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<e up a great violin. Subsequent violinmal<ers have learned that only by producing close copies of his masterpieces can they expect their instruments to be highly acceptable. Indisputably, the acoustics of halls for music are more diverse than those of violins . .& this book will explain in depth, halls for music encompass a broader range of different types with very different acoustics, and one should always remem­ ber that composers often wrote music for a particular concert hall or opera house. Consequently, a given composition usually sounds best when performed in its in­ tended acoustics. For instance, Gregorian chants were written for performance in large churches with high reverberance; a small, quiet church never comes close to doing it justice ..& Chapter 1 discusses, compositions of different musical periods­ Baroque, Classical, or ROmantic, for example-sound best in halls whose rever­ beration times vary from medium low to relatively high. Can one hall serve all purposes? Halls with variable acoustics are among those treated here. V111 PREFACE 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.