Music played an extensive role in Pennsylvania German life. An outgrowth of the Protestant Reformation, hymns were an imposing part of worship and funeral services. Folk songs were popular in taverns and were sometimes accompanied by what Pennsylvania Germans called a Zitter, or dulcimer. Organs were so highly esteemed that any church that owned one was dubbed an "organ church," and for special ecclesiastical occasions musicians with an assortment of instruments would accompany occasional music in worship.

Johannes Ernst Spangenberg, who taught at the church school in Easton, memorialized this custom by depicting violinists, trumpeters, and hornists, as seen in this birth and baptismal certificate for Martin Andres. Other human figures in this work remind us that baptisms were occasions for family gatherings at which wine and cake were served. Spangenberg was bilingual, and he made pieces for children born in the eastern Lehigh Valley and even across the Delaware River in New Jersey, in a region settled by Moravians, who also placed a high value on music.

Frederick S. Weiser, "Birth and Baptismal Record for Martin Andres," in Stacy C. Hollander, American Radiance: The Ralph Esmerian Gift to the American Folk Art Museum (New York: Harry N. Abrams in association with American Folk Art Museum, 2001), 475-476.