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ROOM ACOUSTICS DESIGN OF WORSHIP SPACES
Figure 1. Musicians play from a position off the central axis of the sanctuary (left) at the Church of the Resurrection in New Albany, Ohio.
Continuing with our comparison of worship spaces and concert halls, a fourth point is that the style of music can vary dramatically from one worship space to the next. Concert halls host a wide range of musical styles also, but the range is generally not as dramatic as is found in worship spaces. Some worship services use rock bands to lead music; this is most prevalent in some of the more seeker-targeted, nondenominational Christian minis- tries. Some Baptist churches as well as churches of other denominations have large orchestras on most Sundays that are more like those in concert halls. Of course, many Christian services have choirs, and many Christian wor- ship spaces also include organs. Jewish worship spaces can have a fairly broad range of music included in their services; however, although the range is generally not as wide as with Christian worship spaces, some less tradi- tional Jewish synagogues that include organs and choirs are not unusual, at least for some services.
If a worship space has a consistent worship style from week to week, one can develop an acoustical design to suit that particular music style, but, to complicate matters, some worship spaces have multiple services. It is not uncom- mon for one church to have both a “traditional” worship service that features primarily choral and organ music in addition to a “contemporary” service that features an amplified rhythm section similar to the instrumentation of a typical rock band.
Concert halls also support diverse programming that
may range from chamber music to full orchestra to a “pops” concert that includes some amplification. That is why some concert halls, and particularly halls designed in the last few decades, include adjustable acoustics design
elements. Incorporating adjustable acoustics design ele- ments into a worship space, however, is less common, even though there is often an even greater programmatic need for acoustical adjustability.
Background/History
Unlike concert halls, worship spaces have their roots in prehistory, whereas the concert hall as a dedicated build- ing is a product of the eighteenth century, during which (at least in the West and, more specifically, in England) the live performance of commissioned music morphed from an affair by invitation in private music rooms for small audiences into events for the paying public in larger quarters (e.g., Forsyth, 1985).
Yet music itself is older than either concert halls or houses of worship. Music came before buildings of any kind, and the point of intersection between music and architecture is when we first see music in worship spaces.
Because only much later did music come to be performed indoors for its own sake outside the context of worship, it is not a stretch to say that for most of music history, com- posers wrote music primarily to be played outside or in buildings not explicitly designed for music performance.
Today, a rich and extremely varied repertoire of sacred and liturgical music exists and it continues to evolve, but it is important to remember that almost none of this repertoire was written to be performed in the spaces where it is performed today. An acoustics designer of worship spaces must be knowledgeable about this repertoire, its history, and its variety, because they relate to the faiths and denominations with which the designer is working. An acoustician must also be capable of designing a worship space to accommodate the full breadth of activity and worship styles that may occur within any given space.
Perhaps the most significant modern development affect- ing the acoustics of worship spaces and, indeed, nearly all gathering spaces is the advent of electronic sound reinforcement systems. Yet their adoption has not been
32 Acoustics Today • Fall 2021