Pittsburgh Arts, Regional Theatre, New Work, Producing, Copyright, Labor Unions,
New Products, Coping Skills, J-O-Bs...
Theatre industry news, University & School of Drama Announcements, plus occasional course support for
Carnegie Mellon School of Drama Faculty, Staff, Students, and Alumni.
CMU School of Drama
Friday, October 07, 2022
New York Philharmonic's new home is finally designed for good sound
NPR: The new David Geffen Hall in Lincoln Center opens this week, and while the travertine marble exterior of the hall remains the same, everything inside has changed, said Deborah Borda, president and CEO of the New York Philharmonic.
3 comments:
Jordan Pincus
said...
I love this article so much. There’s always so much to gain from completely gutting something that has been somewhat finagled, to allow it to truly achieve its intended purpose. It’s so interesting to me how delicate acoustics can be - how one thing out of place can change the balance of the whole room. I also thought the comments about the psychology of honey wood were super cool. I’ve thought about color psychology before, but never extended that thought to wood stains and grains. It is true that in a theater especially you’re literally engulfed by whatever wood is chosen. I’ve never been to the Philharmonic, and I’ve always wanted to go. I can imagine how critical the acoustics are to truly enjoying a performance. In terms of theatre, sound design is absolutely crucial, and you don’t realize how important it is until it’s not executed properly. With the orchestra, I would imagine that in certain arrangements not being able to hear everything balanced would skew the intended effect of the piece.
I find the fact that they transformed the entirety of the inside of this hall into better sounding for the philharmonic so fascinating. I’ve had to experience seeing shows in buildings that just cannot support the “live” sound. For an orchestra like this, I haven’t thought about how they might have to push for sound. Doing that can completely change the sound of everything. I love how they say the sounds sound richer and you can hear the richness of each instrument. The design sounds so amazing as it surrounds you with music. The design of it all seems so well thought out and so considerate of the people on stage and even the audience. This is such a cool project and I honestly wish I would have known about it so I could have followed along with it. It honestly brought a smile to my face reading this because I was thinking with each sentence, “Wow. That’s so smart.” And “No way that’s genius.” Seeing a show in this building is on my bucket list now.
As an ex-orchestra player, this hall sounds like a dream - and this article really was fascinating to me as a bit of an acoustics nerd. It’s really interesting how they discuss what contributes to the acoustics of the hall itself - and how different materials and layouts can affect the general sound of the room and how much it gives back. I really appreciate how they got into some of the intricacies of how wood and other materials can affect acoustics - that was something I hadn’t researched too much before, but was fascinating. The hall you play in really is an instrument - when I played in an orchestra, we played in the big concert hall in my city and the acoustics, for lack of a better word, sucked. From where I sat I couldn’t hear half of the other instruments playing, because the space wasn’t designed for an orchestra; the hall was previously a place where rock concerts were played, and wasn’t designed for orchestral music. Every new space that you play an instrument in requires a slightly different type of playing - and what that type of playing is depends on the architecture, materials, what furniture is in the room. I'd love to visit this hall someday.
3 comments:
I love this article so much. There’s always so much to gain from completely gutting something that has been somewhat finagled, to allow it to truly achieve its intended purpose. It’s so interesting to me how delicate acoustics can be - how one thing out of place can change the balance of the whole room. I also thought the comments about the psychology of honey wood were super cool. I’ve thought about color psychology before, but never extended that thought to wood stains and grains. It is true that in a theater especially you’re literally engulfed by whatever wood is chosen. I’ve never been to the Philharmonic, and I’ve always wanted to go. I can imagine how critical the acoustics are to truly enjoying a performance. In terms of theatre, sound design is absolutely crucial, and you don’t realize how important it is until it’s not executed properly. With the orchestra, I would imagine that in certain arrangements not being able to hear everything balanced would skew the intended effect of the piece.
I find the fact that they transformed the entirety of the inside of this hall into better sounding for the philharmonic so fascinating. I’ve had to experience seeing shows in buildings that just cannot support the “live” sound. For an orchestra like this, I haven’t thought about how they might have to push for sound. Doing that can completely change the sound of everything. I love how they say the sounds sound richer and you can hear the richness of each instrument. The design sounds so amazing as it surrounds you with music. The design of it all seems so well thought out and so considerate of the people on stage and even the audience. This is such a cool project and I honestly wish I would have known about it so I could have followed along with it. It honestly brought a smile to my face reading this because I was thinking with each sentence, “Wow. That’s so smart.” And “No way that’s genius.” Seeing a show in this building is on my bucket list now.
As an ex-orchestra player, this hall sounds like a dream - and this article really was fascinating to me as a bit of an acoustics nerd. It’s really interesting how they discuss what contributes to the acoustics of the hall itself - and how different materials and layouts can affect the general sound of the room and how much it gives back. I really appreciate how they got into some of the intricacies of how wood and other materials can affect acoustics - that was something I hadn’t researched too much before, but was fascinating. The hall you play in really is an instrument - when I played in an orchestra, we played in the big concert hall in my city and the acoustics, for lack of a better word, sucked. From where I sat I couldn’t hear half of the other instruments playing, because the space wasn’t designed for an orchestra; the hall was previously a place where rock concerts were played, and wasn’t designed for orchestral music. Every new space that you play an instrument in requires a slightly different type of playing - and what that type of playing is depends on the architecture, materials, what furniture is in the room. I'd love to visit this hall someday.
Post a Comment