Music in The Dover Church

Music has supported the worship of the congregation from the beginning.  At a meeting on January 13, 1764, it was voted to have singing instruction twice a week.  Beginning in 1770, three men were elected to “line out the psalms” in church for the year, standing in the gallery, leading responsive singing of psalms.

The first record of a pipe organ in the First Parish church comes in 1845.  In this century, the noted sculptress and philanthropist, Amelia Peabody, presented The Dover Church with an organ which served for nearly thirty years.  In 1993 the magnificent organ that serves the church at present was dedicated.  The instrument is Opus 107, by C.B. Fisk of Gloucester, Massachusetts, the leading maker of mechanical tracker organs in America.  The organ has 15 stops, 19 ranks, 1022 pipes, tuned in slightly uneven temperament, favoring the common keys of earlier music, while being fully consonant with modern repertoire and hymnody.  The modest scaling and careful voicing of the organ result in an instrument perfectly suited for an intimate meeting-house setting, that organ critics compare with instruments in King’s Chapel, and Old West Church, Boston.