A doctoral student performed acoustic archaeology to determine how music could have been properly appreciated in a cavernous 16th-century church. Sarah Fecht reports Venice's Church of the Most Holy Redeemer has held a musical celebration every year since its construction in 1592. And recently, the church has inspired debate among historians: How could its echoing chambers clearly portray the complicated music performed during the festival? A New York University doctoral student namedBraxton Boren decided to find out. He recorded a choir within a non-echoing chamber. [first sound sample] Next, he fed that audio into a computer simulation that he built based on the dimensions and materials of the church. [second sound sample] The muddled reverberations matched actual acoustic measurements taken within the empty church, demonstrating that the simulation was accurate. Finally, Boren recreated what the music sounded like when the church was filled with sound-absorbing tapestries and people. [third sound sample] The new simulation reduced reverberations from seven seconds long to three and a half, making the music much clearer. And so Boren settled the argument. Although to some historians he was preaching to the choir.

一位博士生做了一项实验--十九世纪像洞穴似的教堂是如何理解音乐的。Sarah Fecht 报道说威尼斯最神圣的救世主教堂从1592年开始每年举行一次音乐庆典。最近，这个教堂引起了历史学家的争论：教堂的回音室是如何清除地演奏这样复杂在音乐节上呈现的乐曲？Braxton Boren ，是纽约大学的博士生，决定找出其中的缘由。他在没有回声的房间录制了唱诗班的表演录音【第一个声音样本】，然后，把样本放到他制作的基于教堂的大小和材质的计算机模拟仿真系统里，【第二个样本】混合的回声与真实的采集于空教堂的声学测量匹配，来证明仿真系统的准确性。最后，他再次制作了在教堂里装饰着挂毯和挤满了人时的现场声音。【第三个样本】新的仿真系统降低了回声时间从7秒至3.5秒，让声音更加清晰。因此，Boren 解决了历史学家们的争论。尽管对有些历史学家来说，他就像正在对着唱诗班步道一样。