The Mennonite immigrants from the Soviet Union of the 1920s brought with them a vibrant choral tradition. In imperial Russia, over the previous half-century, choral singing had become integral to church and community life, and in Canada, wherever the new arrivals formed a congregation, a choir was quickly established as well. The coming of the Russlaender, as these immigrants were later known, stimulated choral singing among Mennonites already living in Canada, and contributed significantly to the flourishing of Mennonite music-making in the ensuing decades. For years, the institution of the Saengerfest (choral festival), a festive, celebratory worship event bringing together multiple choirs, played a vital role in motivating Mennonite choral activity.¹

It will surprise some that Mennonites were not always known for their harmonious four-part singing. When Mennonites began to settle in imperial Russia in 1789, they brought with them the practice of unaccompanied unison congregational hymn-singing under the leadership of a Vorsaenger (chorister). Melodies were learned by memory and sung in a nasal manner at a slow tempo, providing room for the many additional notes that were inserted over time as embellishments between the main notes of the original hymn. While the effect could be powerful, some visitors to the Mennonite colonies found it harsh and offensive.

Efforts to reform Mennonite singing in Russia were initiated in the 1820s and 1830s by Prussian-educated teachers Tobias Voth and Heinrich Franz, who taught their students to read music from a system of numerical notation (Ziffern). Franz used this for his Choralbuch of Mennonite hymns, which he began to compile in 1837 with the intention of improving and correcting congregational singing. He first recorded only the melodies; in subsequent revisions he set them in four parts. The Choralbuch circulated in manuscript form before it was published in 1860. Its adoption by churches was gradual and not without resistance. Choirs were also first introduced in schools before being accepted in churches. The establishment of the Mennonite Brethren Church was crucial in this process. The Mennonite Brethren emphasized music and singing as expressions of the gospel and spiritual life, and showed a preference for evangelistic songs, which appealed to young people. Choirs were recognized as an effective means of teaching this new repertoire and as a wholesome activity for young people.

The first Saengerfest in the Mennonite colonies in imperial Russia was held in Rückenau, Molotschna colony, on Sunday, May 30, 1893. It was modelled after the Saengerfests promoted by the Christlicher Saengerbund (Christian Choral Association), an outgrowth of the broader German choral movement of the nineteenth century. Mennonites who subscribed to its monthly publication were informed about workshops for training conductors, choral festivals, and techniques for raising the level of singing in the churches. Choral festivals were conceived as opportunities for the enjoyment of sacred music, spiritual edification through both music and spoken messages, and Christian fellowship.

Six choirs participated in the 1893 Saengerfest, travelling as far as two hundred kilometres to attend. Beginning early in the day, the morning program included twenty-two choral selections, congregational hymns, a prayer meeting, and messages by two visiting Baptist preachers. After lunch, the six choirs plus some singers from other villages – about 120 singers in all – came together as a mass choir to perform eleven selections, and two Mennonite preachers gave sermons. There were about two thousand guests.

The next Saengerfest, a year later, featured eleven choirs, with a total of three hundred singers in the mass choir. A guest conductor, Friedrich Schweiger, director of the Russian Choral Association, spent the weeks before the festival rehearsing participating choirs. Joint rehearsals began on the Thursday before the festival. The program for this Saengerfest added a late afternoon Faspa and more singing in the evening. The choirs that participated in these early Saengerfests came mainly from Mennonite Brethren congregations, as the introduction of choral singing in the main Mennonite church occurred later.

The First World War, the revolutions of 1917, and the civil war that ensued hampered major choral activities, but they quickly resumed when it was feasible. There was a small festival of four choirs in Lichtenau, Molotschna, in April 1918, and a Saengerfest was held in Crimea in 1921. Choral workshops and festivals, some quite large, were held with increasing frequency over the next few years, until the onset of forced collectivization and dekulakization in 1928. Musicologist Wesley Berg remarks that singing together in large groups “permitted a sense of community and would have provided an escape from the insecurity of their life in the new, unfamiliar Russia of the 1920s, that could hardly have been gained in any other way.”

In the meantime, the years of war, revolution, and upheaval had prompted many Mennonites to pursue emigration to achieve freedom and security. The decision to leave the land that had been their cherished home, where many had flourished and prospered, was difficult. Most of the over one hundred thousand Mennonites in the Soviet Union would remain, by choice or by lack of option, but about twenty-one thousand immigrated to Canada between 1923 and 1930. While the devastation of recent years had left them with little material wealth, they brought with them their rich musical heritage and a commitment to congregational life.

When the Russlaender arrived in Canada’s western provinces, they encountered the Kanadier Mennonites, most of whose forebears had come from imperial Russia in the 1870s. In Ontario they were welcomed by Swiss Mennonites. Both groups had formerly opposed musical innovations like four-part singing, and the more conservative among them still did. In Manitoba, choral singing had been promoted by H. H. Ewert, the principal of the Mennonite Collegiate Institute, and in Saskatchewan, the talented composer and conductor Aron Sawatzky provided important choral leadership among the Mennonite Brethren, organizing Saengerfests in conjunction with church conference meetings. Yet while there was some recognition of the value of choral singing and education among Canadian Mennonites in the early decades of the twentieth century, it was not widespread.

The Russlaender sometimes joined Kanadier church congregations, but more often than not they formed their own. A choir was usually organized soon after. It took a little longer to resume the practice of holding choral festivals and workshops. In Manitoba, some Saengerfests were organized in the late 1920s, and by the 1930s they were a regular occurrence.

Choral singing became a powerful way to establish new bonds of community, especially among young people, at a time when opportunities for social activity were limited. In the rural Mennonite communities of this period, the Saengerfest was often the social highlight of the year. It was an opportunity for congregations to worship and fellowship together, and for a young person to find a romantic partner.

Saengerfests were usually held in the early summer, between the end of school and the beginning of harvest. In the 1930s and 1940s, when rural communities had no churches large enough to accommodate multiple congregations, the event might be held in a freshly cleaned barn, a machine shed, a curling rink, or a tent. The day-long affair had a casual atmosphere and might include roasting wieners and playing baseball.

Saengerfests awakened many young people to the possibilities of the world of music, and not only through the excitement of singing in a mass choir. It was not uncommon for Saengerfests to feature soloists and accompaniment by string and wind instruments. Conductor George Wiebe recalls how he and his brothers were inspired to take voice lessons by the example of their uncle Philip Wiebe, a bass-baritone soloist.

A number of conductors made significant contributions to the development of Mennonite choral singing through their leadership of choral workshops and festivals, teaching in schools, and the introduction of major choral works. The most influential of these was Kornelius H. Neufeld of Winkler, who came to Canada in 1923. A mesmerizing, theatrical presence and an energetic promoter, K. H., as he was known, had a genius for organizing Saengerfests and inspiring people to sing. A Saengerfest he organized in Winkler on Ascension Day in 1938 involved 450 singers, instrumentalists from across the province, and an audience of between four and five thousand. By the early 1940s his services were in such demand from Ontario to British Columbia that he was called “the wandering conductor.”

In 1944, the newly formed Manitoba Mennonite Youth Organization (MMYO), associated with the Conference of Mennonites in Manitoba, appointed K. H. Neufeld and violinist and conductor John Konrad to organize choral workshops and festivals across the province. In 1945, they organized a massive Saengerfest in the Winnipeg Auditorium featuring a choir of eight hundred singers, an orchestra, and a band before an audience of over four thousand. Ben Horch, another charismatic leader, was also appointed in 1944 to do similar work with Mennonite Brethren choirs. Horch led workshops and conducted Saengerfests and concerts of major choral works for six summers, in western Canada and Ontario.

The establishment of Mennonite Brethren Bible College in 1944 and Canadian Mennonite Bible College in 1947, both with music departments, inaugurated a new era in the history of Mennonite choral music in Manitoba. The availability of advanced music education made choral workshops less necessary for the training of conductors, and as Mennonites became more sophisticated in their musicianship, Saengerfests became more like formal concerts than celebrative gatherings.

After the death of K. H. Neufeld in 1957, MMYO continued to sponsor choral festivals for several years, engaging itinerant conductors for the summer months. In 1964, Henry Engbrecht and George Wiebe conducted nine Saengerfests across the province. By 1966, however, this program had ended. Saengerfests continued to occur in the subsequent decades, but their number decreased. The congregations of the Whitewater Mennonite Church maintained the longest unbroken record of annual Saengerfests, starting in 1935, but after more than fifty years, this, too, came to and end.

Although Saengerfests are no longer a common occurrence, Mennonites have recently drawn on memory of the tradition to celebrate major anniversaries. Continuing in the vein of Saengerfests held at Winnipeg’s Centennial Concert Hall in 1974 and 1975 to commemorate, respectively, the centenary of Mennonite settlement in Manitoba and the 450th anniversary of the beginning of the Anabaptist movement, on July 15, 2023, the centenary of the Russlaender migration was commemorated with Singing Our Journey, a Saengerfest event that filled the same hall’s 2,300 seats for a program that featured favourite Mennonite hymns and two commissioned works, as well as pieces in Ojibwe, Ukrainian, and Zulu, performed by a large adult choir and smaller children’s and youth choirs. In 2024, the Russlaender centenary was commemorated with a Saengerfest in Kitchener, Ontario, and this past March, the quincentenary of Anabaptism was honoured with a Saengerfest in Abbotsford, British Columbia. That we have chosen to mark these milestones by coming together in massed choral singing is a reflection of how collective song continues to give expression to Mennonite faith and community.

Jeremy Wiebe is managing editor of Preservings and communications and finance officer of the Plett Foundation. He teaches Mennonite history at the University of Winnipeg.

1. This article was written for the program booklet for Singing Our Journey: Sängerfest 2023 and as such does not include citations. It draws significantly from Wesley Berg’s From Russia with Music: A Study of the Mennonite Choral Singing Tradition in Canada (Winnipeg: Hyperion Press, 1985). ↩︎