# Concert hall reverberation liability



## leostokes (Mar 16, 2013)

CONCERT HALL REVERBERATION LIABILITY

I visited a high mountain in western North Carolina where there is an exciting echo phenomenon. There is a ledge where you stand and shout HELLO into the valley and your complete hello returns to you. As I remember it, there is a moment of silence before your voice, now in half volume, returns.

Of course if you change your location to a large flat field in the low (eastern NC coastal) planes, your HELLO would never return to be heard again. Gone forever.

Sound bounces off surfaces. The study of the physics of sound is important in symphonic music. The echo in a large hall must be taken into account. Does the composer take it into account? Some do not.

Consider this example of Beethoven's 4th symphony, the 1st movement, by Ivan Sokolnikov:

__
https://soundcloud.com/ivan-sokolnikov%2Fbeethoven-symphony-4-mov-1
.

There is a 15 measure section in this symphony from 7:16 to 7:30 that I call to your attention. It might sound like a dialogue between the 1st violins and the other unison strings (ignore the winds). But no. The strings answer to the 1st violins at 7:22 is different. There is harmony. But only in the cellos (doubled by the basses). Beethoven, in his artistic craftsmanship, has chosen in his dialogue to add harmony in this single 8th measure of the 15 measure section.

If you listen, for comparison, to this passage in a recording of a live symphony in a concert hall with reverberation you might agree that the harmony can be better heard with Ivan Sokolnikov. In computer music the cyber conductor can maintain the reverberation at a suitable level.

Is this a slight change? Not to Beethoven. He could have continued this section in unison.


----------



## BabyGiraffe (Feb 24, 2017)

"The echo in a large hall must be taken into account" - composers can't compose for a specific location. Generally, fast music will sound muddy and unclear in any big hall, because of the echo. Fast and complex counterpoint textures become almost atonal mess.


----------



## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

And some exceptionally fine resonant halls do absolutely unique things. In Symphony Hall in Boston, the Knight's Dance in Romeo and Juliet practically explodes your teeth. And the finale of the Sibelius Violin Concerto has an unearthly effect that sends shivers up and down your spine.

In a relatively drier modern hall with excellent stage acoustics, I overheard a first violinist for the Cleveland Orchestra remark that in the Mozart "Prague" he had heard the second violins (playing divided) for the first time.


----------



## SONNET CLV (May 31, 2014)

"On March 29, 2014, the L.A. Philharmonic was performing Ravel's _Daphnis et Chloé_ at Disney Concert Hall in downtown Los Angeles, when a 5.1 earthquake jostled the city from the suburb of La Habra." So says the news report. But are they sure it wasn't simply hall resonance brought on by a climax in that score?

In any case, I think I'll avoid any concerts featuring Anatol Vieru's Symphony No. 3 ("An Earthquake Symphony"). Just in case that hall resonance thing is real.


----------

