The Introduction of a Church Organ
The church which opened in 1804 was not provided with an organ to accompany congregational singing. This was not the tradition in the Scottish Church; the singing was led by a precentor who would sing the first line of the psalm and then the people would join in. There was a precentor’s desk attached to the pulpit.
All this was changed in 1865 when an organ was introduced to the Church. It was apparently second hand and was built by Messrs Hamilton of Edinburgh. It was installed upstairs in the centre of the gallery and became a centre of attraction for the community with crowds flocking to see this innovation. While it appears that there was no significant opposition to this departure from an age-old tradition, two incidents are worth recording. When the organ builder arrived to begin his work he sought a room in the village and was directed to the house of an old lady. When she asked who he was he told her proudly that he was the organ builder. She lifted her hands in horror exclaiming “Organ builder! Organ builder! Are ye? Awa wi ye, there’s enough sin in Dundonald without ye bringing a kist o’ whustles into the place.”
Also the following letter appeared in the Ayr Advertiser, 8th May 1866:
Sir, I observed in your paper of last week that a motion was made by the Rev Mr Rankin at the meeting of Presbytery on Wednesday suggesting “that the Clerk be instructed to write to the Kirk Session of Dundonald requesting that on the occasion of the induction of Mr Sime the organ should not be used in worship. It would be hurtful to many members of Presbytery to have instrumental music used on the occasion, and they had a right to expect that their feelings would be protected.” I beg to suggest, through the medium of your paper, that the Heritors and Kirk Session of Dundonald should cause some temporary erection to be put round the organ on the said occasion, so that all appearance of such being in the Church might be hid from view (even though not on a Sunday) that the feelings of some of the Rev Presbytery might be protected. I am etc.
A member of the Church of Scotland.
This organ did duty for 40 years until it was superseded by the instrument which we still use today. The old organ was sold to a church hall in Falkirk.
Recent research has shown just how much of an innovation this pipe organ was. The use of musical instruments to accompany worship in the Church of Scotland was approved by the General assembly in 1865, but the 1864 Assembly had asked Presbyteries for opinion on the use of Church organs. Returns were so overwhelmingly in favour that the 1865 resolution was a formality and a number of Churches went ahead before that final resolution. Dundonald appears to have been only the second Church in Scotland to have an organ installed, being beaten by a month by Anderston Church in Glasgow. Dundonald was certainly the first in Ayr Presbytery.
It is worth noting that much earlier in the century, in 1806, St Andrews Church in Glasgow went ahead with the installation of an organ but were ordered to remove it by Glasgow Presbytery.