Atmosphere of the sacred –sonic aspect, acoustic investigationsof the contemporary church

Abstract

Acoustics are one of the main components that constitute the functionality of the sacred building. Designing a church is a real challenge because the interior must be adapted to various acoustic requirements. However, one must bear in mind that one of the goals to be achieved in a religious interior is to create the sense of the sacred. The aim of this paper is to investigate acoustic conditions in a contemporary Catholic church with a view to determining the sound quality of the interior. Acoustic investigations were conducted in Św. Jerzy Church in Poznań. An ominidirectional sound source, the DIRAC software and the Brüel & Kjær ZE-0948 USB sound card were used. The e-sweep signal was generated and parameters that are referred to in the literature as basic were measured to assess the acoustic properties of the religious interior. The acoustic parameters were then compared to the recommended values. The most important parameter used in the assessment of the sound quality of a sacred interior is reverberation time RT. A lot of contemporary churches exceed its recommended value, the result of which is reverberant noise. The RT value in the investigated church falls within the recommended range but because the interior houses no pipe organ, the value should be lowered. Shorter reverberation time will ensure better speech clarity while the sense of the sacred will be retained. Designing a religious facility should take account of its acoustics as early as at the conceptual stage; one should remember that aural impressions will influence the reception of the acoustics of the interior.