The soundscape of modernity: architectural acoustics and the culture of listening in America, 1900-1933. (Magnificent Acoustics).

By Emily Thompson, London: MIT Press. 2002. [pounds sterling]30.95

Acoustics have seldom been part of the architect's palette and the history of sound in buildings has rarely been addressed. The story of technology usually lacks clarity, enthusiasm and panache but Emily Thompson's book has all these qualities. Although the title indicates a scholar's very narrow field, the various chapters describe and develop in fascinating detail the American scientists' and engineers' work in creating an 'American sound'.

Chapter 1 gives an introduction to the background of the acoustic history of early America. It includes a memorable sentence summing up the whole thrust of the work of the early American acousticians -- 'Reverberation now became just another kind of noise, unnecessary and best eliminated'.

Chapter 2 deals with the seminal work of Wallace Clement Sabine (1868-1919) in producing the first empirical equation which gave acousticians the tools and mathematics to predict and control the reverberation time of an enclosed space. This chapter deals in compelling detail with the schemes and design for Charles McKim's Symphony Hall in Boston and with Sabine's acoustic analysis.

Chapters 3 and 4 explain the development of materials of absorption and insulation techniques to generate the 'artificial' room acoustics of America. This was stimulated, in the author's view, by the noisy American city with her claim that New York probably became the most noisy city in the world in the early years of the twentieth century.

Chapter 5 reviews many of the acoustic materials developed in America to increase sound absorption to levels never considered by Sabine and architects of earlier generations. This ability to control reverberation led to assumptions about the 'perfect sound' and finally led to what Emily Thompson describes as the 'new ideal type of auditorium' -- low, wide and fan shaped with a highly absorbent seating area with a stage of reflective material. Severance Hall in Cleveland (1930) and that icon of pre-war American architecture Kleinhans in Buffalo by Eliel Saarinen (1940) are perfect examples of this 'new ideal'.

Chapter 6 on the modern auditorium is sandwiched quite correctly between the history of electroacoustics and its influence on the aesthetics of aurality. The chapter starts with 'Introduction: Opening Night at Radio City'. Here was the echt auditorium of America. A highly absorbent space seating 6200 'while microphones, amplifiers and loudspeakers' ensured that all members of the audience heard everything as if they were right up on the stage themselves.

This is a marvellous book and a seminal primer on how and why technology modified our taste. The wheel, however, has turned full circle. At a recent interview of acousticians for the reconstruction of Avery Fisher Hall at the Lincoln Center, the two acoustics favoured by the interviewing panel were given as Musikverein in Vienna and Concertgebouw in Amsterdam!

I am now waiting for Emily Thompson's short sequel to her thesis describing why American orchestras and string quartets have developed that 'Transatlantic Sound'.