Henry Croswell et al. in St Mary's Church, Whitechapel, East End of London - 20 July, 1879, 11:15 AM
from Transcript of the diaries of Henry Croswell, page 161:
We came out at 12.40 in the middle of the sermon
[…]
O[rgan]. – Large, well-played.
H[ymns]. – Church Hymns from which Low Church hymns were selected.
C[hoir]. – Any number, unsurpliced.
[The congregation numbered] 700 – few, if any, Whitechapel men but there were many young females. Several elderly fussy old gentlemen shuffled with hymn books.
Henry Croswell, Transcript of the diaries of Henry Croswell. In British Library, number 000826807, C.194.c.113 , p. 161. https://led.kmi.open.ac.uk/entity/lexp/1548332663587 accessed: 20 April, 2024 (By permission of the British Library.)
Listeners
Listening to
hide composers| hymns selected from 'Church Hymns' | performed by the choir and organist of St Mary's Church Whitechapel |
| Anglican church music | performed by the choir and organist of St Mary's Church Whitechapel |
Experience Information
| Date/Time | 20 July, 1879, 11:15 AM |
| Duration | 1 hours 25 minutes |
| Medium | live |
| Listening Environment | in the company of others, indoors, in public |
Notes
Henry Croswell (1840–93) kept a record of his visits to churches in London over a period of more than twelve years (1872–85). He made methodical notes about the number of clergy, the churchmanship, the congregation, the sermon and the church architecture, as well as commenting on the music that he heard (the organ, the hymns and the choir). The above listening experience has been extracted from one of these records. ‘Church Hymns’ (1871) and ‘Church Hymns with Tunes’ (1874) were publications of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge (S.P.C.K.), under the musical editorship of Arthur Sullivan (1842–1900). This collection was the most successful of the competitors to ‘Hymns Ancient and Modern’ in the late nineteenth century, containing a larger number of hymns overall, and more hymns specifically intended for children and young people.