RECORDS PLAYED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXX, Issue 31, 7 February 1939, Page 10

RECORDS PLAYED.

CHURCH SERVICE. £YDNEY INNOVATION. MUSICAL. BACKGROUND. (From Our Own Correspondent.) SYDNEY, February 2. At Manly Congregational Church on Sunday the Rev. J. J. Mountain introduced something quite new in the form of a recorded musical .background to the service. Beginning with a peal of chimes, as a preface to both the morning and evening services, his musical innovation was a complete surprise to the congregation. The chimes were heard only in the immediate vicinity of the church, but he hopes soon to install i amplifiers on the roof from which a carillioi* programme will be presented. Amplifiers had been installed in hidden positions inside the church, and the minister from the pulpit controlled the sequence and volume of a musical accompaniment to the service from records played on specially-constructed machines. A feature of the service was a special record of Jude's "Consecration Hymn" and "0 Divine Redeemer." Mr. Mountain explained later that this musical accompaniment to church services was designed to appeal particularly to young people. He expected a certain amount of. opposition from older people, but younger people he believed would be Records of the world's best instrumentalists and singers would be used. He said he had also introduced the same idea into the Sunday School where tl* pupils had received it with great enthusiasm.