CHAP. i. ] UND SIGN A LS. 1 1 



rendered more perceptible, richer, and more harmonious, is the piin- 

 cipal, if not the only, end to be achieved. 



" If the orchestra is in the open air, the audience should be 

 grouped circularly round the orchestra, in order to be in the simple 

 and natural extension of the sound-waves ; the orchestra bein<r raised 



O 



above the audience, so that the shock of the waves is outside the 

 mass of air occupied by the audience, and that the sounds are able to 

 come out and free themselves easily." 



The author remarks that a parabolic ceiling, or circular, or 

 polygonal wall, can only be used with advantage when their dis- 

 tance from the sound-focus is small enough to insure that there shall 

 be neither resonance nor intemperate reflexion. For an amphi- 

 theatre closed in on every side, the arrangements would be the 

 same; nevertheless, instead of. placing the orchestra at the centre, 

 it would be necessary to place it at the side, and the singers must 

 face the audience. 



As to the limiting walls, they should be upright and smooth, and 

 their surfaces should be resisting and polished ; 1 large projections, 

 ornamental recesses, or excrescences must be avoided ; hangings 

 should only be'used for deadening the excess of sonorousness in the 

 room. 



1 General Scott, the distinguished architect of the Albert Hall, does not agree 

 in this, he considers that the tone is thus made very harsh. He writes : " In 

 considering -the mode in which the interior walls of the Hall should be finished, 

 three courses were open to me, each one of which has advocates whose opinions on 

 such a subject merited attention. The first course was to discard resonant materials 

 as far as possible. Those who think that this is the right course argue that after the 

 sound has reached the ear the sooner it is absorbed the better, and that any degree 

 of resonance from the walls of the building is detrimental to musical effects. A 

 second course was to finish the walls with hard, well-polished plaster, and to lay the 

 floors with tiles. This is the opinion of one of the most distinguised organ -builders 

 of the day. A third course was to line the walls with a resonant material, and I 

 decided on the plan of using wood, for the following reasons : 1. The buildings 

 most remarkable for their acoustic properties have been all so finished. The cele- 

 brated theatre of Parma, Her Majesty's Theatre in the Haymarket, which was de- 

 stroyed by fire, the Surrey Music Hall, which shared a similar fate, and the theatre 

 of the Royal Institution, were all lined with wood. 2. It is a generally received 

 opinion that a room sufficiently non-resonant for speaking is too dead for musical 

 purposes, and that the resonance derived from wood is more beautiful than that 

 obtained from other materials. 3. The correction of undue sonority by draping is 

 H simple matter, but it would have been costly to have imparted resonance to a 

 building deficient in this respect." ED. 



