Equation 2 Objective source broadening
4 The development of the concert hall
4.2 Early developments
Much of the early history of secular music was asso-ciated with court surroundings. Ballrooms were often used for concerts and the so-called classical concert hall can be seen as a development from this building type. Predictably ballrooms followed the rectangular plan form. The first commercial opera house was opened in Venice in 1637 (Chapter 9), but public performance of pure instrumental music arrived later. It is first found in England where music had been enthusiastically cultivated since the fif-teenth century. Following the trauma of the English Civil War and eventual restoration of the monarchy, the earliest recorded public concert in Europe took place in London in 1672. During the next hundred years, London became the most vigorous capital for music, with the first purpose-built concert room in 1680 followed by many more. In the 1730s the fashion for music gardens sprang up, providing good music for all. The London examples at Vaux-hall and Ranelagh Gardens were copied in several other European cities. None of these old London concert venues has survived, though they are well documented (Elkin, 1955; Forsyth, 1985).
The opportunities for historical detective work in acoustics are rare. A fascinating investigation has
The development of the concert hall 77
to compensate for increased audience sizes. A modern orchestra of 85 plus percussion produces about 90 db in the Vienna Musikvereinssaal during a forte tutti. Haydn, the father of the modern sym-phony, was thus for the majority of his life writing Figure 4.1 Plans of Haydn’s concert halls (courtesy of J. Meyer). (a) Haydn-Saal, Schloss Eisenstadt; (b) Musiksaal, Schloss Esterhàza; (c) Hanover Square Rooms, London; (d) King’s Theatre, London. H = ceiling height, V = room volume
Table 4.1 Details of the halls used for the performance of Haydn’s symphonies (after Meyer, 1978) Concert hall
Schloss Eisenstadt
Schloss Esterháza
Hanover Square Rooms, London
King’s Theatre, London
Dates used by Haydn 1760–65 1766–84 1791–94 1794–95
Volume (m3) 6800 1530 1875 4550
Approximate seat capacity 400 200 800 1050
Estimated reverberation time (s) 1.7 1.2 1.0 1.5
Orchestra size (without percussion) 16 22 36 57
Number of violins in orchestra 6 11 14 24
Forte level produced by above orchestra (dB)
84 90 91 92
produced in the various halls for these symphonies.
It is intriguing to note that the levels calculated by Meyer for a forte tutti increased monotonically from 84 db at Eisenstadt to 92 db in the King’s Theatre. So the orchestra size was increasing more than enough
78 The development of the concert hall
symphonies involving sound levels very close to present-day standards. However, in the name of authenticity many of our contemporary perform-ances of classical symphonies use forces compara-ble to those of the classical period, but in concert halls which are substantially larger than those of the eighteenth century. In these circumstances the sound level for our contemporary audience will be significantly less than it was in Haydn’s day, reduc-ing the impact for the listener.
Meyer lists several examples which indicate Haydn’s sensitivity to the acoustics of these various halls. In the small Esterháza hall with its short reverberation time, orchestral works would take on a chamber music character; scoring of this nature is recognizable in many of the symphonies composed there. In Symphony No. 61, first move-ment, there is the case of a forte chord followed immediately by a fast single piano line for the first violins. This piano line would only be audible in a dry acoustic. Whereas for the King’s Theatre with its longer reverberation time, in the first movement of
Symphony No. 102 Haydn leaves a bar’s rest after a fortissimo chord before the music continues piano, allowing the chord to reverberate. Meyer also suggests that Haydn was responsive to the nature of spatial impression (section 3.2) which is sensitive to sound level. He cites the example of a long unison orchestral passage at the beginning of Symphony No. 102, which starts piano followed by a long crescendo and diminuendo. To be fully effec-tive, this would require the gradual onset and later collapse of spatial broadening associated with lateral reflections.
Public facilities comparable to those in London were found in continental Europe only in 1761 with a concert hall in Hamburg, though nothing is known of its size. The Leipzig Thomaskirche is of course famous for its association with J.S. Bach (1685–1750), for which his B-minor Mass and St Matthew Passion among other works were written.
The town of Leipzig had no royal court associated with it, but enjoyed a vigorous musical life through-out the eighteenth century. After several false starts, Figure 4.2 Altes Gewandhaus, Leipzig
The development of the concert hall 79 a concert hall was constructed in an upper section
of the Gewandhaus, or Drapers’ Hall, in 1781 (Figure 4.2). This subsequently became known as the Altes Gewandhaus to distinguish it from the Neues Gewandhaus of a century later. It became particu-larly famous during the period 1835–47 when Men-delssohn was director there. The hall contained 400 seats, with rows running parallel to the long sides so that members of the audience faced each other.
With a volume of 1800 m3, the occupied reverbera-tion time was about 1.2 seconds.
By our standards the Altes Gewandhaus would rate as a recital hall, but its acoustic fame was such that its reputation established what became known as the Leipzig concert hall tradition. Bagenal and Wood (1931) discussed the characteristics which were considered to contribute to its excellent acoustics: a plan form with curved ends, wooden surfaces acting as resonators, a flat ceiling with cove margins and boxes at each end of the hall. These details were at the time much copied. Nowadays one places a different interpretation on many of them. The curved ends and boxes in the end walls do indeed prevent a slap echo from the back wall, but there are alternatives to concave surfaces which perform the same function without the risks of focusing. The idea that wooden panelling enhances tone by resonating was a major misconception (see section 2.6.3). In reality the panelling acts as a low-frequency absorber, limiting the bass reverberation time. Some panel absorption is desirable but today one generally allows for a modest rise in low-fre-quency reverberation time. Finally the ceiling coves probably had little effect. The principal comment one should make about the Altes Gewandhaus acoustics is that acoustic design for 400 seats is rela-tively uncritical. Nowadays one would usually aim for a slightly longer reverberation time. The plan form did however prove suitable to scale up for its successor.
Few of the halls of this period were large enough to present acoustic problems. In the nineteenth century, aspirations as well as social conditions led to altogether grander spaces for music per-formance. Berlioz dreamt of auditoria for 10000
performers and 20000 listeners. Closer to reality were the schemes of the German architect Schin-kel (1781–1841) who espoused the Romantic movement of the time. His various grand projects involved huge volumes and large plan forms but were rejected on economic grounds. It is in England that auditoria on the grand scale were realized.
Several northern town halls, such as St George’s Hall in Liverpool, are of a size too large to be used much for music today, as well as having reverbera-tion times too long for anything other than organ music. The all-time record for a grand performance space must go to Paxton’s Crystal Palace at Syden-ham in south London. The Crystal Palace, originally built for the 1851 Great Exhibition, was moved to Sydenham three years later, where it remained until destroyed by fire in 1936. Regular concerts were a popular feature, with Handel Festivals drawing the largest crowds. The 1882 Festival is reputed to have had 500 instrumentalists, 4000 choir and an audi-ence of 87769 (Forsyth, 1985). This combination incidentally would produce (without the choir) a sound level 8 dB less than that of a typical 100-piece orchestra in a hall seating 3000. The comparison assumes however good concert hall design, which the Crystal Palace patently lacked. The experience must have been rather subdued.
The major auditorium to survive from this period is the Royal Albert Hall in London of 1871, which demonstrated all too clearly the pitfalls of grand design: focusing by concave surfaces, excessive reverberation time and quiet sound (section 5.1).
The experience of the nineteenth century showed that the rectangular plan form was the most suc-cessful acoustically, but that there were limits to the audience numbers which could be accommodated.