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A Short History of The Peterborough Unitarian Church Organ
Douglas H. Copley
The Unitarian Church was built in 1825 but it did not have an organ until 1867. How did the congregation manage music and hymn singing? Three answers seem possible. They might not have had any music, they might have sung unaccompanied or they might have used some other instrument to accompany their singing. Some Puritan congregations did not have music as part of their services but this was not the case at the Peterborough Unitarian Church. Mr. Kilburn, actually designed the church to have four benches for singers in the gallery. In his book, "History of Peterborough" (1954) George Morison describes the congregation standing and facing the choir at the rear of the church to sing hymns. A Mr. W. H. Branigan objected to this as being disrespectful of the minister and so the practice was abandoned. However, several of the older members of the congregation did not like to break with tradition, so they compromised by singing the first hymn of each service facing the choir and the rest facing the minister. The matter was resolved when the choir was moved to the front of the church to the right of the pulpit.
In speaking of the Presbyterian Church, now the Congregational Church of Peterborough’ in his sermon of 1915, Elias H. Cheney writes:
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"There were no paid singers, no special music; only two hymns before and the closing hymn after the sermon. The choir leader did not always know what those would be till they were given out. He must select the tune while the hymn was being read. I knew of a few breakdowns because the selected tune did not fit."- |
From this account clearly the words and tune were clearly not together in the same book. One may also assume that the tunes were in the choir leader’s head as he found them in such short a time. I suspect that the choir sang unaccompanied, using the starting note given by their leader.
Organ Festival and Levee
On the 12th December, 1866, the congregation held
an event to raise the money to buy an organ for the church. They called it an
"Organ Festival and Levee" and it was a very grand event as can be
seen from the advertisement which appeared in the Peterborough Transcript. The
event was a big success. It raised most of the $2,600 purchase price of the
organ. The Transcript reported "We believe it has done more to cement the
friends and members of the Society, at home and abroad, in kindly relation and
brotherly love than any other event in the history of the Society"
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Organ Festival & Levee The Unitarian
Society of Peterborough will hold a Social Festival and Levee, on Wednesday Eve. Dec 12, 1866 to which the
public are respectfully invited. The Old
Folks’ Concert. Fancy Table, Grab Bag, Gypsy's Tent, Shooting Gallery, & C.which will furnish a very agreeable opportunity to spend money in a good cause. Refreshments
consisting of Oysters, Pies, Cakes, Tea and Coffee, Ice Cream Tickets 25 Cents Children under 12 years of age, 15 cents. To be had at the Post Office, Book Store, and the door. Doors open at 5 O’clock, P. M.
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Admission charges and money taken at the Levee brought in $455.
At the Levee donations from members of the society and others in the town were
announced and these came to $1,344.50. Also announced were donations from former
members who were abroad (had left town) of $1,040. From the account in the
Transcript it seems that the announcing of these donations was a big part of the
Levee "The enthusiasm which greeted the reading of responses from absent
sons and daughters of Peterboro’, was the crowning glory of the levee, and the
home subscription the grand climacteric."
The events of the Levee were enthusiastically reported by the Transcript. The Old Folks’ choir sang fage tunes which had been popular in their day and proved very popular with the audience. The children’s choir was led by Mrs. Charles A. Ames and they sang like canaries. The Peterboro’ Cornet Band members were well dressed and their performance was up to their usual standard. The photograph of the band was taken in 1866 and from the trees we can see it was winter. As Dr. Tubbs was a photographer it may well have been taken in connection with the Levee.
The Tableaux Vivant were arranged by Dr. Tubbs, who was the town dentist, and included Mrs. Tubbs, Mrs. Crafts and Mrs. Scripture. The tableaux were posed scenes which may have represented actual famous paintings. In those days photographs required long exposures during which the subject had to remain still. These skills would have been of benefit to Dr. Tubbs in arranging the tableaux.
The Farmer’s Kitchen was a display of the artifacts and foods that would have been seen in a farmer’s kitchen of the late 18th or early 19th centuries. The display was made more interesting as members of the society acted the parts of farmers using the utensils in the kitchen.
How all this happened in one place during the course of one evening is difficult to imagine. The Old Town Hall may have had more than one hall so that different events could take place at the same time. If it all happened in one large hall then it needed a lot of organization especially as refreshments were served throughout the events.
The New Organ
The organ was built by the firm of E. & G.G. Hook of Boston who were at that time the premiere organ builders in the States. It was a modest two manual instrument with five stops on the swell, seven on the great and two pedal stops. In spite of its humble proportions, it served the church well providing quiet music to accompany singers as well as performing louder solo organ music. The organ had a tracker action, with mechanical links between keys and pipes. A system of rods and levers let air into the pipes when the keys were pressed. The organ of the Unitarian Universalist church in Winchendon, Mass., is very similar the Peterborough Unitarian Church organ in its original configuration. The fact that the Winchendon organ is still going strong is testament to the quality of Hook’s work.
The organ arrived at the Church in June of 1867 and was ready to be dedicated by the 4th July. Prior to the arrival of the organ, work was done to prepare a place in the church to receive it. At the same time two life size frescos were painted on the walls at the front of the church by a Mr. Walburg of Boston. They were of St. John and St. Peter. Other frescoing on the church walls was touched up.
About ten days were needed for the installation of the organ. This meant that the church was not available for use on one Sunday and on this occasion, the service took place in the Town Hall. It was a joint service with the Baptist Society. The Sunday School Anniversary was deferred until the new organ was in action.
Grand Organ Opening
The new organ was opened with a recital on the 4th Of July 1867. Mr. Capen of Boston Latin School gave the recital, assisted by his son. An octet of singers also performed. Mr. Capen’s son may have assisted by turning the music pages for his father and may have changed the stops for him as is the practice in some parts of mainland Europe. The content of the program would have been selected to demonstrate the qualities of the new organ.
The committee arranging the Opening went to a lot of trouble to ensure that there was enough seating for the large numbers expected to attend the event. This included negotiating the consent of pew owners to sell about three eighths of the pews as reserved seats. This raised $60 which was used to defray the expenses of the Opening and pay some short falls in the organ fund.
In 1933 the organ was rebuilt. An electro-pneumatic action was installed and extra stops were added. The rebuild used the existing case and a lot of the original pipes. The console was replaced and a number of couplers were added. The cost of the rebuild was paid by Miss Jennie S. Scott. During the rebuilding, services were held in the Parish House. The work seems to have been completed by June of 1933 but the organ was not dedicated until August of that year.
Dedication of the Rebuilt Organ
On Monday, August the 28th,1933 a recital was given by Mr. William E. Zeuch, organist of the First Church in Boston. About 200 people attended the recital and the dedication service was conducted by the Rev. Richard Allen Day. The congregation sang "Faith of our Fathers" and "On Opening an Organ". Mr. Zeuch played a wide selection of pieces including Handel’s Largo and the Priest’s March by Mendelssohn. A very impressive rite of dedication was spoken by the minister and congregation.
Rite of Dedication| Minister | We, who worship here have received a noble gift. Sixty-six years ago our church installed the beautiful toned organ which has created within these walls an atmosphere of worship. Today through the generosity of a loyal comrade, we are given that organ again, so restored and enlarged as to be a new instrument. Let us now, with joy and gratitude, join in a simple rite of dedication. |
| Minister and Congregation | We dedicate this
organ to the supreme act of man, worship. May it open for us the way to
conscious communion with the Infinite and Eternal.
We dedicate this organ to the honor of musicians without whom its voice and soul were dead. Especially those who for many years past and will for many years to come make it speak to this congregation of their nobler ideals and their abiding faith. We dedicate this organ to man’s search for ever more adequate conceptions of God. May its notes open our hearts and minds to a truer knowledge of him. We dedicate this organ to the advancing and ever nobler ideals of human souls. May it speak to us of their inherent and divine possibilities. We dedicate this organ to man’s struggle to learn and to do that which is right. May its music help us to understand the divine nature of righteousness. We dedicate this organ to the Christ-like life. May it make plain for us the glory and abiding satisfaction that comes from service and sacrifice. We dedicate this organ to that mysterious and potential force in man which enable him to translate failures into success. May its harmonies help us, and those who come after, to turn weakness into strength, temptation into power, and sorrow into serenity. We dedicate this organ to faith in immortality. May it awaken in our souls a consciousness of life eternal. |
The Rebuilding
The organ was rebuilt in 1933 by the firm of George W. Reed &Son of West Boylston, Mass. The tracker action was replaced with an elecro-pneumatic one, the console was replaced and the number of stops increased from fourteen to twenty nine. Octave and sub-octave couples were added to the manuals and between the manuals. Other changes were made in order to fit the enlarged instrument into its original case. For example, two small reservoirs were installed, replacing the original. The purpose of this work seems to have been to make a more spectacular organ. The twenty nine stops served seventeen ranks of pipes. In the original organ, each stop had its own rank or set of pipes and it is quite likely that one of the stops had three pipes for each note, known as mixtures. Twelve of the new stops work from just two ranks of pipes by connecting different sections of the pipes to the keys. The great, swell and pedal keys all use the same two ranks of pipes. Often, adding an extra stop has no result because pipes called by the stop are already in use. In this way, seventeen stops have unique effects, while the remainder of the 29 offer alternative ways to activate different combinations of pipes. The electric key action made this possible through a large number of relays or electrical switches.
The original manuals had fifty eight keys each and the new manuals have sixty one. Three of the keys on each manual only sound a few of the pipes activated by others on the same manual. These are at the ends of the range and are not often used. The result of fitting the extra pipes and all the relays into the existing organ case has meant that it is very crowded so that it is difficult if not impossible to tune a number of the pipes.
The pressure of the wind feeding the pipes was increased partly to operate the pneumatic side of the action and perhaps to make the organ louder and brighter. The result of this is that the original pipes have lost some of the tonal quality for which Hook organs were renown.
The Organ's Decline
About 1995 the Church’s Music Committee became concerned about the condition of the organ. Notes were beginning to malfunction requiring the frequent attention of our professional organ tuner. Other parts of the organ were also giving cause for concern. The organ tuner was asked to survey the organ and report on its condition making recommendations for its future. He found that the electrical part of the organ was in a very poor state. Copper hardens and goes brittle over time and the old insulation was failing. He was concerned that a short circuit might cause a fire and installed fuses to prevent this. The electrical contacts in the key action are very worn and pitted. The wind reaches organ pipes through wind chests and these were beginning to leak. Much of the leather used to seal joints had perished, was beginning to leak and needed replacement. He felt the organ could be kept working for a few more years but it would not be too long before it failed altogether.
He recommended that the church start very soon to decide what we wanted to do about the organ. The options were:
An organ study committee was set up to investigate and report on these options. One of its first decisions was to consult Barbara Owen, an eminent organ historian from Newburyport, Mass. who also surveyed the organ and made specific recommendations. She felt that our organ was an important instrument, historically as well as musically, which was well worth restoring. The committee decided that the organ should be restored and not replaced. The walnut case of the organ and its pipes are in good condition and worth a lot to the congregation as part of a restored organ. We would not be able to realize any of this value by selling them. An electronic organ would only have a short life. The committee also felt that a tracker action would make a better choice than an electric or electro-pneumatic action because it would last longer and be more authentic to the original organ.
The committee then had the task of deciding who should do the restoration. There are a number of organ builders in New England who specialize in tracker actions. A number of visits were made by the committee to organ builders’ premises and to churches with instruments they had rebuilt. Some of us had the pleasure of playing these instruments. Our experiences confirmed for us that we had made the right decision to restore the organ. A specification was drawn up as to what we would like the organ to be and three organ builders were invited to submit bids for the work. When the bids came in there was little difference in cost between them. The builders each proposed slightly different solutions for the restoration. The committee felt that it had the most confidence in the ability of the Andover Organ Company to do the work. It was an older firm and had more experience with organs like ours. At the church’s annual general meeting, the Congregation voted to support the Music Committee’s recommendation to award the contract for the organ’s restoration to the Andover Organ Company. After some further negotiation, the contract was signed.
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Luis Molina, Co-Chairman, HORF |
Doug Copley, Co-Chairman, HORF |
Miss Scott, who financed the organ's restoration in 1933, was born in Peterborough in 1857, the daughter of James and Sarah Ann Scott. Her father was the son of a local farmer who became the mainstay of his family after his father became incapacitated. He rose to hold many offices in the town and state, including Selectman, Representative, president of the Peterborough Rail Road and a director of the National Monadnock Bank.
Miss Scott had three brothers who all died before the age of one year and a sister Catherine (Kate). Catherine was born in 1842 and married Major John A. Cummings at the age of 19. Tragically, she died only eight months after the wedding in a collision between the steamer "West Point" and the "George Peabody" on the Potomac River, en-route to Washington. The event is commemorated on the memorial in front of the GAR building on Grove Street in Peterborough. Miss Scott lived to the age of 97. She was at that time, the oldest native borne resident of Peterborough. Her estate established the Scott Farrar Home on Elm Street. Return to text.
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