A top priority in designing music rehearsal rooms is the acoustical environment. Indeed, as noted by Edward McCue and Richard Talaske in their introduction to Acoustical Design of Music Education Facilities (Acoustical Society of America,1990), “The acoustical response of a room becomes the very warp into which the threads of music are woven.” Paramount to a rehearsal environment’s success is that the space be conducive to discriminating listening, so that nuances of intonation, articulation, and other musical intricacies can be heard by the musicians and conductor. The science of architectural acoustics is involved in several aspects, ranging from the physical properties of materials to the design of the room itself.
Architectural acoustics seeks to optimize the acoustical conditions in the built environment. Those working in the field come from a broad range of backgrounds, including physics, engineering, and architecture. The distribution of sound within a space, the material properties of...
