Room to Grow, Room to Serve, Room
for You
Music
Brookside's Music ministry plays an active, vital role in worship
each week, and provides an opportunity for participants to "serve
the Lord with gladness" through their love of music and their
faith.
There are many ways to get involved:
• Chancel Choir
• Children's Choir
• Carillonneurs
(bell ringers)
• Music
Committee
About the Brookside Sanctuary
Organ
Chancel
Choir
 Rehearsals:
Twice weekly
Weds. 7:30 to 9 p.m. in the Choir
Room and
Sun. 9 a.m. in the Sanctuary
This dedicated group of people includes teenagers to senior citizens.
The Chancel Choir participates in Sunday services through through
late May/early June. Watch future Chronicles
for further information.
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Children's Choir
 Rehearsals: Every Sunday
through December 20
Sun. 11:15 - 11:45 a.m.
in the Choir Room
Children ages 4 and up are invited to join Brookside's Children's Choir, which will sing on Thanksgiving Sunday (November 22), December 6, and Christmas Eve.
Parents should bring their children from Church School to the Choir Room for the rehearsal. At the beginning of the rehearsal the children will have a snack followed by singing songs, playing rhythm instruments, and creating an art project.
Watch future Chronicles for further
information.
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Carillonneurs
- Ring a Bell?
(All ages)
Before church on Sunday mornings, volunteers provide about 10
minutes of bell music for arriving worshipers. Our nine bell Smyth
Chime is a musical instrument that is relatively easy to use;
but you do need to read music and be able to climb the rather
long flight of stairs to the bell tower.
If you'd like to know more, please contact
us.
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The Brookside Sanctuary
Organ
 The
organ was built in 1933 by the Austin Organ Company, Inc. of Hartford,
Connecticut, using a significant amount of pipework from the church's
existing 1902 Hutchings-Votey Opus 1505 organ. When the congregation
relocated from the downtown to the current site in 1959, the organ
was moved. While the move involved dismantling the organ, it was
essentially unchanged except for a row of previously visible pipes
that was placed out of sight in the new location. Austin Organ
Company moved the organ.
The organ as it existed in the early 1990's functioned very
reliably, due to the dependable mechanisms for which Austin organs
are known. However, tonally it lacked much. Many organs built
in the 1920's and 30's had a voicing style that was characterized
by a dull, opaque sound. The 1933 Brookside Sanctuary organ had
those characteristics. In addition, when the instrument was relocated
in 1959, in spite of the fact that organs are custom designed
for the room in which they are housed, no effort was made to regulate
the instrument to the new room.
Most organs built in the 1930's have ceased to exist, because
necessary tonal renovations have resulted in entirely new instruments.
Since much of the Brookside Sanctuary organ's pipework and all
of the mechanisms is of very high quality, to discard everything
would not have been responsible stewardship of our resources.
 In
1993, with the assistance of Robert Leslie of New England Organ
Service, Brookside developed a three-phase plan for rebuilding
the sanctuary organ, which would first address the tonal limitations
of the instrument, while planning for the eventual replacement
of the 1933 console and the need to re-leather the entire mechanism.
Phase 1 had as its purpose to enlarge the tonal pallet of the
organ by enhancing the bass and treble areas of the sound. Phase
2 would complete the tonal enhancement begun in Phase 1 and replace
the console. Phase 3 would re-leather the mechanism.
Phase 1 was completed in 1995 and included extensive regulation
of 31 ranks of the sanctuary organ and the addition of eight new
ranks. Robert Leslie did all the regulation, while the new pipes
were supplied by Austin Organ Company.
Phase 2 was initiated in 1998. Six stops, containing 402 pipes,
were transported to Austin Organ Company in Hartford, Connecticut
and revoiced. In addition, 183 new pipes made by AR Schopp's Sons,
Inc. were added. The pipe transportation, final regulation, and
construction of two new windchests were spearheaded by K. R. Bengtson
of Laconia, New Hampshire.
 The
new drawknob console, which was made possible by a generous donation
from the family of Mary Schow, was designed and built by Dudley
Terrill of the Terrill Organ Company of Bow, New Hampshire. The
three keyboard manuals have bone naturals and rosewood sharps.
The pedal board has maple naturals and rosewood sharps. The keydesk
and trim are walnut. The stop action contains Harris drawknobs
and tilting tablet couplers. The combination action/stop processor
is a solid state Peterson system with 99 levels of memory. The
white woodwork is matched to the other colonial architectural
features in the sanctuary.
Brookside is excited to announce the beginning of the third
and final phase of the organ restoration project: releathering
the entire sanctuary organ. Currently, Brookside has raised about
$30,000 to fund Phase 3 of the project. A generous donation of
$19,000 was given by Dr. and Mrs. Robert Lord in honor of the
Rev. William Donoghue, recently retired Pastor of Brookside Church.
We hope to initiate this project during the summer of 2007.
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