Mirror principal

The lower pipes are mirrored and hang upside down (Marienstiftskirche Lich)

The mirror principal is a double-staffed principal register of an organ, which is mirrored in the prospectus .

history

Pipe feet soldered to each other, in the Rückpositiv in the corner towers, in the main plant in Flachfeldern (Middelburg, Chorkirche)

Principal registers were already occupied several times in the late Gothic period. Between 1480 and 1520 in particular, double principals encountered in late Gothic organ works. The earliest examples can be found in the Zwoller Liebfrauenbasilika (1447 Master Vastart and 1454 Jacob van Bilsteyn) and in the Middelburg Abbey (1480 Peter Gerritsz). The mirror principle was first encountered in the late Gothic organ building in Brabant . The construction method reached its peak in the Renaissance and early Baroque and was an expression of masterful craftsmanship. The mirror principle was used for the treble area and often appeared together with chased and embossed prospectus pipes. In the Brabant organ building, the pipe feet of the mirror principle were soldered together, as was the case in the Rückpositiv of the great organ from St. Johannis, Lüneburg , which Hendrik Niehoff created in 1553.

Since the area prospect found its way into the age of classicism and especially in the romantic era, this old technology disappeared. Only in newer organs are mirror fields used again, mainly by organ builders who are committed to historical organ building.

Construction

The mirror principle is usually used in the flat fields, less often in pipe towers. The single whistle is built like the conventional principal, but doubles in the treble area. A pair of pipes of the same pitch is mounted in mirror image. There are two different construction methods for attaching the downward-hanging pipe. If a pipe stick is used, one pipe rests upright on the stick as usual, while the hanging pipe is pressed from below against a (leather-covered) hole on the underside of the pipe stick. It is protected from falling out by a soldered bracket on the back, which is attached to a pin on a bar. Alternatively, the pipe stick is dispensed with and the pipe feet are soldered together. The wind is then supplied via lead tubes (so-called "conductors").

Examples

year	place	church	image	Organ builder	Manuals	register	Remarks
1479	Middelburg	Onze-Lieve-Vrouwe Abdij , Choir Church		Peter Gerritsz	II / P	5	originally in the Utrecht Nicolaïkerk; both manuals use a block movement (VII – XVIII in the main part; IV – VIII in the upper part);
1551-1553	Luneburg	St. Johannis , great organ		Hendrik Niehoff / Jasper Johansen	III / P	26th	→ Organs from St. Johannis (Lüneburg)
1557	Brouwershaven	Grote of Sint-Nicolaaskerk		Hendrik Niehoff ?	II / P		Attribution
1556-1563	Abcoude	Catholic Church		Hendrik Niehoff	II / P	18th	Mirror principal in the pointed towers of the Rückpositiv
1614	Butzbach	St. Mark's Church		Georg Wagner	II / P		historical prospectus → organ
1618	's-Hertogenbosch	St. John's Cathedral		Florentius Hocque	III / P	35
1621-1624	Lich	Marienstiftskirche Lich		Georg Wagner	II / P	20th	historical prospectus → organs
1628 / 1638-1643	Suffer	Pieterskerk		Jacob Jansz / Jan Jacobs Lin, Galtus Germer van Hagerbeer	III / P	35
1638-1645	Alkmaar	Laurenskerk		Galtus Germer and Jacobus van Hagerbeer	III / P	40
1732	Berchum	Ev. church		unknown	II / P	12	historical prospectus with mirror principle → organ of the Berchum church
around 1740	Kempten (Allgäu)	Heiligkreuz Monastery		unknown	I / P	12
1960-1961	Aurich	Lambertikirche , main organ		Ahrend & Brunzema	II / P	25th	→ organ
1967	Northeim	Corvinius Church		Rudolf Janke	III / P	29	Mirror principal in the Rückpositiv
1982	Bellaire (Texas)	Presbyterian Church		Rudolf Janke	II / P	17th
1982	Kristiansand (Norway)	Ev.-luth. Free Church		Rudolf Janke	II / P	17th	identical to Janke's instrument in Bellaire
1987	Muenster	St. Paul Cathedral		Johannes Klais organ building	IV / P	74	→ Organs of the St. Paulus Cathedral
2000	Leicester	St Joseph's RC Church		Lammermuir	II / P	15th
2003	Stiepel	Stiepel village church		Harm Dieder Kirschner	II / P	15th	Mirror principal in the prospectus behind the bass and tenor towers
2012	Ditzingen	New Apostolic Church		Wiedenmann	II / P	10

literature

• Franz Bösken , Hermann Fischer : Sources and research on the organ history of the Middle Rhine. Vol. 3: Former province of Upper Hesse (=  contributions to the Middle Rhine music history 29.1 . Part 1 (A – L)). Schott, Mainz 1988, ISBN 3-7957-1330-7 .
• Maarten Albert Vente : The Brabant Organ. On the history of organ art in Belgium and Holland in the Gothic and Renaissance ages . HJ Paris, Amsterdam 1963.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Hans Klotz : The book of the organ . 9th edition. Bärenreiter, Kassel 1979, ISBN 3-7618-0080-0 , p. 90 .
2. ^ Roland Eberlein : Organ register. Their names and their history . 3. Edition. Siebenquart, Cologne 2016, ISBN 978-3-941224-00-1 , p. 482 .
3. ^ Harald Vogel , Günter Lade, Nicola Borger-Keweloh: Organs in Lower Saxony . Hauschild, Bremen 1997, ISBN 3-931785-50-5 , p. 105 .
4. ^ New Lammermuir Organ for St. Joseph's RCChurch Leicester , accessed May 15, 2019.
5. ↑ Disposition of the reconstruction in the Orgelpark , accessed on May 15, 2019 (PDF file; 52 kB).
6. ^ Vente: The Brabant Organ. 1963, p. 91.
7. ^ Vente: The Brabant Organ. 1963, p. 187.
8. ^ Bösken, Fischer: Sources and research on the organ history of the Middle Rhine. Vol. 3, 1988, p. 215.
9. ^ Bösken, Fischer: Sources and research on the organ history of the Middle Rhine. Vol. 3, 1988, p. 616.
10. ^ Organ in Leicester , accessed May 15, 2019.
11. ↑ kirchenmusik-westfalen.de: New organ in the Stiepeler Dorfkirche , p. 10 (PDF file; 3.19 MB), accessed on May 15, 2019.
12. ↑ orgel-information.de: The organ of the New Apostolic Church in Ditzingen , accessed on May 15, 2019.