Pedro Lilienfeld

The following is a letter I sent to The New Yorker magazine commenting on the referenced article. It did not get published.

Rivka Galchen in Sound Affects (Oct. 17, 2022) mentions that “sound engineering is ancient” and cites the examples of Hagia Sophia and Chichén Itzá. I would like to point out that the architecture of music and its theorists date much farther back.  The ancient Greek and Roman theaters are famous for their excellent acoustics. It is worth pointing out that different kinds (theatre, odeon and amphitheater) were built, for differing purposes and acoustical conditions, particularly during the first Century BCE in the Roman world.

The most prominent early contributor to the study of architectural acoustics was the famous Roman architect Marcus Vitruvius Pollio (c. 80-70 BC – after c.15 BC) who wrote a ten-volume treatise of architecture wherein the fifth volume discusses the acoustics of public buildings. Vitruvius, in turn, drew extensively on older, mainly Greek, writings on architecture and building technology, none of which exists today. He did also refer to the ancient Athenian music theoretician Aristoxenus (b. c. 375 BC) who suggested installing resonators in theaters to alter their acoustic properties.

A recent research project, financed by the European Commission, whose acronym is ERATO, was dedicated to investigate the acoustics of Roman theaters.

I would like to mention my own experience with the ancient Roman acoustic building skill. In 1955, I sat about half way up in the beautiful Roman theater of Orange in southern France and was able to perceive the gentle playing of the introduction to the second act of Wagner’s Lohengrin, by just four violins in the orchestra pit, as if they were just a few yards away.