What makes bigger better? Size does matter....(Part 1)

....but not in the way everyone thinks.  In my recent examination of possible alternate concert venues for the beleaguered Atlanta Symphony, I was prompted to look further into concert hall and opera houses worldwide.  Our American predilection for building bigger monuments to cultural icons as well as bastions of athletic combat does not necessarily achieve better results.  Case in point:  the University of Michigan football team, among the winningest in all of sport, "performs" in a gargantuan stadium--"the Big House" (largest in the U.S.)--capable of seating over 109,000 people.  And yet, at this moment, the Michigan program is in a sort of free-fall, having recently been thrashed 31-0 by Notre Dame.  This seems a perfect case study for "the bigger they are, the harder they fall."

Jessica Duchen of The Independent wrote of a 2010 experience at Royal Albert Hall, the gargantuan home of the BBC proms, In the corridor outside door H, I was on the floor and a helpful usher was fetching the Royal Albert Hall medic. In the auditorium, the Prom from which I had extracted myself, Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, was in full swing. I feared the emphasis might yet fall on the word "die".  Six thousand people in a Victorian bullring on a hot night: the Tube couldn't compete. No wonder I conked out, and I had only made it through the first hour of six. A colleague had spotted another fainter being hauled out of the performance of Mahler's Eighth Symphony the night before.

Royal Albert Hall, interior

Why can't we have venues in which we can see natural light; hear music, thanks to good acoustics; enjoy decent sight-lines; feel close to the performers even when we are far away; go to the loo without queuing for the whole interval; and, crucially, breathe? Why can't we have a little more room for our seats and somewhere to balance a glass of water – indeed, permission to take one inside? Why are glasses of liquid de rigeur for rock, pop and world-music gigs, yet when the same venues host a classical concert they come over all health-and-safetyish and ban drinks in the auditorium? In a hot hall, access to water is essential to health and safety. So is oxygen. Is it still impossible to make air-conditioning quiet enough to be compatible with music?

Obviously, all that would cost too much (except for the water) and we cannot expect any fine new halls to spring up any time soon. I will open something bubbly if the Queen Elizabeth Hall and the Barbican are razed and the best architects and acousticians in the world are employed to start over again, but the bottle I'm putting aside could be worth a lot by the time that happens.

And this is in London, home of a significant number of concert organizations and venues, although-- apparently--none compare with one lost to the conflagration of World War 2.  Again, from Ms. Duchen,  We can, partly, blame the Luftwaffe for the fact that London does not have a world-class concert hall. The much adored Queen's Hall, an Art Nouveau-era construction next to Oxford Circus, was destroyed in 1941. It seated 3,000 in an interior that was painted the colour of "the belly of a London mouse" and its acoustics were described as "perfect". Nevertheless, after the war a seriously duff decision not to rebuild it was taken. Instead a new hall, for the Festival of Britain, took shape in the then rather nothingish area of the South Bank.

The late, great Queen's Hall, London

Here is a list of the largest concert halls in the U.S., all of which seat over 3,000 patrons.

*Elliott Hall of Music (Purdue University, IN) – 6,005 (1940)
Fox Theater (Detroit, MI) – 5,045 (1925)

Fox Theater, Detroit.  In one word:  WOW!

Performing Arts Center (Saratoga, NY) – 5,000 (1966)
Fox Theater (Atlanta, GA) – 4,678 (1929)
Masonic Temple Theater (Detroit, MI) – 4,404 (1922)
Auditorium Theater (Chicago, IL) – 4,300 (1889)
Metropolitan Opera House (New York City, NY) – 3,900 (1966)

A tech rehearsal at the Met, New York

DAR Concert Hall (Washington, DC) – 3,702 (1929)
*Auditorium (Indiana University) – 3,700 (1941)
Wang Theater (Boston, MA) – 3,700 (1925)
*Emens Auditorium (Ball State University, IN) – 3,581 (1964)
Filene Center (Vienna, VA) – 3,800 (1971)
Midland Theater (Kansas City, MO) – 3,573 (1927)
Civic Opera House (Chicago, IL) – 3,563 (1929)
*Hill Auditorium (University of Michigan) – 3,538 (1913)

Hill Auditorium, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

Music Hall (Cincinnati, OH) – 3,516 (1878)
*Miller Auditorium (Western Michigan University) – 3,497 (1968)
Music Hall at Fair Park (Dallas, TX) – 3,420 (1925)
Dorothy Chandler Pavilion (Los Angeles. CA) – 3,197 (1964)
War Memorial Opera House (San Francisco, CA) – 3,146 (1932)

War Memorial Opera House, San Francisco

*Eastman Theater (Rochester, NY) – 3,094 (1922)
Terrace Theater (Long Beach, CA) – 3,051 (1978)
Civic Auditorium (Pasadena, CA) – 3,029 (1931)
Civic Auditorium Concert Hall (San Jose, CA) – 3.001 (1936)
*Bass Concert Hall (University of Texas) – 3,000 (1981)
Birmingham Concert Hall (Birmingham, AL) – 3,000 (1976)
Lyric Theater (Kansas City, MO) – 3,000 (1926)

Those marked with an asterisk are halls on college/university campuses where it is not necessarily expedient to be able to sell out performances, for the venue is not required to be self-supporting.  It is interesting to note that the biggest of the bunch (by far), Purdue's Elliott Hall, exists on a campus with no actual music department!  Several are former homes to substantive arts organizations: Detroit's Masonic Hall was one of several venues occupied by the Detroit Symphony, before its eventual move back to Orchestra Hall.  Chicago's Auditorium (now a part of Roosevelt University) was originally constructed for the Civic Opera AND the Symphony.  The Lyric Theater in Kansas City, former home of that city's opera, has given way to the new Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts.

Stay tuned for part two as we'll discuss the "art" (or often the best guess) of acoustics....