John Antes

and Surely he has Bourne our Griefs,[3] his three string trios have also attracted attention and the lost "six Quartettos" remain a tantalizing mystery.

In 1745, Antes entered the Moravian Boys Boarding School, where he received music education from Johann Christoph Pyrlaeus.

[5] Although Pyrlaeus might now be first-known as a teacher of Antes, he was the founder of the Bethlehem collegium musicum, a capable singer, instrumentalist, and organist, and was also a missionary to Native Americans.

[2] Antes left Bethlehem in 1764 and travelled to Herrnhut, Germany, the international center of the Moravians, to pursue a career as a missionary.

[7] Antes was ordained as a Moravian Minister in January 1769, and he left for Egypt that same month to serve as a missionary to the Coptic Church of Grand Cairo.

[11] Also while in Egypt, Antes wrote a letter to Benjamin Franklin, whom he had met previously in Philadelphia, stating that he was including "a copy of six quartettos".

[12] Musicologist Karl Kroeger[13] believes that it is possible that Antes's string trios are re-orchestrated versions of three of his six quartettos.

"[21] Antes was also fond of "dotted rhythms, melodic thirds, long vocal lines, high tessituras, and wide ranges,"[22] as well as equal importance to each instrument as in his string trios.