Norwell Mariner
Matt Dunning / Coorespondent
Date: Thursday, December 14, 2006

With the help of residents and local businesses, folks at the First Parish Church in Norwell are hoping to make some serious noise in 2009.

In October of this year, officials at the church set out on a three-year mission to expand and replenish their beloved 140-year-old pipe organ. By the end of 2008, they hope to be able to add a second keyboard and refinish the organ’s ornate wooden casing. To do it, parish clerk Dexter Robinson said the church would need to raise $180,000 by next fall.

In the coming weeks and months, Robinson said the parish is planning to host a number of charity events and get-togethers to try to raise money — and awareness — for the organ. The events include classes, concerts and dinner gatherings, all with the ultimate goal of preserving this important part of the town’s history, as well as broadening the instrument’s harmonic range.

“To date, we’ve raised about $45,000,” Robinson said. “We see it as a community project. Expanding the organ will enable us to feature a much wider range of music at the parish.”

According to Robinson, preservation of the organ, which was originally constructed in 1831 by organ maker Ebenezer Goodrich, is as important to the history of organ making as it is to that of the town and the parish. In 1866, Goodrich’s one-time apprentices, Elias and George Hook, replaced the inner workings and mechanics of the organ, which remain unchanged to this day. The Hook Brothers, once cabinetmakers themselves, left their former master’s decorative wooden casing in tact. According to Robinson, the parish’s organ features one of only two remaining Goodrich casings known to exist.

While retouching the organ’s casing won’t be cheap, Robinson said the bulk of the $180,000 sum would be earmarked for adding a second keyboard to the organ, as well as the some-300 pipes that will have to accompany it. Currently, the organ employs roughly 600 pipes, most of which are housed within the wooden casing. Robinson said the second keyboard would allow for much more flexibility in terms of the organ’s tonal capabilities.

“We have a much bigger music program now than we did in, say, 1866,” Robinson said. “We need an instrument that can play a much broader range of music. Adding a second keyboard and the additional pipes means we’ll be able to expand the instrument’s tonal combinations and tonal colors. With the current configuration, it’s hard with the limited number of pipes in the instrument to get the right balance. The expansion will give us more flexibility in terms of both the tone and the volume of sound.”

In actuality, Robinson said, the donations would purchase two new keyboards, as the existing board was built in a way that makes coupling additional keyboards impossible.

“Coupling is very common in these instruments,” Robinson said. “Unfortunately, this particular instrument isn’t configured to do that as is.”

Robinson said with the addition of the new keyboard and pipes, the church would be much more capable of complimenting its own 24-member choir, as well as attract top-name organists from Boston and beyond to perform on the historic organ.

Just three months into its fundraising endeavor, the church has already scraped together about 25 percent of its target sum, which Robinson said is largely thanks to the generosity of Norwell residents like Robert Detweiller. Earlier this month, Detweiller pledged to match 50 percent of each dollar donated to the parish’s cause up to $50,000.

Donors can make a contribution to the 1866 Organ Preservation Repair and Expansion Project in a variety of ways. If they wish, a donor may make a donation in memory of a loved one, which would be denoted on a commemorative plaque listing all donors that will eventually hang next to the organ once the project is complete. For larger donations, contributors may spread the sum of their offering over a span of three years.

For more information or to make a contribution, call the First Parish Church office at 781-659-7122, or Paul Coolidge at 781-826-6133. Checks can be made payable to 1866 Organ Fund and sent to First Parish Church, PO Box 152, Norwell, MA 02061.

Copyright © 2006 GateHouse Media, Inc.