RCO Summer Course – organ mirrors of the world
Organ mirror on a stand – St Giles Cripplegate in the Barbican, London
I try to control the trainspotter* tendencies in my personality, but I do like taking pictures of organ mirrors (wait for my fully-illustrated coffee table book Organ Mirrors of the World, Part 1 - it’s going to be a wow) because they are often a makeshift and inappropriate afterthought to the case design. However this one is pure genius. The Chancel Organ at St Giles Cripplegate is awkwardly placed (so what’s new, I hear you mutter) and for services on the Summer Course we are often conducted by a relay of Course Tutors, which is little unnerving (though naturally they are very good at it).
Since last year someone has commissioned this impressive mirror on a stand. I think you can see how it was made – you could even make your own! You have to get used to looking downwards, rather than upwards, but hey, we’re organists, we adapt.
This is probably a silly request, but if you have any organ mirror pictures, please send them in – to theladyorganist@gmail.com. If (when) they are published, you will get full credit – unless you are too embarrassed, of course.
*For non-UK readers who may be baffled by this term, trainspotters are men (almost always) in anoraks, clutching thermos flasks, who stand in bunches at the end of railway platforms, recording the identification numbers of the engines that pass. That’s it.
