This episode is inspired by The Free Library’s collection of Pennsylvania German printed books, manuscripts, and works of art. Our guests are Dr. Alex Ames and Dr. Christopher Herbert. Ames is author of The Word in The Wilderness, host of Cloister Talk: The Pennsylvania German Material Texts Podcast, and Collections Engagement Manager at the Rosenbach Museum & Library. Herbert is a musicologist, professional opera singer, and Assistant Professor at William Paterson University where he leads the Vocal Studies program. His current research and our conversation today focus on the music of the Ephrata Cloister, an eighteenth-century commune in Pennsylvania.