Article
Zur historischen Raumakustik barocker Theater in Bayreuth und Gotha / On the historical room acoustics of baroque theatres in Bayreuth and Gotha (en)
* Presenting author
Abstract:
As part of a cooperation seminar between the Musicology Seminar and ETI at HfM Detmold, the significance of room acoustics in the opera houses and theatres of the 17/18th centuries has been studied. By comparative evaluation of measurements on site and simulations of room acoustic parameters (G, RT60, STI, SDM, …), we investigated how baroque theatres optimised the stage sound – deliberately or intuitively – to increase the audibility of singers/musicians, even in the presence of a loud audience. Visiting the opera house was not silent listening, but rather lively participation on stage performance as well as in the social life. A 3D model was used to reconstruct the acoustics of the "Roman Theatre" at the Hermitage in Bayreuth. In combination with our knowledge of the construction methods of historical performance spaces as well as room acoustics, the loudness perception in the open-air stage was simulated, giving insight to the dependence of audibility with regard to volume perception or speech intelligibility in theatre architecture. The results are discussed in connection with the visiting conventions, and possible consequences for the room acoustics are questioned. An app for subjective evaluation of speech and music at different source and listening positions is presented.