DESIGN FOR MUSIC

New Zealand Listener, Volume 37, Issue 933, 28 June 1957, Page 11

DESIGN FOR MUSIC

Sir.-I read Mr Meldrum’s article on "Design for Music" with interest, and feel your journal is to be congratulated for the inclusion of such material. There are, however, one or two points either stated or implied in the article which should receive further comment. Mr Meldrum states that the vibrations of the various instruments falling upon the human ear are translated into music. This is not so-his remark describes merely the hearing of noise or sound. Music only begins when the sounds heard have an organised relationship and hence when the ear picks them up their, organised relationship is apprehended through the mind and translated into music. I am somewhat surprised that Mr Meldrum should apparently feel kindly disposed toward the multi-purpose "concert hall." There is an old aphorism that a "good sight line is a good sound line." If this is true, and I believe it is, then it is a\contradiction in terms to describe a multi-purpose hall as a "concert" hall, for with the inevitable flat floor, neither good seeing nor good hearing can result. Surely we should not, on the grounds of economics, keep on repeating mistakes of the past in New Zealand. Hope Bagenal, the eminent English acoustic authority, has some very scathing comments to make on the multi-purpose hall and it is noticeable that cinema promoters have not so far fallen for this fallacy to the extent of advocating flat-floored cinemas. Would Mr Meldrum suggest that sight and sound lines are less important to opera, theatre, and concert-goers than to cinema-goers? In my opinion economic considerations lead to the suggestion of creating a small number of good concert halls as regional cultural centres at nodal positions through the country, so that the country listeners as well as town, can with a comparatively short journey hear the great touring artists and companies perform under proper conditions.

The idea of a dissolved proscenium has had its protagonists for many years. Richard Southern, the English stage expert, has written extensively on this subject and Richard Leacroft in his book on Civic Theatre design, devoted an amount of space to it, so the idea is not a new one. I agree with Mr Meldrum that it is certainly worth endeavouring to get a theatre or hall built along these lines.

M. B.

PATIENCE

(Wellington).