Since the affective turn in cultural history a lot of studies have identified and analysed various emotional communities (e.g. Reddy 2001, Rosenwein 2007, 2015). However, when it comes to the forming and spreading of these emotional communities there is still much research needed, particularly when music’s role is concerned. In this paper I show how Prussian composer, writer and Kapellmeister Johann Friedrich Reichardt (1752–1814) sought to influence and form the German cultural community with songs, particularly through collections directed specifically at children such as Lieder für Kinder (4 vols.), Lieder für die Jugend (2 vols.), and Wiegenlieder für gute deutsche Mütter. By singing Reichardt’s songs children were schooled into a German emotional community. At the same time the songs influenced and shaped also the character of this emotional community. I further show how this practice was founded on a Herderian conception of national cultural communities. Following Johann Gottfried Herder’s (1744–1803) expressivist views on culture and language I focus on the active participatory character of the communities, and have chosen to talk therefore of expressive communities rather than emotional.