David Tannenberg
| David Tannenberg | |
|---|---|
| Born |
March 21, 1728 Berthelsdorf, Germany |
| Died | May 19, 1804 (aged 76) York, Pennsylvania |
| Occupation | Organ builder |
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David Tannenberg (1728–1804) was a Moravian organ builder who emigrated to Pennsylvania. He is cited as the most important American organ-builder of his time. He constructed a number of organs during his lifetime, as well as other keyboard instruments. Many of the organs that he built are still in use.
David Tannenberg was born March 21, 1728 in Berthelsdorf, Upper Lusatia. His parents, Johann Tannenberg and Judith Tannenberg, née Nitschmann, left Moravia as refugees in 1727. Tannenberg attended schools in the Moravian communities of Ronneburg, Marienborn and eventually Herrnhaag.
He received a call to join the Moravian community in Zeist and traveled there in 1748. While in Zeist, Tannenberg began making arrangements to travel with a group of Moravians to Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. He boarded the Moravian ship The Irene and landed in America on May 12, 1749. He arrived in Bethlehem in 1749. He married Anna Rosina Kern not long after arriving. Anna Rosina Kern was born on February 17, 1763 in Ebersdorf, Upper Lusatia. According to Moravian church records, the surname Tannenborn was "colloquially, and usually written, Tannenberger." The couple had three daughters, Rosina, Maria Elizabeth, and Anna Maria. They had two sons, David and Samuel.
Tannenberg was a joiner by trade and began to practice that trade in Pennsylvania and played a role in the construction of the homes and buildings of Bethlehem. He designed the steeple of the Moravian Church in Lititz.
In 1778, Tannenberg and twenty-one other members of his congregation took an Oath of Allegiance to the newly formed government of the United States. This caused some controversy, since the church had remained loyal to King George III.
According to music historian Thomas McGeary, "Tannenberg was the most important eighteenth-century American organ-builder."
In late 1757 or early 1758, Tannenberg began learning the craft of organ building from Johann Gottlob Klemm. In 1758, he assisted Klemm in construction of an organ in Nazareth. After Klemm’s death, Tannenberg did not build any organs for three years. Tannenberg moved to Lititz, Pennsylvania, with his family in 1765. There, he purchased the home of one of the settlers of Lititz named George Klein. He worked out of the house until his death. He was active in the collegium musicum of Lititz as an organist and string player of the Moravian congregation there and began building organs for Lutheran, Reformed and Moravian Churches. He was reportedly well regarded in his community. He was a good performer on the violin and a capable tenor singer. He also built pianos, harpsichords, and probably a clavichord. None of those instruments are known to still exist. However, the directions for building a clavichord still survive and offer insights to building techniques of the time.
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