Found the secret of the unique acoustics of Venetian rooms

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Found the secret of the unique acoustics of Venetian rooms

In Renaissance Venice, among other things, gave the world the beautiful polyphonic music, and singing a whole new separate choirs - coro spezzato. Performed all these songs, usually in the basilicas of the main temples of the city, but here's the strange thing - this basilica, carefully preserved to our times, are completely inappropriate for such things acoustics. Subtle nuances of polyphony and spatial "stereo" coro spezzato certainly lost in the echoing echo, repeatedly reflected from the walls and ceilings, huge rooms and high.

However, during the holidays with the acoustics of the situation drastically changed. Anyway, this is what they say music technologist Brekston Boren from New York University and the British physicist Malcolm Longer from Cambridge. They created a computer model of two famous halls of Venice - St. Mark's Cathedral in the Church and Savior - and at the same time take into account the sound absorption properties of tapestries, soft chairs and a variety of people to fill these rooms during the holidays.

The key to acoustics - reverb time, ie duration of the period from the appearance of the sound to the point where it is completely quiet. Today, in the empty halls she takes takes about 7 seconds - it's too long and can ruin any music. In turn, if the rooms are filled to capacity during the reverberation is much shorter - so long echo does not prevent listeners perceive music and singing all the subtleties. It is noteworthy that the best music is in those places where sat to know the city. The shortest reverberation in the basilica of St. Mark - 1.5-2 seconds - were just at the place designated for the Venetian Doge.

Opening the influence of the crowd on the acoustics, paradoxically reinforced the other, quite contradictory theory that music in the concert halls of Europe in the nineteenth century sounded much better than at the beginning of the twentieth. Theory accused men - a requirement when the secular dress code requirement has come to the concerts in evening dress, starched shirt-fronts of huge variety, to the stage and orchestra pit, creating a strong echo and reverb significantly strengthened. However, this speculative theory, and computer modeling of its not yet tested.

http://www.newsland.ru/news/detail/id/817856/