|
Choir, Organ
and
Ministry of Music
|
 |
|
|
|
Saint James' Choir - Autumn
2008
|
|
Organist/Choirmaster
Timothy Smith
A native of Cape Cod, Timothy Smith
earned music degrees from Wheaton
College (Illinois), Northwestern University and The Boston Conservatory,
where he was the first graduate awarded the Artist Diploma in Organ
Performance. His concert career has included a dozen appearances at annual
conventions of The Organ Historical Society, several of which have been
rebroadcast nationally on Pipedreams, and two appearances with The Boston
Symphony Orchestra under Seiji Ozawa. He released three compact discs last
year on the Raven label, including a program of French music entitled Pipes
and Angels, recorded in New Bedford, Massachusetts.
As a church musician, Mr. Smith has led
enthusiastic volunteer and professional choirs, conducted numerous works for
chorus and orchestra, and played for churches in a variety of denominations
in Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, Ohio and Tennessee, including two
worship services for regional conventions of The American Guild of
Organists. As an organ builder and consultant he has worked with clients in
several states, revitalizing older pipe organs in dynamic new designs.
Currently he is an associate with Peebles-Herzog, Inc., a pipe organ service
firm managing the care of over 280 instruments in five states.
Tim is the founder and Executive Director
of The Portageville Chapel, America’s first retreat for organists, located
alongside the Grand Canyon of the East in western New York’s Letchworth
State Park. The Chapel, opening in the spring of 2009, features an 1841
restored meetinghouse, equipped with a two-manual pipe organ and a concert
grand piano. Available for weekly rental, full accommodations for performing
artists are provided nearby for organists to renew their artistry in a
setting of unparalleled natural beauty. (www.portagevillechapel.org)
Please make every effort to meet Tim during
coffee hour on a Sunday morning and consider . . . could the Holy Spirit be
calling you to participate in St James ministry of music?
|
Timothy
Smith, Organist-Choirmaster
The Saint
James' Choir practicing in the church. |
|
A
Short History of the Brombaugh Organ
St. James Church entered into
contract with the John Brombaugh Organ Builders, Middletown, Ohio in 1969. The organ
was installed and voiced in the Summer of 1971. The
congregation heard it for the first time on Pentecost. As John Brombaugh was in
Holland that Summer studying Dutch Renaissance organ construction, the final voicing was
completed by George Taylor, his original partner. The organ’s placement was on the
South wall of the chancel, near where the lectern is now located, with the organist facing
the wall. When the sanctuary and chancel were remodeled around 1980, the organ was
completed and moved to its present position behind the altar and reredos. When it
was originally constructed, there was room left in the case for the addition of two
mutation stops. This addition was made possible by an estate settlement bequest to St.
James upon the death of a parishioner in 1980. The work was done by Taylor/Boody Pipe
Organ Builders, as John Brombaugh had in the meantime moved his shop to Eugene
Oregon. George Taylor had left the original firm and set up his own shop in
Staunton, Virginia, retaining John Boody. The Taylor/Boody firm continues to this day to
service the St. James organ.
About the Organ
- The pipes are from a firm in
Holland
- The case is of fumed white oak
- The casework design in the front
of the pipes represents the flames of the Holy Spirit and were carved in the Brombaugh
shop
- The keys are of ebony and rosewood
- Everything except the pipes was
handmade in the Brombaugh shop in Middletown
- The voicing of the organ is that
of the Dutch High Renaissance
- Tuning of the organ is
Werckmeister II
At the time the organ was built,
the firm owned by John Brombaugh was a group of young men literally "on fire"
with the excitement of building pipe organs based on the centuries old construction and
voicing principles of the best historic European organs. The St. James organ is the third
one this firm built, and the second one in Ohio (one in Oberlin was the first.) Both the
Brombaugh and the Tayler/Boody firms have gone on to become leaders in the pipe organ
construction business and have built outstanding organs all over the world.
|
|
