A Minute with Miles

When discussing acoustics it’s important to remember that there’s no absolute standard, and that different kinds of music may be better served by different acoustics.

Absolutely everything in the design and construction of a room, or concert hall, contributes to its acoustics… from the shape and size of the room, to the building and finishing materials, to the seating configuration and height of the stage, to the seemingly minor decorative details.

When we ask about the acoustics of a concert hall, or of any room, we’re asking about qualities, about how things sound in that room.

Applied to music, acoustics is the basis for understanding all sorts of things.

“People have pointed out evidences of personal feeling in my [reviews] as if they were accusing me of a misdemeanor, not knowing that a criticism written without personal feeling is not worth reading."

“We know rather more now about the psychology of artists than we used [to], and so we no longer incline to the naïve belief that if a composer has quarreled with his wife his next symphony will be a Pathétique, or that if his liver happens to be functioning normally he will produce a Hymn to Joy at the next [Choral] Festival."

“Music is a medium through which certain unnamable experiences of life are exquisitely conveyed through equivalent sensations for the ear…"

"...today all [the] intelligent and sensitive souls, on whom his genius has shed its radiance, turned to him as toward a benefactor and a friend.”

“Real music goes beyond the intentions of its author for it nourishes itself from a much deeper and more mysterious source than mere intellect. It represents a synthesis of all the vital forces, of all the hidden instincts of an individual..."

Miles Hoffman concludes this week's discussion about popular overtures.