“Morning Prayer service”: St Andrew’s Wells Street, London 1908 (Frederick Docker)

Organist and choirmaster: Frederick A W Docker. Recorded 5th October 1908 and issued January 1909 by the ‘Gramophone Company’ (the forerunner to EMI) as a set of eight single-sided records in a lavish, leather-bound folder.

In 1902, St Andrew’s had been the first British choir ever to make a record. This later 1909 release represents the first time a complete service had been issued to the public. It is one of the rarest recordings in the Archive. The release was entitled “Morning Prayer service prescribed by the Church of England'. The records were all single-sided because there was, as yet, no method of recording on both sides of a record.

A history of the choir, more recordings, including the two versions of the Royal Prayers at http://recordedchurchmusic.org/st-andrew-s-wells-street. St Andrew’s Church, Well Street, was later moved lock, stock and barrel, to Kingsbury in north-west London, to become St Andrew’s, Kingsbury, the church at which Barry Rose was organist & choirmaster before moving to Guildford Cathedral.

Видео “Morning Prayer service”: St Andrew’s Wells Street, London 1908 (Frederick Docker) канала Archive of Recorded Church Music