Built for sound

February 24, 2025 1:18 PM

When it was effortful to make noise and people wanted to hear, what did they do? This reminds me that Vitruvius talked about building for sound, too -- I think I remember reflecting sound for speeches and in the marketplace, and maybe deadening it near temples.
posted by clew (8 comments total)

I am always delighted to see Vitruvius name checked in MetaFilter.
posted by y2karl at 1:25 PM on February 24

Mmmmm... Translations vary, but I typically see the Vitruvian Triad translated as "commodity, firmness, and delight" where "firmness" is sometimes rendered as "soundness". Basically, buildings should have a functional purpose (commodity), not fall down (firmness), and be nice to look at (delight). It's possible he gets into acoustics in some part I'm not familiar with.
posted by LionIndex at 1:52 PM on February 24

He describes acoustic design in the chapter on theaters.
posted by mumimor at 2:30 PM on February 24 [2 favorites]

To refocus the thread: The link is partially about a study at Chaco Canyon in present-day New Mexico suggesting that perhaps the settlements were laid out to afford acoustic privacy to inhabitants. I plan on visiting myself later this year - I don't know what the exact environment there is like, but I've experienced where sound seems to travel much farther in a desert environment, so that'll be an interesting thing to pay attention to when I'm there.
posted by LionIndex at 2:32 PM on February 24 [1 favorite]

Thank you, mumimor!
posted by LionIndex at 2:34 PM on February 24 [1 favorite]

[openculture:] "It is perhaps possible that the much-underestimated Neanderthals made their own flutes. Or so a 1995 discovery of a flute made from a cave bear femur might suggest. Found by archeologist Ivan Turk in a Neanderthal campsite at Divje Babe in northwestern Slovenia, this instrument ... is estimated to be over 43,000 years old and perhaps as much as 80,000 years old. According to musicologist Bob Fink, the flute’s four finger holes match four notes of a diatonic (Do, Re, Mi…) scale"

previously
posted by HearHere at 5:18 PM on February 24 [4 favorites]

What a great find is Silences and Sounds - thanks clew. SPreAD: a System for the Prediction of Acoustic Detectabi sounds an amazing idea and sytem.

I intitally thought of the ceramic 'acoustic jars' the Greeks built into some of their temples;

"More recently, ceramic urns about 3 feet in diameter and 5 feet high have been found in the stage structure of an ancient Sardinian theater" In Technics and Architecture: The Development of Materials and Systems for Buildings - 1992, I found a copy on the web some years ago and can't refine the link, but it is on the wayback machine.

I wonder if these would deaden noise if carefully buried across a landscape? as the Netherlands acoustician Timothy Rentergem has done for freeway noise - Using natural means to reduce surface transport noise during propagation outdoors [pdf link to ucl.ac.uk].
posted by unearthed at 6:14 PM on February 24 [2 favorites]

Architectural acoustics is a fascinating subject. And my brother, an architectural historian, has written a book about it!

Echo's Chambers: Architecture and the Idea of Acoustic Space
posted by Artifice_Eternity at 8:46 PM on February 25 [3 favorites]