HEBRON

Hebron was established in 1830. The first reference to bands in Hebron in the Moravian record was by missionary Ferdinand Kruth in 1839, when he observed missionary Jonathan Mentzel teaching three Inuit trombone.¹ For European Moravians, the trombone choir, or posaunenchor, was an important ensemble, as these were reported to be the first instruments publicly played in Herrnhut.² Posaunenchor provides the root of the Inuttitut word posaunik, which refers to the brass bands. Throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the Hebron band performed on festival days and for arriving ships like the Harmony. As a result of the devastating effects of the great influenza epidemic in Labrador, the instruments in Hebron were destroyed in 1918 or 1919, and the band remained dormant until 1930.³ In 1937, the Hebron band gave a performance on the deck of the Hudson’s Bay Company ship Nascopie which was also broadcast on the Canadian Broadcasting Company radio service. That same year the band may have also given a broadcast performance for US-based audiences on the deck of Commander Donald MacMillan’s ship, Bowdoin.⁴ Hebron was forcibly resettled in 1959. The band gave its final performances as people left the community. The hymn of choice was “Takotigilâmminiptingnut,” or “God Be With You Till We Meet Again.”⁵ Relocated band members integrated into the bands in Nain and Hopedale. In Makkovik, relocated band members from Hebron and Nutak formed their own band.

Hebron band, PhotLabrador 382a, Moravian Archives Bethlehem.

Hebron band, PhotLabrador 521-548 (Kate Hettasch Film Strips), Moravian Archives Bethlehem.

Hebron Brass Band 1044 - R Junker

Hebron Brass Band

References

^{1 Ferdinand Kruth, “Extracts of Private Correspondence,” Periodical Accounts, 15 (1839): 116.}

^{2 Stewart Carter, “Trombone Ensembles of the Moravian Brethren in America: New Avenues for Research,” in Brass Scholarship in Review: Proceedings of the Historic Brass Society Conference, ed. Stewart Carter (Pendragon, 2006): 83.}

^{3 Christiane Johanna and Siegmund Waldmann, “Report from Hebron From July 1st, 1929 to June 30th, 1930,” Periodical Accounts, 139 (1931): 72.}

^{4 F.W. Peacock, “Music of Nain Inuit,” Inuttituut (Winter 1977): 56.}

^{5 Carol Brice Bennett, Dispossessed: The Eviction of Inuit from Hebron, Labrador, (Imaginaire | Nord, 2017): 103-4.}