ACADKMY OP SCIENCES] BIOGRAPHY 7 



McKim, Mead & White, that they were the first of their profession to appreciate the acoustic 

 studies made by a young and little-known physicist and to change their plans in accordance 

 with his criticisms. The following is a part of his account of the matter: 



In a theatre for dramatic performances, where the music is of entirely subordinate importance, it is desirable 

 to reduce the reverberation to the lowest possible value in all ways not inimical to loudness; but in a music 

 hall, concert room, or opera house, this is decidedly not the case. To reduce the reverberation in a hall to a 

 minimum, or to make the conditions such that it is very great, may, in certain cases, present practical diffi- 

 culties to the architect — theoretically it presents none. To adjust, in original design, the reverberation of a 

 hall to a particular and approved value requires a study of conditions, of materials, and of arrangement, for 

 which it has been the object of the preceding papers to prepare. 



ft is not at all difficult to show a priori that in a hall for orchestral music the reverberation should neither 

 be very great, nor, on the other hand, extremely small. However, in this matter it was not necessary to rely 

 on theoretical considerations. Mr. Gericke, the conductor of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, made the 

 statement that an orchestra, meaning by this a symphony orchestra, is never heard to the best advantage in a 

 theatre, that the sound seems oppressed, and that a certain amount of reverberation is necessary. An examina- 

 tion of all the available plans of the halls cited as more or less satisfactory models, in the preliminary discussion 

 of the plans for the new hall, showed that they were such as to give greater reverberation than the ordinary 

 theatre style of construction. While several plans were thus cursorily examined the real discussion was based 

 on only two buildings — the present [old] Boston Music Hall and the Leipzig Gewandhaus; one was familiar to 

 all and immediately accessible, the other familiar to a number of those in consultation, and its plans in great 

 detail were to be found in Das neue Gewandhaus in Leipzig, von Paul Gropivs und H. Schmieden. It should, 

 perhaps, be immediately added that neither hall served as a model architecturally, but that both were used 

 rather as definitions and starting points on the acoustical side of the discussion. The old Music Hall was not a 

 desirable model in every respect, even acoustically, and the Leipzig Gewandhaus, having a seating capacity about 

 that of Sanders Theatre, 1,500, was so small as to be debarred from serving directly, for this if for no other reason. 



The history of the new hall is about as follows: A number of years ago, when the subject was first agitated, 

 Mr. McKim prepared plans and a model along classical lines of a most attractive auditorium, and afterwards, at 

 Mr. Higginson's instance, visited Europe for the purpose of consulting with musical and scientific authorities in 

 France and Germany. But the Greek theatre as a music hall was an untried experiment, and because untried 

 was regarded as of uncertain merits for the purpose by the conductors consulted by Mr. Higginson and Mr. 

 McKim. It was, therefore, abandoned. Ten years later, when the project was again revived, the conventional 

 rectangular form was adopted, and the intention of the building committee was to follow the general proportions 

 and arrangement of the Leipzig Gewandhaus, so enlarged as to increase its seating capacity about seventy per 

 cent; thus making it a little more than equal to the old hall [of Boston]. At this stage calculation was first 

 applied. 



The often-repeated statement that a copy of an auditorium does not necessarily possess the same acousti- 

 cal qualities is not justified, and invests the subject with an unwarranted mysticism. The fact is that exact 

 copies have rarely been made, and can hardly be expected. The constant changes and improvements in the 

 materials used for interior construction in the line of better fire-proofing — wire lath or the application of the 

 plaster directly to tile walls — have led to the taking of liberties in what were perhaps regarded as nonessentials; 

 this has resulted, as shown by the tables, in a changed absorbing power of the walls. Our increasing demands 

 in regard to heat and ventilation, the restriction on the dimensions enforced by location, the changes in size 

 imposed by the demands for seating capacity, have prevented, in different degrees, copies from being copies, 

 and models from successfully serving as models. So different have been the results under what was thought 

 to be safe guidance — but a guidance imperfectly followed — that the belief has become current that the whole 

 subject is beyond control. Had the new Music Hall been enlarged from the Leipzig Gewandhaus to increase 

 the seating capacity seventy per cent, which, proportions being preserved, would have doubled the volume, 

 and then built, as it is being built, according to the most modern methods of fireproof construction, the result, 

 unfortunately, would have been to confirm the belief. No mistake is more easy to make than that of copying 

 an auditorium — but in different materials or on a different scale — in the expectation that the result will be 

 the same. Every departure must 'be compensated by some other — a change in material by a change in the size 

 or distribution of the audience, or perhaps by a partly compensating change in the material used in some other 

 part of the hall — a change in size by a change in the proportions or shape. For moderate departures from the 

 model such compensation can be made, and the model will serve well as a guide to a first approximation. When 

 the departure is great the approved auditorium, unless discriminatingly used, is liable to be a treacherous guide. 

 In this case the departure was necessarily great. 



The comparison of halls should be based on the duration of the residual sound after the cessation of a source 

 that has produced over the hall some standard average intensity of sound — say one million times the minimum 

 audible intensity, l,000,000i'. 



From the known dimensions and materials of the Leipzig Gewandhaus, Sabine found 2.30 

 seconds as the duration of reverberation of tone C it 512 vibrations, therein, and his calculations 

 foretold that the new Symphony Hall, the architects following his suggestions, would reverberate 

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