Phonograph Monthly Review, Vol. 5, No. 9 (1931-06)

264 The Phonograph Monthly Review Records in the Church By HERBERT E. EVANS The Advisor to Religions Activities at Columbia finds records a solution of small churches' musical problems T HROUGHOUT the Protestant church there is a decided tendency for a more beautiful service of worship and a return to the use of old liturgical forms. Increasingly the packing-box type of church is giving way to Gothic and Georgian architecture. Ministers interested in beautiful services are confronted with the problem, however, of the lack of talented musicians available for the small churches In fact it is rather sad to note that it is increasingly difficult to secure even a pianist in the average rural church and to secure a good one is a prize indeed During the last summer my office conducted an experiment in the use of a combination radio and electrola in a country church. Through the kindness of a leading company an elec- trical phonograph was installed in the small village church of Wanakena in the western Adirondacks. The average attend- ance of the church usually consisted of twelve older people. While the experiments were under way during the summer months the congregation averaged over one hundred people. Part of this interest was due to the use of fine music. The phonograph was concealed behind a screen and was operated by a young man of the church. The service opened with an organ record played by Mark Andrews or one of the English organists. The phonograph was not used for hymns but was used again after the offering where such records as The Festival Te Deum sung by the Trinity choir, Adoremus Te by the Florentine choir, Saviour, When Night Involves the Skies by the Trinity choir, Lord, I am not Worthy sung by Father Bracken, How Beautiful Upon the Mountains sung by Marion Talley, Christ Went into the Hills by John McCor- mack, Brunswick records of the St. Matthew Passion, many of the solos and choruses in Handel’s Messiah and Mendels- sohn’s Elijah as recorded (complete) in England by Colum- bia, were played. The sermon was usually followed by a solo. Besides organ records used in the opening and close of the service orchestral records were used such as Bach’s I Call Upon Thee Jesus, and La Grande Paque Russe (Russian Fes- tival of High Easter) as played by the Philadelphia Sym- phony Orchestra. The response was unusual and the experiment is being con- tinued by this office during the year. The new Riverside Church of New York City of which Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick is the pastor is using some of these records in its program of religious education. Lectures are being given to Young People’s Societies in the various churches starting with the Gregorian Chants and Palestrina and giving demon- strations of the modern masses and religious works. The number of religious works recorded by American companies is very limited and records have been secured from represen- tatives in New York of the Columbia and His Master’s Voice Companies of England, the Polydor and other foreign compan- ies. Increasingly the Brunswick, Columbia, and Victor compan- ies are producing a better type of religious records. The re- cent issue of the Gregorian Chant records is an example of this new interest. When this experiment was proposed ob- jections were raised to the use of canned music in churches. The new instuments are so fine and the tone so perfect that with the proper regulating of the records it is possible to se- cure a very worshipful attitude in a church. It was discovered that the smaller church congregations found the Trinity choir record of Saviour When Night In- volves the Skies more interesting than Palestrina numbers done in Latin especially at the beginning of the experiment. The minister conducting the service explained at the time of his announcements the meaning and words of some of the Latin records and a response was stimulated. The experiment continued for fifteen weeks and by the end of the summer the finest of music was appreciated. The use of recorded music for churches will fill an interest- ing need especially in the field of modern religious education. The experiment is continuing this winter with children’s groups and with older people. The average minister suffers from lack of education in music. He may have had one or two courses in music in his church education but these are of an elementary nature and he is unable to work adequately with the music program of his church. It would be a fine thing to install these machines in the theological seminaries to demonstrate to classes the various types of religious music available and to increase in the student an appreciation of real music. The department of music in Columbia University is doing this with music students who can not afford to at- tend the various symphonies and other music events in the city. A group of Columbia College students who are planning to enter the ministry will be invited to use this equipment as they conduct services in small churches. The Riverside Church has a very extensive equipment with remote control amplifier and record reproducing apparatus in- stalled by Bloodworth, Inc. Before the service while the or- ganist is busy with his choir religious organ records are used to assist in creating an atmosphere of worship. Wednesday evening meetings of this church are constantly using this equipment. At a church in Dover, Delaware, a concert phono- graph has been installed which is used in some of the week night activities. The response from churches indicates that perhaps this new use of recordings will fill a real need in the church for it is being received by church people everywhere with skepticism at first and then with growing appreciation and enthusiasm. Pepe del Campo (from a caricature by Dr. Ricardo M. Aleman) Sr. del Campo , who records for Victor, is the premer radio tenor of Havana , Cuba ,— broadcast- ing from the American station CMC , of the Cuban Telephone Company