Acoustics of early music spaces from the 11th to 18th century: Rediscovery of the acoustical excellence of medium-sized rooms and new perspectives for modern concert hall design

Abstract

The acoustical characteristics of 50 rooms that played a prominent role in the history of music between the 11th and 18th centuries were studied. The rooms include basilicas, oratorios, organ churches, and the great halls and courts of the European palaces. The research provides an understanding of the acoustical features that suit the early music repertoire, and how these rooms achieved an enhanced emotional engagement through their unique acoustical characteristics. This paper provides a summary of the acoustic measurements, which include binaural and B-format recordings in each of the rooms, and presents a unique new approach to understanding their subjective characteristics through detailed analysis and auralization of their 3-D impulse response. The study shows that the timing and direction of reflections in three dimensions is critically important to defining the subjective characteristic of a room. The results emphasize the importance of developing techniques to understand the 3-D impulse response and using auralization techniques for interpreting results and making subjective judgments. The enhanced musical experience that is achieved in these early rooms offers an invitation to rethink modern acoustics and to develop a new design approach that focuses more strongly on the subjective response and emotional engagement of the music.