Note: This article was originally written in preparation for the Lititz 250th celebration in 2006.
Musical dynasties are not uncommon in European history. One thinks immediately of the Bach family in Germany, and the Strausses of Vienna. Lititz can boast of five generations of Lutz family members who were and remain active in the musical life of the community.
A butcher by trade, Benjamin Fry “Benny” Lutz was the patriarch of the assembly. As early as 1913 he formed the Lutz Family Quintette, consisting of himself, daughter Ruth, son Benjamin, and nephew Winfield Wilson on cornet, and son John playing the baritone horn. For several years the group played for church and community gatherings and fairs throughout the county, gaining a wide reputation for their entertainment skills. Then tragedy struck; daughter Ruth succumbed in the great influenza pandemic of 1918, dying at the youthful age of 17. Benny’s wife Mary never quite recovered from the loss of her only daughter, but Benny continued for decades to encourage the youth of the community in both musical and athletic endeavors. Reconstituted as The Lutz Family Band, he and his descendants brightened lives in such venues as church picnics, Conestoga View, area fairs and farm shows, and the county jail.
As director of the Sunday School orchestra at the Lititz Moravian Church, Benny was a familiar figure to many. He was also a prolific hymn tune composer, setting the texts of a number of different writers. Collections of his hymns were published in Lititz in 1942 and 1943. These booklets include “I Love Jesus” with words by Ella Buch, which bears the notation “This song was first sung in the Moravian Church, at Lititz Pa. by the infant class on Christmas 1907.” The song “Closer to Jesus,” to a text of the Rev. H. J. Heydt of the School of the Bible in Lancaster, was included in Tabernacle Hymns No. 4, becoming the first hymn written in Lititz in more than a century to find its way into a nationally distributed hymnal.
