  return to Europe in 1781. Several years later he assumed the post  of business manager of the Moravian Congregation at Fulneck,  England, and remained at this post for twenty-five years, until he  and his wife retired to Bristol in 1808 where he died in 1811.  His career had been particularly unusual, for it included service  as a missionary, a watchmaker, an inventor, a violinmaker, a  theoretician, and a business administrator, as well as of a composer; and he was personally known to at least two famous musicians-Franz Joseph Haydn and Johann Peter Salomon.  Nearly all of Antes' known compositions, some twenty-five sacred anthems and arias and twelve chorales date from the last  years of the eighteenth century. They were created for one purpose only: to be the sincere contribution of a humble and devout  man to the service of his church. In no way were they to bring  glory to the composer. Antes himself considered his works to be  the efforts of a dilettante, i.e. an amateur, not as finished creations of a professional composer. As a creative artist, his work  was influenced principally by Haydn and to a lesser extent by  Handel, whose anthems and choruses were still captivating English audiences even though the composer had long since been  laid to rest.  We do not know the exact date of composition of his Op.3 trios,  but it is safe to say that it was sometime between 1770 and 1781.  Moravian scholars place it during his convalescence which dates  it more specifically to 1779-1781. The trios were published by  Bland around 1790 and we find in Haydn’s diaries for 1791-92  references to a Mr Antis (sic), an English composer. It is most  probable that Antes used Haydn’s own trios for two violins and  cello, of which there are some twenty six, for his models. But  Antes’ trios differ from those of Haydn in at least one important  way: the cello is treated as an “obbligato, rather than as a fundamental basso. In each trio, the three instruments are on nearly  equal terms. The cello, and not just the violins, is given the  chance to lead and introduce thematic material.

One finds no instance of this from Austro-German composers  until Mozart’s Divertimento which was not composed until more  than a decade later. In fact, only Boccherini and Giardini, and  perhaps one or two other Italians, had treated the cello in their  trios in such a fashion, and Boccherini, of course, because he was  a cellist. This equality of parts was made possible by frequent  shifting of the theme and accompaniment between the voices.  The best example of this is perhaps found in the Andante of Trio  No.2. There, the thematic material is cut into segments, exchanged and imitated by the violins and cello.

You can hear generous soundbites of all three of Antes' trios on our website and the sheet music to all are  available from Edition Silvertrust.