On 13th Jun 2023 8:49am, PhiliPamInCoventry said:
An issue not often discussed was to do with the organ & choir.
Sir Basil Spence, was never a sound or acoustics engineer. In consequence, after completion & opening of the Cathedral, much money & architectural correction was applied to the roof, so ridding the boom wave affect. Any sound radiates out from its source evenly, but when hitting a hard surface, it rebounds at the precise direction dictated by the surface angle. If it then meets an identical angled surface, it rebounds back like a pingpong ball, so keeps going.
At our chapel, similar scenario. That's why theatres & music halls, never have rectangular rooms. I try to avoid playing in Eflat as that particular sound wave length dominates.
I have sung from the choir stalls in the new cathedral and the sound seems taken away from your mouth and lost in the building. It is difficult to hear those on the other side of the chancel or the person next to you! (Before I went deaf!) There are few broken surfaces such as fluted columns and carvings such as found in Gothic buildings to give a warm reverberation. It is a memorable experience however to hear the final "Thanks be to God" reflect back from the west window when the setting ends on an ff G major.
