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In this history of aural culture in early-twentieth-century America, Emily Thompson charts dramatic transformations in what people heard and how they listened. What they heard was a new kind of sound that was the product of modern technology. They listened as newly critical consumers of aural commodities. By examining the technologies that produced this sound, as well as the culture that enthusiastically consumed it, Thompson recovers a lost dimension of the Machine Age and deepens our understanding of the experience of change that characterized the era.Reverberation equations, sound meters, microphones, and acoustical tiles were deployed in places as varied as Boston's Symphony Hall, New York's office skyscrapers, and the soundstages of Hollywood. The control provided by these technologies, however, was applied in ways that denied the particularity of place, and the diverse spaces of modern America began to sound alike as a universal new sound predominated. Although this sound--clear, direct, efficient, and nonreverberant--had little to say about the physical spaces in which it was produced, it speaks volumes about the culture that created it. By listening to it, Thompson constructs a compelling new account of the experience of modernity in America.
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THE SOUNDSCAPE OF MODERNITY A R C H I T E C T U R A L ACOUSTICS AND THE CULTURE OF L I S T E N I N G IN A M E R I C A , 1900-1933 EMILY THOMPSON The MIT Press Cambridge, Massachusetts London, England © 2002 Massachusetts Institute of Technology All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or information storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher. This book was set in Bembo by The MIT Press. Printed and bound in the United States of America. V-Room is a trademark of the Wenger Corporation, Owatonna, Minnesota. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Thompson, Emily Ann. The soundscape of modernity : architectural acoustics and the culture of listening in America, 1900-1933 / Emily Thompson. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-262-20138-0 (hc. : alk. paper) 1. Architectural acoustics. 2. Music—Acoustics and physics. I. Title. NA2800 T48 2002 690'.2—dc21 2001044533 TO FAMILY AND FRIENDS, TEACHERS AND STUDENTS. The production of this book has been generously supported by the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts. CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS vii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION: SOUND, MODERNITY, AND HISTORY 1 CHAPTER 2: THE ORIGINS OF MODERN ACOUSTICS 13 I INTRODUCTION: OPENING NIGHT AT SYMPHONY HALL 13 II ACOUSTICS AND ARCHITECTURE IN THE EIGHTEENTH AND NINETEENTH CENTURIES 18 III WALLACE SABINE AND THE REVERBERATION FORMULA 33 IV MUSIC AND THE CULTURE OF L I S T E N I N G IN TURN-OFTHE-CENTURY AMERICA 45 V CHAPTER 3: CONCLUSION: THE CRITICS SPEAK 51 THE NEW ACOUSTICS, 1900-1933 59 I INTRODUCTION 59 II SABINE AFTER SYMPHONY HALL 62 III THE REVERBERATIONS OF "REVERBERATION" 81 IV NEW TOOLS: THE ORIGINS OF MODERN ACOUSTICS 90 CHAPTER 4: V THE NEW ACOUSTICIAN 99 VI CONCLUSION: SABINE RESOUNDED 107 NOISE AND MODERN CULTURE, 1900-1933 115 I INTRODUCTION 115 II NOISE ABATEMENT AS ACOUSTICAL REFORM 120 III NOISE AND MODERN Music 130 IV ENGINEERING NOISE ABATEMENT 144 V CONCLUSION: THE FAILURE OF NOISE ABATEMENT 157 CHAPTER 5: ACOUSTICAL MATERIALS AND MODERN ARCHITECTURE, 1900-1933 169 I INTRODUCTION 169 II ACOUSTICAL MATER