DAVID ADAMS finds a treasure-trove of traditional British church music…
Archive of Recorded Church Music
Christmas is always a great time for music in churches and the Archive of Recorded Church Music provides a taste of what it was like in the past. The first church choir was recorded back in 1902 when St Andrew’s Church in Wells Street, London, become the first to release a gramophone record and number and types of recordings has since increased exponentially. The task of this UK-based archive is, in its words, “to collect and preserve recordings from 1902 to the present day and in the fullness of time will be gifted to an educational institution”. It has, as a result, gathered an impressively comprehensive library of recordings of traditional Anglican and Catholic male church choirs in the UK – ranging from those which have performed in the largest of the country’s cathedrals and at Oxford and Cambridge university college chapels through to local parish church choirs and even the choirs of church-run schools (and it’s worth noting that many of the choirs listed no longer exist – not surprising given that there were some 10,000 male church choirs across the UK at the turn of the 20th century compared with about 40 today). The site also features a section containing recordings of choirs from foreign lands including the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Many of the recordings – which include those made for mass commercial release as well as for TV broadcast and even one-off, private renderings – can be listened to via the archive’s YouTube channel and there’s also a collection of videos and photographs to peruse. Oh, yes, and for Christmas, the site offers a special advent calendar with a new recording each day to give you just a taste of what the site offers. A must-see destination for traditional church music lovers.
