Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 21, 1992 TAG: 9203230140
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JEFF DeBELL STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
That's her way of knocking the Roanoke Civic Center auditorium, which is the orchestra's performing home. She says the place is acoustically wretched, and conductor Victoria Bond and many of the musicians agree.
Musical sound doesn't reverberate and spread through the hall the way it should, they say, with the result that the audience can't properly hear the musicians and the musicians can't properly hear each other.
"We could have a 400-piece orchestra and you still couldn't hear it," said bassist William Johnston.
"When the orchestra players hear themselves better they play better," said Allen Bachelder, principal trumpet. "Literally, the hall itself is an instrument."
The orchestra has long used a huge reflective shell to bounce sound into the fan-shaped auditorium, but the shell has been useless since a breakdown in January.
"The shell, bad as it was, really did help," said bassoonist John Husser. "With a good shell we could become an average hall."
The matter rests with the City of Roanoke, which owns the Civic Center. Orchestra officials hope the city will use the crisis as an opportunity to significantly improve acoustic conditions in the 2,400-seat auditorium.
Civic center manager Bob Chapman says the options are to repair the shell, replace it with a new one or work out a combination of the two. In accordance with the orchestra's strongly expressed wish, the city has retained an acoustics expert to help with the problem.
In the meantime, the orchestra is using a portable shell, a temporary plywood ceiling (made by local members of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees) and selective electrical amplification.
Bad as it may be, the auditorium isn't the area's worst acoustic deadbeat. Musicians who know the halls say that distinction goes to Virginia Tech's Burruss Hall. "It's the worst hall ever in the universe," said cellist Alan Weinstein of the Kandinsky Trio. "The sound goes straight out and dies in the third row."
While burdened with the area's worst hall, acoustically speaking, Tech also can claim the best - namely, the new Recital Salon in Squires Student Center. One of its many admirers is violinist Linda Plaut, who has enjoyed it both as player and listener.
"My first reaction was, `Hooray, the audience can hear everything,' " she said. "My second reaction was, `Damn, the audience can hear everything.' You can't even curse under your breath."
"It's an absolutely magnificent piece of acoustical engineering," said Paul Zweifel, a classical music lover and Tech physics professor whose courses include one on acoustics. "I've been a great admirer of the Audubon Quartet [Tech's resident ensemble], but until I heard it play in there I didn't realize how good it really was."
Tech officials say there are two overriding reasons for the success of the 240-seat recital hall. One is that it was designed for musical performances and nothing else. Historically, multipurpose rooms have not been great concert halls.
For example, a hall that doubles as a theater (like the Roanoke Civic Center auditorium) typically requires overhead "fly space" that can swallow sound before it ever leaves the stage.
The other reason for the salon's success is that an acoustics expert was consulted during the design phase.
"It's an absolute requirement," said Tony Distler, head of the performing arts division at Tech.
The consultant was Noral Stewart of Raleigh, N.C.
His contributions were felt throughout the design, but perhaps the greatest was to insist that the ceiling be 8 to 12 feet higher than originally planned so as to provide enough sound reverberation space relative to seating capacity.
The salon also has specially designed wall panels, overhead reflective surfaces and other arcane features designed to achieve the right mix of sound (direct, initially reflected and reverberant), diffuse it evenly through the hall and make sure there is balance across the range of frequencies. Everything, from the shape of the hall to seat fabrics to the size of air ducts, must be considered in acoustics.
"I believe it's a science, but there's a little art in it," Stewart said in a telephone interview.
Many acousticians will say there's a bit of luck involved as well. And any professional musician will testify that it's worth the effort.
"Acoustics, as far as music is concerned, is a life and death situation," said Richard Cummins, church music minister and well-known Roanoke-area performer on piano, organ and harpsichord.
In terms of acoustics design among area halls, only Washington and Lee University's new Lenfest Center for the Performing Arts is in a league with Tech's Recital Salon. It, too, is getting rave reviews. After soloing in Carl Orff's "Carmina Burana" there last spring, soprano Beverly Hoch described its sound as "so present it parted your hair."
Other area halls lack the design sophistication of the Recital Salon and Lenfest Center, but some still received passing marks in a straw poll of musicians. Among them are Talmadge Hall at Hollins College ("very responsive"), Greene Memorial United Methodist Church in Roanoke ("warm"), W&L's Lee Chapel ("very flattering"), Roanoke College's Olin Hall ("perfectly adequate"), Radford University's Preston Hall ("good throughout") and the Fincastle Presbyterian Church, which so impressed the Kandinsky Trio that it considered making a recording there.
"There are some pretty good halls here," said the trio's Alan Weinstein. "There are bigger towns with less."
by CNB