NameSusannah CRABTREE 948,1466
Spouses
Birth Date13 Mar 17401466,948
Birth PlaceFrederick, PA, USA
Bapt Date17461665
Bapt MemoBy Bishop August Spangenberg (1704-1792).
Death Date11 Dec 18111666,1466 Age: 71
Death PlaceBristol, ENGLAND
OccupationComposer, Watchmaker, Inventor, Instrument Maker, Moravian Missionary & Minister 1666
ReligionMoravian
FatherRev. Johann Heinrich ANTES (1701-1755)
MotherChristina Elizabeth DeWEES (1702-1782)
Misc. Notes
A renowned American Composer.1499
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A noted musical composer. His works include “more than twenty-five anthems and twelve sacred chorales.”1196
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John Antes showed early promise as a musician, and was contracted to make a set of instruments for Lititz, [Lancaster County] Pennsylvania. The only known Antes instruments which survive, are a violin (possibly the first made in Colonial America) made in 1759 and held in the collection of the Moravian Historical Society in Nazareth, PA [see a photo of this violin in Multimedia] and a viola made in 1764 and now in the collection of the Litiz Moravian Archives). A cello which he made in 1764 is thought to be in the Moravian Church collection in Gnadenhutten, Ohio.1665
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Considered by many scholars to be the first native-born American composer of chamber music. And yet none of this music was written while he resided in America.

John descended from a noble German family whose father, Henry, was a very devout member of the Reformed Church until a theological dispute drove him to the Moravian congregation. Through this association, contact was made with Bishop August Spangenberg (1704-1792). Spangenberg would eventually baptize John in 1746 who, in turn, would devote his life and career to working for the Brethren.

In 1762, John Antes opened a shop in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania where he built musical instruments. His focus was on stringed instruments (some of which are preserved in the Museum of the Moravian Historical Society in Nazareth, Pennsylvania) yet records indicate that he also gave some attention to organ building. Antes had long had a dream to serve the church in Europe and he was finally granted permission on 1764. While in Germany, Antes learned the trade of watchmaker and prospered there.

Antes was ordained in 1769. He would receive some special training in London and then sail for Egypt in July on a missionary journey. His time in Egypt would test him. While en route, he became quite ill with a fever and was stranded in Cyprus for several weeks. He finally arrived in Egypt in 1770. Antes was captured, tortured and nearly beaten to death by the followers of Osman Bey* in November of 1779: ... I immediately gave myself up for lost ... I had no other refuge but the mercy of my God, and commended my soul to Him." Antes was finally released when an officer claimed to know him but Antes wrote "I had never in my life seen the officer." Antes was bedridden for six weeks and suffered for years as a result of his beating.

Despite his ordeal in Egypt, Antes wrote his first chamber music and signed them "Giovanni A-T-S, Dilletante Americano." A complete set of parts for these string trios can be found at the Moravian Music Foundation in Winston-Salem, NC. Antes wrote a letter to Benjamin Franklin in 1779 where he mentions sending some string quartets to Franklin. The existence of these works is unknown.

Antes returned to Germany in 1782. This was a very stable time for Antes who composed much of his sacred music [there?]. In 1785, Antes was called to Yorkshire England to serve as warden of the Fulneck congregation. He will serve the church here until his retirement in 1808. Among the many accomplishments of his career in England include his marriage in 1786 to Susannah Crabtree.

It has been reported that Antes came to know Franz Josef Haydn who visited England in the 1790’s. Furthermore, it has been reported that they played music together. Their meeting can be neither proven nor refuted but timing makes it entirely possible.

John Bland of London published three string trios of Antes in the 1790’s. Moravian scholar Karl Kroeger feels that it is unlikely that Antes composed any more chamber music while at Fulneck. However, most of Antes’s choral music were probably composed during his time at Fulneck, even though they were composed for the Moravian congregations in Nazareth and Bethlehem, PA.

In the early 1800’s, Antes health began to deteriorate. He suffered from many foot problems, some as a result of his beating in Egypt. He finally retired in 1808 and moved to Bristol, England. This would be his place of residence until his death in December, 1811.

John Antes is remembered for his music that borrows much from the style of Handel and Haydn, especially when compared with contemporaneous American music. It has been suggested that Antes’s music represents America’s "empfindsamer Stil." While this is true, it is important to understand that the style of Antes’s music is a direct representation of his faith. Not intended to pacify, entertain, or appeal to the listener’s emotions, his music reflects his theology, and his personal relationship with God.1666
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JOHN ANTES, TRAVELER, MISSIONARY AND AUTHOR. - On the 13th of March 1740, 0. S., was born to Henry and Christiana Antes, of Frederick township, a son whom they named John. At the age of six he became a pupil at the Moravian school established on his father's plantation. At twelve he went to live with the Moravian Brethren at Bethlehem. At seventeen he became a communicant member of their society.

On the 6th of May, 1764, he set out from Bethlehem for Europe, and on the 5th of July he arrived at Marienborn, where a synodical convention was then in session. He proceeded to Herrnhut, where the arrived on the 5th of September. A year later the went to Neuwied to learn the jewelry business under a celebrated master of the art, and having a great aptitude for mechanical pursuits, made satisfactory progress.

On the 16th of January, 1769, he received a call to Grand Cairo, Egypt, to the Moravian mission established there. After receiving ordination as a deacon, at Marienborn, on the 23d of May, he proceeded on the journey, going first to London. He took passage here on the 3d of October, for the Isle of Cyprus and reached Larnica on the 24th of November.

On the 1st of January, 1770, he left Larnica for Limasol, sixty miles distant, making the journey on a mule, with a Greek guide, and encountered a series of misfortunes on the way. On the 8th of January they reached Alexandria. On the 10th of February they reached Boulac, the harbor of Grand Cairo, where he was received by the Moravian missionaries in the most friendly manner. His duties here were to make himself "useful to the brethren in whatever might be deemed necessary for the furtherance of their holy enterprise, and to contribute towards their support through the means of his mechanical labor."

In the beginning of 1773 the disorders which prevailed in Cairo were so great that Europeans dared not venture into the streets without running risk of insult. Antes was doomed to the outrage of flagellation in the streets. On the 23d of August, he visited Behneshe, where a friendship had previously been established with the Copts. Six weeks later the returned to Cairo. On the 15th of November, 1779, he fell into the hands of one of the Beys, and suffered the tortures of the bastinado.†

In August, 1781, he was recalled from Egypt, and on the 20th of May, following he reached Herrnhut, and during the summer he attended the Synod at Berthelsdorf, in Saxony. In 1785 he received a call as warden of the congregation at Fulnee, in England. In June, 1786, he entered into holy matrimony with Susanna Crabtree. In 1801 he visited Herrnhut. A diminution of strength induced him, in 1808, to ask for a dismissal from his post, which was granted, and he selected Bristol for his future abode. He departed this life, after a short illness, without any symptom of pain or death struggle, on the 11th of December, 1811.

In 1800, was issued at London a work by Mr. Antes entitled "Observations in the Manners and Customs of the Egyptians, the Overflowing of the Nile and its Effects; with Remarks on the Plague and other Subjects." It was a quarto and attracted great attention at the time.

He also wrote his "Autobiography," which was first published in German by the society of which he was a member, and was afterwards translated into English.

Mr. Bruce, the celebrated traveler, in his great work, speaks of the services rendered him by Mr. Antes, at Cairo, in these words: "This very worthy and sagacious young man was often my unwearied and useful partner in many inquiries and trials as to the manner of executing some instruments in the most compendious form, for experiments proposed to be made in my travels."

It is stated that on the appearance of Lord Valentia's "Travels" in which the veracity of Bruce was questioned, Antes wrote a vindication of the latter's character and statements.1667
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John Antes (1740–1811) was an American composer of a second generation German Moravian family was born in Upper Frederick Township, Pennsylvania, and died in Bristol, England. He became somewhat of a Renaissance Man and had careers as a violin maker, watchmaker, inventor, missionary, theoretician, businessman and composer. He met and knew Haydn personally. He was educated at the local Moravian Boys School where his talent for precision wood-working led to his being briefly apprenticed as a violin maker He made several instruments, some of which are still in existence. Traveling to Germany in 1765, he worked for four years as a watchmaker. In 1769, he was ordained as a minister and served as a missionary in Egypt. Tortured by the Moslem authorities in Egypt, ill health forced him in 1781 to return to Europe and he lived in England for the rest of his life. He wrote a considerable number of compositions, mostly religious works for voice.1668
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Antes, John, American Moravian minister and composer; b. Frederick, near Bethlehem, Pa., March 24, 1740; d. Bristol, England, Dec. 17, 1811. He was educated at the Moravian boys’s school in Bethlehem. After working as a musical instrument maker in Bethlehem, he went to Herrnhut, Germany, in 1764 to pursue his training. In 1765 he went to Neuwied to learn the watchmaker’s trade.

He was ordained a Moravian minister in 1769 and in 1770 he went to Egypt as a missionary. In 1779 he was captured by the underlings of Osman Bey, who beat and crippled him in an attempt to extort money from him. In 1781 he returned to Germany.

He settled in the Fulneck Moravian community in England in 1785 as warder (business manager). His extant works—3 trios for 2 Violins and Cello, c. 1790, the earliest known chamber pieces by a native American, 31 concerted anthems and solo songs, and 59 hymn tunes—reveal his gifts as a composer.

He publ. a description of his efforts to improve the violin tuning mechanism, violin bows, and keyboard hammers in the Allgemeine musikalische Zeitung, VIII (1806). He also invented a music stand with which the performer could automatically turn the pages of a score.

His interesting autobiography was publ. as “Lebenslauf des Bruders John Antes” in Nachrichten aus der Brüder-Gemeine, No. 2 (1845).1669
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John Antes (1740-1811) was born and raised in Pennsylvania. After working for a few years as an instrument maker in Bethlehem, he was invited to come to Europe, where he undertook several kinds of business with little success. Called to serve the church as a missionary in Egypt beginning in 1769, he survived many adventures both in travel and in his work there. He was tortured and nearly killed by followers of Osman Bey, a local official of the Ottoman Empire. After undergoing the bastinado (beating of the soles of the feet), he was finally released.

It was sometime during this Egyptian period of his life that Antes wrote the trios (identified as Opus 3) and a set of string quartets (which are missing); in fact, a letter to Benjamin Franklin with which he sent a copy of the quartets is dated some four months before his torture. The trios may have been written earlier as well, or they may have been written during his convalescence. As C. Daniel Crews notes in his biography of Antes, "The global sweep of this little episode is amazing: here we have an American-born missionary in Egypt sending copies of his quartets to an American diplomat in France, quartets which he had written for an English nobleman and his associates in India! This makes his dedication of the Three Trios to the Swedish ambassador in Constantinople almost an anti-climax."

This same letter to Franklin also illuminates another side of Antes: in this letter he interceded for the American Moravians in their hardships during the American Revolution. Antes was recalled to Germany in 1782, and beginning in 1785, served as a business manager in Fulneck, England. His composition of sacred concerted vocal works (some three dozen in all) began during the 1780s, and he retired to Bristol, England, in 1808, and died there on December 17, 1811.1670
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John and his brother Henry are listed among the twenty-three students of a new boarding-school for boys established by the Moravian Brethren in 1745. Their father offered the use of his plantation, it’s buildings and mill for it’s use and was opened on 3 Jun 1745.1506
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There are several CDs with selections of his music. Crystal Records label "Music for All Seasons Moravian Trombones" has 3 short chorales by John Antes; Telarc label "Lost Music of Early America, Music of the Moravians" has one selection by Antes; New World Records label has "Antes: String Trios; Peter/American Moravian Chamber" has three string trios on it. I found first two in local stores with large section of classical music.1514
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Left no issue [children].1466
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*Osman Gazi or Osman Bey or I.Osman or Osman Sayed II was the leader of the Ottoman Turks, and the founder of the dynasty that established and ruled the Ottoman Empire. The Empire, named after him, would prevail as a worldpower for over six centuries.1671

†Bastinado is a form of torture wherein the human feet are beaten with an object such as a cane or rod, a club, a piece of wood, or a whip. It is a form of punishment often favoured because, although extremely painful, it leaves few physical marks.1671
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See this source for additional information on John Antes.1672
Family ID1076
Marr Date25 Jun 17861466,1514
Marr PlaceENGLAND
Last Modified 17 Mar 2009Created 17 May 2017 Rick Gleason - ricksgenealogy@gmail.com