After 158 years of worship, St. John’s Lutheran, Quakertown, PA closed as a congregation. As a result there is much church choral music available. Unfortunately, at this time, we do not have the time, nor the energy, to catalog it. Does anyone have any suggestions on what to do with this music, other than sending it to a shredder?
Reader Interactions
Comments
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Paul Ropp says
You could contact Young’s Music in Ohio. They take and resell used choral music. Here is their website: https://youngsmusic.com
Carol Browning says
Have you tried contacting the Association of Lutheran Church Musicians, National Association of Pastoral Musicians, or the Association of Anglican Musicians to have them get the word out to members in your area who might be interested in the library?
Grady Manley says
Send it to a place the resells choral music. The two I use regularly are The Music Library http://www.themusiclibrary.com/
and Young’s Music. https://www.youngsmusic.com/
Catherine Campbell-Nesbit says
I just sent a lot of choral music to a choralnet user at a church in Indiana who posted seeking choral music. I sent a 22 lb. box media rate and it was only $10 to do so. It was a great way to recycle music and help a fellow choral director and church. The address was:
Edson Campos
c/o Baptist Churcch
691 Heritage STreet
Argos, IN 46501
You can probably find his posting on choralnet. He was willing to pay shipping but I decided to pay the shipping since it was so inexpensive and it was for a church music program.
xena1225hotmail-com says
That would be a shame. I sing for several churches and as a musician cannot bear the thought of wasting music. Can you give me an idea of the size of the collection? Maybe I could take it (or at least some of it), catalogue it and disperse it among the various churches I am associated with as well as some of my other church music friends.
Kim Neighbor
Lawrenceville, NJ
carolcarolcei-com says
Have an open house give-away. Pick a date. Notify the AGO chapters in Phila and Lehigh; get the local Bucks , Montco, Lehigh and Northampton. Counties to give a community service write up.
If you invite them, people will come!
abbeyterrymezzo says
1. Is there a card catalog or list of titles or composers? If so, scan it, or box up the card file. If large, dump each set of drawers (author, title, season/subject) in their own box (for three boxes of cards).
2. Box the music by file numbers (label boxes 1-20; 35-70, etc), but as you do so, snap a photo with your smartphone of the front page (the one with title, composer and start of music) of each work. Upload these to a Google photos account. Someone can catalog it remotely from this and until then people can browse the collection visually and see what they may be interested in. Share the link to the photo catalog
3. Let the community know how many boxes/space this collection takes up. I imagine someone will come to get it. If you can store it for a short while that will help.
4. Reach out to public and private schools with music programs in your area, and any University music programs. They always need choral music. Similarly, churches with fewer economic resources. If shredding is eminent, offer to your University music library.
5. If this is not clear, or you have other questions, feel free to email me at abbeyterrymezzo at gmail.com . Good luck.
Edson Campos says
Hello, I would like to help you catalogue all this music if you need the one to help. Email at , thanks