Does anyone collect religious music?

[Edisonfan]

Does anyone here collect religious music?


Paul

[JerryVan]

"Religious music" covers a wide range. I'm sure the answer to your question is "yes".

I have several Black Gospel records that I really enjoy. Some Catholic Hymns. Also, religious themed Christmas music. That being said, I not sure I can claim to "collect religious music" as a particular collecting goal. But, I have several religious records in my collection.

[Edisonfan]

The reason why I ask is that I have six cylinder records of religious music I want to sell. Four are hymns and one is a sermon. If anyone is-interested, I’ll list them on the music trader forum.

[MATTROSE94]

I collect some, but don’t have too many in my collection.

[AmberolaAndy]

I’d collect some black gospel music if I had more access to some. If I find any Billy Sunday’s stuff I’d pick it up.

[52089]

I have one friend who likes them. He's a part-time preacher who sometimes plays them after his sermons. When I buy a group of records, if there are any religious ones, I just put them aside for him and give them to him when he comes through town.

[Inigo]

I have only a few. One was a real discovery, a Columbia flag with the Fisk Univ Jubilee Quartet or so, singing Exekiel saw the wheel, and another I like very much is a ortho Victor with Do you call that religion, by other vocal group. I believed they're colored (sorry, don't know the right term) by their voices and singing style. These vocal groups are fenomenal!

[VanEpsFan1914]

Occasionally I will collect them--if they're Catholic records particularly, as Catholic hymnody was undergoing some very interesting changes in the early 20th century under the leadership of Pope Pius X who rewrote some of the laws on church music. I also collect documents on the period some of which reflect technological advancements at the time--in the 1940s and '50s there were papers coming out on church music & regulations on it, saying the pipe organ has pride of place, the reed organ may be used if it's not too reedy-sounding, and that electronically amplified reed organs are right out. Phonographs or automatic organs are also forbidden...Fun bits of minutiae. Those old-time bishops and cardinals would've had a stroke if they heard the drum machine on a modern electronic church-organ...Perfectly ghastly stuff.

I collect most of my religious stuff as sheet-music, though--just got the Gregorian Institute Hymnal of 1945 which catalogs 10 albums of 46 double-sided discs on the back of it. Currently I'm looking for those recordings.

Unfortunately they are scarce & phenomenally expensive, but I think, musically speaking, they're worth it. (If you like old music it doesn't get much more old-school than Gregorian chant in Latin.)

I get the sheet music because it's easy to duplicate and music that isn't played, is lost forever. To keep this (and a bunch of 19th and 20th-century popular music alive) I bought an old 1890s parlor "pump organ" and got into playing that. Looks like a combination of a roll-top desk and a Stair-Master and sounds pretty good. Thinking about buying an 1870s model soon to get a few extra stops & a sub-bass but in the meantime my 11-stop L&B has to do. It's 130 years old this year, might blow a gasket at any time, but -- sounds like heaven -- so I play the hell out of it!

[Marc Hildebrant]

O! Dem Golden Slippers, podcast number 121, seems to be quite popular.

It's one of the later Diamond Disc records that was electrically recorded.

Marc