June 29 will be the 122nd anniversary of the first known field recording, of a concert of Handel’s "Israel In Egypt" at the Crystal Palace, London, England, sung by a choir of 4000 voices:

http://www.webrarian.co.uk/crystalpalace/index.html

and

http://www.nps.gov/archive/edis/edisonia/very_early.htm

Direct links audio files of the recordings:

http://www.webrarian.co.uk/crystalpalace/cylinder01.mp3

http://www.webrarian.co.uk/crystalpalace/cylinder02.mp3

http://www.webrarian.co.uk/crystalpalace/cylinder03.mp3

http://www.nps.gov/archive/edis/edisonia/audio/EDIS-SRP-0154-17.mp3

Richard Lainhart