Arch 436: Architectural Acoustics

Instructor: Dean Heerwagen Office: Gould Hall 14 E-mail address: deanh@u.washington.edu

Office telephone: (206) 543-2334 // Likely office hours: M, late afternoon; W, afternoon

Creating good acoustics in buildings: two goals

1. Promote good communication between (interested) people

For either speech or musical performance

2. Provide acoustic privacy

To enable good concentration, good sleeping conditions,

Good communication vs. acoustic privacy: a competition

To establish good communication, satisfy 4 environmental properties:

1. Quiet background 2. Adequate sound strength

(for the speaker, musical instrument, warning alarm, )

3. Good distribution of sound 4. An appropriate separation of successive sounds, and yet there should be a proper blending of these sequential sounds

Needs for achieving acoustic privacy?

Reverse of needs for good communication?

Characters of background, source, distribution, successive sounds Noise?

An example of good communication:

-- function follows form

Music

and performance spaces

(from a western perspective)

A definition for music? Which directs the development of the other?

Early music composed to fit within a building More recently, buildings have been designed to enhance the musical performance

Transition = late 18th century to mid 19th century

Carolingian churches
(Image from CAUP/VRC)

Nature of the Carolingian church -- Large enclosed spaces -- Constructed of stone and masonry

St. Gall, a monastery community founded at about 820 CE in central Switzerland described as presenting a model layout for such a medieval institution

The monastery layout at St. Gall

Church front at St. Gall

Plan view of the monastery church

Sectional drawings for the monastery church

View of the church interior (projected)

Effects on communication in large spaces with lots of hard surfaces?

1. According to modern acoustical guidelines, the distance limit for an unamplified voice (speaking normally) to be easily heard is about 60 feet

To overcome this distance limit, either use amplification or, if that technology is unavailable, either raise voice level substantially or rely on multiple voices

Effects on communication in large spaces

with lots of hard surfaces?

Part 2

Sounds experience reverberation

Reverberation = a subtle prolongation of sound

A sound in a reverberant space will continue to be heard for some length of time after its source has ceased its production

Effect of reverberation on speech?

Speech is founded on language

Language is composed of words

Words are formed with syllables Syllables are formed with phonemes

Phonemes are the elemental sounds of any language Each language has its own set of phonemes English has about 40 such elemental sounds

The spare bear went to the fair with care.

So, reverberation has the potential to cause a jumbling of speech sounds

A solution to the reverberation & speakerreceiver distance issues?

Rather than rely on spoken communication,

service was largely sung

Note that the service was by and for the participants:

There was no congregation (from the public)

Use of sounded repetition Melody helps singers remember the words (of the service)
(Kerman, pg 70)

Role of music:

Smoothes progress of service & makes service more impressive and solemn (Kerman, pg 70)

Source: Kerman, J., Listen, (New York: Worth Publishers, 1980

The nature of the chant

1. Single melody, no harmony or rhythm

ONE PART -- Identified as monophony Use of Latin (as the language of the chant)

Latin composed of powerful, open vowels & delicate consonants

Bagenal, pg 154)

2. Generic form of the chant in the service employed in a typical Romanesque/Carolingian church

Codified by Pope Gregory, about 600 CE

Thus, the Gregorian chant

The utility of the chant

1. The naturally reverberant space (in the Carolingian church) enhances the chanters performance 2. The chant engages multiple voices in the presentation of the liturgy, increasing the intensity of the message

The chanters might also perform at voice levels somewhat greater than what would be used in ordinary (spoken) oral presentations

The Speech Chain

Copied from the book by Denes, P. and E. Pinson, The Speech Chain (2nd ed.), (New York: WH Freeman, 1993), page 5