DESIGN FOR MUSIC
Sir,-Historically the problem of the hall suitable for both theatrical and musical requirements is a record of ingenuity dogged by inevitable failure. Folding wings, flexible proscenium, raisable canopies, and even movable and adjustable floors and endless other devices have been introduced, to pay only lip service to the problem, and to state blandly that it has not been solved. It is my firm opinion, after many years’ close study of theatre and concert-hall cesign, that the requirements of the two are utterly irreconcilable. There are few centres in New Zealand big enough to support fully either live theatre or live music, or buildings designed for those specific purposes, but let us realise that there are’ some centres (and one would think Lower Hutt was one) which could, and in such places it is wrong to be satisfied with a half-baked compromise; and in those places incapable of supporting a building for music, then design for theatre and let the orchestras manage somehow
-never strangle the production side of theatre in order to improve acoustics. After all, they will never be really good unless other activities are excluded completely. The Victorians, who understood theatre very well, built in London and elsewhere some of the finest buildings in that field that we have; but in not understanding acoustics they produced the Albert Hall. Let those of us today who do profess an understanding of acoustics do the best we can for music.
R
WARD
(Auckland).
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/periodicals/NZLIST19570809.2.19.4
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 37, Issue 939, 9 August 1957, Page 11
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246DESIGN FOR MUSIC New Zealand Listener, Volume 37, Issue 939, 9 August 1957, Page 11
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