Advance praise for Beranek's Concert Halls and Opera Houses: Music, Acoustics, and Architecture

Given the many controversies surrounding the acoustical properties of concerl halls and opera houses, it is a relief to be guided by someone who is both a scientist and a devoted listener. Here, the mysteries of acoustics seem less intimidating: we come to understand why music sounds the way it does in various performance spaces, and what we can do about it. It's a terrific book!

- PHILIP GOSSETT Pro/essor 0/ Music, University 0/ Chicago

[This book] provides an invaluable reference for the understanding and design of music facilities.

- I.M. PEl Architect, New York

Dr. Beranek has created a comprehensive and fascinating study of 100 of the world's halls for music. Visiting each of these venues would be a great delight and a mar• velous adventure, but such being impractical, this great book is the next best thing. All lovers of music, acoustics, architecture, and travel will enjoy this unique work.

- JOHN WILLIAMS Composer and Conductor, Los Angeles

The rigor, clarity and comprehensiveness of Concert Halls and Opera Houses, balanced brilliantly by Leo Beranek's personal and subjective sense of acoustics and music, provides a powerful resource for architects and music lovers alike. Beranek's passion for music helps to make this the most significant music acoustics book of our times.

- WILLIAM L. RAWN III FAIA, Architect, Boston

Art and science are combined in Leo Beranek's new book. Presented are carefully collected plans, data and pictures of halls for music, and assessments of their acous• tical quality by arlists, critics and audiences, as well as measured scientific criteria. It is an easJy readable, "must" handbook for anyone traveling to perform or attend concerl or opera music.

- HELMUT A. MULLER Miiller-BBM GmbH, Acoustical and Environmental Consultants, Planegg, Germany Concert Halls and Opera Houses sets forth the harvest of six decades of intensive study of acoustics for music performance. It is a comprehensive {and indispensable} aid to architects, musicians and design teams who tacl;tle the incredibly daunting task of creating new performance spaces.

- RUSSELL JOHNSON Acoustics and Theater Consultant, ARTEC Consultants, Inc., New York

This book assembles architectural and acoustical data on 100 spaces for music and rank-orders over two-thirds according to their acoustical quality as judged by mu• sicians and music critics. It gives comprehensive l;tnowledge of room acoustics and offers a basic foundation for acoustical research long into the future.

- HIDEKI TACHIBANA Professor of Acoustics, University of Tokyo, Japan

Beranek has created a new Rosetta Stone for the languages of music, acoustics, and architecture. Lovers of music everywhere will welcome this extraordinary work for its scope, depth, and ease of reading, and for heightening our understanding and enjoyment of the musical experiences that so enrich our lives.

- R. LAWRENCE KIRKEGAARD Acoustical Consultant, Chicago, Illinois

BeraneV s latest reference worl;t is an essential volume in every auditorium designer's library. It will also bring information and pleasure to all with an interest in music, acoustics and architecture. In our offices, a common response to a question in an acoustical design session is "Let's check in Beranek."

- ROB HARRIS Director, Arup Acoustics, Winchester, Hampshire, England

Concert Halls and Opera Houses is the definitive work on the architectural acoustic design of classical music spaces. With presentation of 100 halls, it illustrates various levels of acoustical quality. Written for the lay reader it deserves to be in every school of music, architecture and science and with every musician and music lover.

- CHRISTOPHER JAFFE Founding Principal, Jaffe Holden Acoustics, Norwalk, CT CONCERT HALLS AND OPERA HOUSES t Springer New York Berlin Heidelberg Hong Kong London Milan Paris Tokyo * ~~~~~~~~~~ * ~ ~ ~ CONCERT ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ HALLS AND ~ ~ ~ ~ OPERA ~ ~ ~ ~ HOUSES ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ Music, Acoustics, and Architecture ~ ~ ~ Second Edition ~ ~ L E O B ERANEK ~ ~ ~ ~ , ~ '" ~ Springer ~ ~ ~ * ~~~~~~~~~~ * LEO BERANEK 975 Memorial Drive Suite 804 Cambridge, MA 02l38-5755 USA [email protected]

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA Beranek, Leo Leroy, 1914- Concert halls and opera houses: music, acoustics, and architecture / Leo Beranek.-2nd ed. p. cm. Rev. ed. of: Concert and opera halls, 1996. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4419-3038-5 1. Architectural acoustics. 2. Music halls. 3. Theaters. 1. Beranek, Leo Leroy, 1914- NA2800.B39 2002 725' .81-dc21 2002070734 ISBN 978-1-4419-3038-5 ISBN 978-0-387-21636-2 (eBook) DOl 10.1007/978-0-387-21636-2 Printed on acid-free paper. © 2004,1996 SPRINGER-VERLAG NEW YORK, INC. SOFT COVER REPRINT OF THE HARDCOVER 2ND EDITION 2 0 0 4 All rights reserved. This work may not be translated or copied in whole or in part without the written permission of the publisher (Springer-Verlag New York, Inc., 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010, USA), except for brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly analysis. Use in connection with any form of information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed is forbidden. The use in this publication of trade names, trademarks, service marks, and similar terms, even if they are not identified as such, is not to be taken as an expression of opinion as to whether or not they are subject to proprietary rights.

An earlier edition of this book was published by the Acoustical Society of America in 1996.

Text design by Steven Pisano.

9 8 7 6 543 2 1 SPIN 10882373

www.springer-ny.com

Springer-Verlag New York Berlin Heidelberg A member 0/ BertelsmannSpringer Science + Business Media GmbH Preface

he first question any lover of classical music usually asb an acoustician is, "Which are the best halls in the world?" The response-the three halls rated highest by world-praised conductors and music critics of the largest newspapers were built in 1870, 1888, and 1900-always prompts the next query: "Why are those so good while many halls built after 1950 seem to be mediocre or failures?" You will find answers to these questions in this book the result of a half-century's research into the very complex field of acoustics of halls for music. The dialog re-enacted above bears a close resemblance to another illustration that typically troubles music lovers. They frequently asl<, "Why is a Stradivarius violin so good and so many built since then not in the same league?" In this case, we know that Antonio Stradivari, working at the turn of the eighteenth century, employed the utmost skill, a good ear, and perhaps a little luck to capture the dozens of details that mal

Since we can, today, identify the acoustical characteristics of the finest halls in existence, we could create an unerring duplicate of anyone of the several best and thus reproduce its acoustics exactly. Why not do so? Because building com• mittees generally select architects not to make exact copies of a great hall but to do something original and visually inspiring, with the hope that the ha!!s wi!! have exce!!ent sound. Most architects will not argue with that approach. who would be awarded an architectural prize for the construction of an exact copy? Consequently, the acoustical consultant is faced with a dilemma. To have the best acoustics, the hall should be close in design to one of the great halls-and should yield similar electro• acoustic data when measured. So the consultant usually follows a subtle path, push• ing for as many similarities as possible and making recommendations, where dif• ferences occur, of features-often novel-that may salvage the new design. For every new hall, with its untried acoustics, opening night may become a trial by fire. of course, the local orchestra and conductor may do all in their power to adapt their playing style to the new acoustics, as the history of the Philadelphia Academy of Music in Chapter 1 illustrates. But well-traveled music critics, often in attendance only this once, may judge the acoustics of the new venue against those of the four or five top-ranked old halls, and opening night reviews may set the reputation of the hall, negatively, for years to come. On occasion, these assessments turn out to be unjust, failing to account for how a hall's acoustics may be adjusted over time or the possible misuse of the hall that first night. Such bad fortune befell one important hall that was designed for a standard-sized orchestra playing the bnds of compositions that maIze up the bulk of the repertoire of today's symphonic con• certs. For the opening night, however, the conductor chose a new composition, with a double-sized orchestra and a chorus of several hundred. The stage had to be extended to over twice its normal size, and the choristers in the baclz row stood on bleachers so high that their heads threatened to touch the stage ceiling, thus am• plifying their voices unevenly. In some parts of the composition, the musicians created unusually loud sound effects, in one case by hitting a suspended three-meter section of railroad traclz with a sledge hammer. Nearly everybody in the audience went home with a headache. The music critic's response? The hall was at fault. Following the first chapters, which establish a base for understanding the ef• fects of acoustics on composers, performers, and listeners, and guiding the reader to a common vocabulary, the bullz of this book, Chapter 3, contains the write-ups, photographs, drawings, and architectural details on 100 existing halls in 31 coun• tries. Thirty of the halls are completely new. Although the remainder appeared in earlier boolzs by the author, the materials have been updated wherever necessary. The later chapters present the relation of a hall's acoustics to its age, shape, type Preface ;x

of seats, and the materials used for the walls and ceiling. The sequence of events that led to Boston Symphony Hall's excellent acoustics, which opened in 1900, is covered in detail-although it went through a troubled first few years because the leading local music critic considered the predecessor hall as better. Detailed discus• sions also appear for balcony, box, stage, and pit designs. All the known electro• acoustical measurements on 100 existing halls are examined and compared with the rank orders of 58 concert halls and 21 opera houses that were obtained from interviews and questionnaires. Finally, the optimal electro-acoustical results are pre• sented for concert halls and opera houses used for today's repertoires. Three appendices supplement the chapters: the first gives definitions of all of the major acoustical and architectural terms and symbols used in the book; the second provides the electro-acoustical data available on the 100 halls; and the third presents in tabular form much of the dimensional and electro-acoustical data for the 100 halls.

~REDITS AND ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Hundreds of persons are responsible for the material presented in this book: conductors, music critics, composers, musicians, orchestra and opera directors, hall managers, architects, acousticians, and musical friends. The largest contributors of new information were Takayuki Hidaka, N oriko Nishihara, and Toshiyuki Okano, devoted members of the acoustical department at the Takenaka Research and Development Institute in Chiba, Japan. They are responsible for the electro-acoustical data in this book on twenty-two concert halls and seven opera houses in nine nations of Europe, the Americas, and Japan. Other major contributions came from experts at Mueller-BBM of Munich/Planegg, Ger• many; the National Research Council of Canada; the Technical University of Den• mark; ARTEC Consultants of New York; KirkegaardAssociates of Chicago; Jaffee Holden Acoustics of Norwalk, Connecticut; Michael Barron of Bath University; Jordan Acoustics of Denmark; Arup Acoustics of Winchester, Hampshire, U.K.; Sandy Brown Associates of London; Nagata Acoustics of Tokyo; InterConsult Group of Trondheim, Norway; Garcia-BBM of Valencia; ACENTECH {successor to Bolt Beranek and Newman} of Cambridge, Massachusetts; Cyril Harris of New York; and Albert Yaying Xu of Paris. Others too numerous to name here also provided invaluable inform:ation for this volume. x PREFACE

For the "biographies" of the 100 halls, the architectural drawings for 64 were produced by Richard Shnider, 30 by the late wilfred Malmlund, and 6 by Daniel Chadwick. Important editorial assistance on the first two chapters was rendered by Ondine E. Le Blanc. To all of the above, lowe my deepest thanks.

LEO BERANEK October 2003 t Contents

Preface Vl1

CHAPTER ONE

~USIC AND dCOUSTICS 1

What Are Good Acoustics? 1 Acoustics and the Performers 3 Conductors 3 Performers 7

Acoustics and Musical Periods 8 Baroque Period 8 Classical Period 10 Romantic Period 12 Twentieth-Century Music 13 European Opera 14

Acoustics and Listeners 15 xii CONTENTS

CHAPTER Two

~E YANGUAGE OF ~USICAL cmCOUSTICS 19 Definitions and Explanations of Selected Terms 19 Reverberation and Fullness 0/ Tone 20 Direct Sound, Early Sound, Reverberant Sound 23

Early Decay Time (EDT) (Also Early Reverberation Time) 23 Speed 0/ Successive Tones 24 Definition (or Clarity) 24 Resonance 27 Intimacy or Presence and Initial-Time-Delay Gap 27

Liveness and Mid-Frequencies 29

Spaciousness 29 Warmth 30

Listener Envelopment 30 Strength of Sound and Loudness 30 Timbre and Tone Color 31

Acoustical Glare 31

Brilliance 32

Balance 32

Blend 32

Ensemble 32 Immediacy 0/ Response (Attack) 33 Texture 33

Echoes 33 Dynamic Range and Background Noise Level 33

Detriments to Tonal Quality 35 Uniformity 0/ Sound in Audience Areas 35 Summary 0/ the Musical Qualities Affected by Acoustics 35 Contents xiii

CHAPTER THREE

{)NE @UNDRED c&ONCERT

~LLS AND {)PERA @~USES 37

(See listing on p. xvii)

CHAPTER FOUR

~OUSTICS OF c&ONCERT ~LLS 491

Rank-Orderings of Acoustical Quality of 58 Concert Halls Developed from Interviews and Questionnaires 494 Reverberation Time: Musicians' Preferences 495 Reverberation Time for Occupied Halls 497

Architectural Basics 498 Age 498 Shape 499 Music Power 500 Audience Absorption and Type of Chairs 501 Materials for Walls, Ceiling, and Stage 502

Physical Measures of Acoustical Quality 503 Reverberation Time (RT) 503 Early Decay Time (EDT) 505 Binaural Quality Index (BQ!) 506 Loudness, the Strength of the Sound (G) 509 Warmth, Bass Ratio (BR) and Bass Strength (Glow) 512 Intimacy, Initial-Time-Delay Gap (ITDG) 513

Lateral Fraction (LFE4) 519 Acoustical "Glare" and Sur/ace Di/lusivity Index (SD!) 521 Listener Envelopment 524 xiv CONTENTS

Clarity 525 Texture 527 Orthogonality 0/ Objective Acoustical Measures 528 Special Structures for Reducing Acoustical 'iolare" and for Diffusing Sound 528 BriRiance 533 Noise, Vibration and Echo 534

Further Architectural Considerations 535 Pre/erred Values for Acoustical Parameters 535 Preliminary Design Procedures 538 Stage Design 541 Balconies 545 Models 545 Multipurpose Halls 549

Architectural Design of Chamber Music Halls 550 Concluding Remarks 552

CHAPfERFIVE

@¢CaUSTICS OF {)PERA @oUSES 553

Questionnaire Rank-Orderings of Acoustical Quality of 21 Opera Houses 554 Objective Measurements of the Acoustical Properties of 23 Opera Houses 556 Measurement Procedure 556 Sound Quality Parameters 559

Orchestra Pits 564 Types 0/ Orchestra Pits 565

Boxes and Balconies 968 Echo and Distortion 570 Concluding Remarks 573 575 APPENDIX 1 Terminology, Definitions, and Conversion Factors

Houses 583 APPENDIX 2 Acoustical Data for Concert Halls & Opera

615 APPENDIX 3 Equations, Technical Data, and Sound Absorption

Bibliography 641 Name Index 647 Subject Index 653 Concert Halls and Opera Houses

UNITED STATES

1 Aspen, Colorado, Benedict Music Tent 39 2 Baltimore, Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall 43 3 Boston, Symphony Hall 47 4 Buffalo, Kleinhans Music Hall 51 5 Chicago, Orchestra Hall in Symphony Center 55 6 Cleveland, Severance Hall 61 7 Costa Mesa, California, Orange County Perfo=ing Arts Center, 67 Segerstrom Hall 8 Dallas, Eugene McDermott Concert Hall in Morton H. 75 Meyerson Symphony Center 9 Denver, Boettcher Concert Hall 81 10 Fort Worth, Texas, Bass Perfo=ance Hall 85 11 Lenox, Massachusetts, Seiji Ozawa Hall 89 12 Lenox, Massachusetts, Tanglewood, Serge Koussevitzky 93 Music Shed 13 Minneapolis, Minnesota Orchestra Association Orchestra Hall 99 14 New York Avery Fisher Hall 103 15 New York, Carnegie Hall 107 16 New York, Metropolitan Opera House 113 17 Philadelphia, Academy of Music 119 xviii CONCERT HALLS AND OPERA HOUSES

18 Philadelphia, Verizon Hall in the Kimm.el Center for the 123 Performing Arts 19 Rochester, New York, Eastman Theatre 129 20 Salt Lake City, Abravanel Symphony Hall 133 21 San Francisco, Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall 137 22 San Francisco, War Memorial Opera House 141 23 Seattle, Benaroya Hall 145 24 Washington, DC, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing 149 Arts, Concert Hall 25 Washington, DC, John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing 153 Arts, Opera House 26 Worcester, Mechanics Hall 157

ARGENTINA

27 Buenos Aires, Teatro Co16n 161

AUSTRALIA

28 Sydney, Concert Hall of the Sydney Opera House 165

AUSTRIA

29 Salzburg, Festspielhaus 169 30 Vienna, Grosser Musikvereinssaal 173 31 Vienna, Konzerthaus 177 32 Vienna, Staatsoper 181

BELGIUM

33 Brussels, Palais des Beaux-Arts 185

BRAZIL

34 Sao Paulo, Sala Sao Paulo 189 Concert Halls and Opera Houses

CANADA

35 Montreal, Salle wilfrid-Pelletier 193 36 Toronto, Roy Thompson Hall 197

CHINA

37 Hong Kong, Cultural Center, Concert Hall 201 38 Shanghai, Grand Theatre 207

DENMARK

39 Copenhagen, Radiohuset, Studio 1 211 40 Odense, Nielsen Hall in Odense Koncerthus 215

ENGLAND

41 Birmingham, Symphony Hall 219 42 Sussex, Glyndebourne Opera House 225 43 Liverpool, philharmonic Hall 229 44 London, Barbican, Concert Hall 233 45 London, Royal Albert Hall 237 46 London, Royal Festival Hall 245 47 London, Royal Opera House 249 48 Manchester, Bridgewater Hall 253

FINLAND

49 Lahti, Sibelius/talo 257

FRANCE

50 Paris, Opera Bastille, 263 51 Paris, Opera Garnier: 267 52 Paris, Salle Pleyel 271 xx CONCERT HALLS AND OPERA HOUSES

GERMANY

53 Baden-Baden, Festspielhaus 277 54 Bayreuth, Festspielhaus 283 55 Berlin, Kamme=usiksaal der philha=onie 289 56 Berlin, Konzerthaus Berlin (fo=erly, Schauspielhaus) 293 57 Berlin, Berlin philha=onie 297 58 Bonn, Beethovenhalle 301 59 Dresden, Semperoper 305 60 Leipzig, Gewandhaus 309 61 Munich, Herkulessalle 315 62 Munich, philharmonie am Gasteig 319 63 Stuttgart, Liederhalle, Beethovensaal 325

GREECE

64 Athens, Megaron, the Athens Concert Hall 331

HUNGARY

65 Budapest, Magyar Allami Operahaz 335 66 Budapest, Patria Hall, Budapest Convention Centre 339

IRELAND

67 Belfast, Waterfront Hall 343

IS RAE L

68 Jerusalem, Binyanei Ha'Oomah 347 69 Tel Aviv, Fredric R. Mann Auditorium 351

ITALY

70 Milan, Teatro Alia Scala 355 71 Naples, Teatro di San Carlo 359 Concert Halls and Opera Houses XXI

JAPAN

72 Kyoto, Concert Hall 363 73 Osaka, Symphony Hall 367 74 Sapporo, "Kitara" Concert Hall 371 75 Tokyo, Bunka Kaikan 375 76 Tokyo, Dai-ichi Seimei Hall 381 77 Tokyo, Hamarikyu Asahi Hall 385 78 Tokyo, Metropolitan Art Space Concert Hall 389 79 Tokyo, New National Theatre, Opera House 393 80 Tokyo, NHK Hall 399 81 Tokyo, Orchard Hall 403 82 Toho, Suntory Hall 407 83 Tokyo, Tol"yo Opera City, Concert Hall 411

MALAYSIA

84 Kuala Lumpur, Dewan Filharmonil" Petronas 417

MEXICO

85 Mexico City, Sala Nezahualcoyotl 421

NETHERLANDS

86 Amsterdam, Concertgebouw 425 87 Rotterdam, De Doelen, Concert Hall 429

NEW ZEALAND

88 Christchurch, Christchurch Town Hall 433

NORWAY

89 Trondheim, Olavshallen 437 xx;; CONCERT HALLS AND OPERA HOUSES

SCOTLAND

90 Edinburgh, Usher Hall 441 91 Glasgow, Royal Concert Hall 445

SPAIN

92 Madrid, Auditorio Nacional de Musica 449 93 Valencia, Palau de la Musica 453

SWEDEN

94 Gothenberg, Konserthus 457

SWITZERLAND

95 Basel, Stadt-Casino 461 96 Lucerne, Culture and Congress Center, Concert Hall 465 97 Zurich, Grosser Tonhallesaal 471

TAIWAN

98 Taipei, Cultural Centre, Concert Hall 475

VENEZUELA

99 Caracas, Aula Magna 479

WALES

100 Cardiff, St. David's Hall 485 CONCERT HALLS AND OPERA HOUSES t