The orchestra pit poses returning problems to opera houses and musical practices, as you can read here. This raises the question if a reconsideration of its acoustic design is needed. Did the acoustic design of the orchestra pit break away from the musical practices that are executed within it?
This question is difficult to answer, for so many factors play a role in it; for example the constraints of opera house design in general or the overall aim to improve the acoustics to the best possible extent for the audience (that sometimes only can be achieved at the expense of the musical practices by the musicians and singers). If the acoustic design of the orchestra pit should be reconsidered in order to make it easier for musicians and singers to engage in musical practices, what could actually be changed without downgrading the overall acoustic situation?
According to Gade et. al. (2001), “Conscious changes in musicians’ attitude regarding choice of instruments and performance style are probably the only lasting solutions to these problems” (p. 1). Is it thus the practices that need to adjust to the acoustic design? According to Birwe, sound engineer at the Robert Schumann University in Düsseldorf, this suggestion will not do the trick. Because the number of musicians is specified by the composer and can only vary in the number of string players, one of the little options left is based on the musicians simply playing less loud (interview, 2015):
We could think about a situation in which we could open up the orchestra pit completely, also eliminating the rail that separates the musicians from the audience, and music could be played on an overall less loud sound level. That would be possible […], but of course, as a consequence, the musicians would only give 50%. And this in turn has consequences for the musical and artistic expression. So when the musicians constantly have to restrict themselves, and are not allowed to give 100%, then it will have consequences in the sense that the performance simply will be not as expressive anymore (Birwe).
As this potential solution does not seem to work out, instrument construction could be changed in order to create less loud instruments. This is, however, not very likely to happen (interview Reich & interview Birwe, 2015). The last option, then, would consist in placing the orchestra somewhere else and get completely rid of the pit. In Düsseldorf, the orchestra for example has been placed on the stage for a performance of Ariadne auf Naxos by Strauss (1912): “The director wanted it to be like this […] because he wanted everything to be visible, that’s why the orchestra was placed on the stage. And the effect was – with singers in the front and the orchestra in the back – that the balance was excellent” (interview Gabbert, 2015). This, however, also portrays that the placement of the orchestra is additionally bound to the ideas and vision of the director of the performance.
To sum up, “It is inevitable that during the lifetime of a pit that changes will be made” (Barron, 1994, p. 336). Yet, how the next changes in design are going to look like is still subject to the complex entanglement between material design elements, practices, and performance.
References
- Barron, M. (1994). Auditorium acoustics and architectural design. Spon Press.
- Gade A.C., Kapenekas J., Andersson B.T., Gustafsson J.I. (2001). Acoustical problems in orchestra pits: causes and possible solutions, [in:] Proceedings of 17th International Congress on Acoustics, Rome, Italy, 2–7 September, 2001.
- Interview with Thomas Gabbert, April 27, 2015. Düsseldorf, Deutsche Oper am Rhein.
- Interview with Dagmar Birwe, April 29, 2015. Düsseldorf, Institut für Musik und Medien, office Dagmar Birwe.
- Interview with Stefan Reich, April 30, 2015. Cologne, Musical Dome, control room.
- If you want to read more about how instruments interefere with orchestra pit design, click here.
- You are more interested in the problems it raises for musicians and singers? Then this is the way to go.
- You do not really care about orchestra pits? Maybe you are more interested in instruments in other musical spaces, like in the case of the home pipe organ.