TOKYO CONCERT HALL HAS ALMOST PERFECT PITCH
Can a modern music hall�s acoustics top those of historic greats? Audio pioneer Leo Beranek and architect Takahiko Yanagisawa decided to try. Using state-of-the-art design and old-fashioned ingenuity, they completed the Tokyo Opera City Concert Hall in 1997. This year, Beranek enlisted the trained ears of conductors, music critics, and concert aficionados to assess the room against the world�s best. The resulting Top 10 list (below) is part of his new book, Concert Halls and Opera Houses: Music, Acoustics, and Architecture. Why does his $104 million labor of love rank sixth? �Our budgets can�t accommodate the budgets of the emperors of Europe,� says Beranek. But he sure gives them a run for their money.
Dimensions
To mimic the shoe-box shape of traditional European halls, Beranek and the architects made the Tokyo room a mere 66 feet wide. With this layout, notes bounce off the sidewalls and reach the listener quickly, creating a sense of intimacy. To offset the narrowness and add grandeur, they topped it with a 91-foot-tall vaulted ceiling.
Canopy
A canopy suspended above the stage redirects sound that would otherwise get lost in the rafters. Its flat underside helps orchestra members hear one another. To determine its height of 46 feet, Beranek shot sound waves at the canopy from each musician�s seat, adjusting its position until readings matched those in classical halls.
Diffusion
This is the first pyramidal hall, so a scale model one-tenth its size was built to test sound movement. A cotton ball-sized �head� with mikes for ears was placed in 20 of the model�s 1,636 seats and monitored as sound waves were directed at it. The data was used to position hollow chambers on the ceiling that better distribute sound.
Materials
Though wood is generally off-limits in Tokyo public buildings, the hall�s architects wanted it for aesthetics and got permission to use it. But wood absorbs more bass than plaster, so the walls had to be thick enough�(read: double layers) to minimize this effect. Then they reduced the padding on the chairs, which also dampens bass.
The Best Acoustics in the World
- Grosser Musikvereinssaal, Vienna (1870)
- Symphony Hall, Boston (1900)
- Teatro Col�n, Buenos Aires (1908)
- Konzerthaus, Berlin (1821, rebuilt after WWII)
- Concertgebouw, Amsterdam (1888)
- Tokyo Opera City Concert Hall, Tokyo (1997)
- Grosser Tonhallesaal, Zurich (1895)
- Carnegie Hall, New York City (1891)
- Stadt-Casino, Basel (1876)
- St. David�s Hall, Cardiff (1982)
Source: Concert Halls and Opera Houses: Music, Acoustics, and Architecture
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