Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 1995 - 22

exploring me relationship between me physical space, the
dramatic space, and me combination of the two, which is me
space perceived by me theatre audience.

THE BASIC TOOLS Al 1 D TECH! -IQCES
OF SPACE
A good place to begin to examine mis relationship is wim the
fundamemal tools available to the sound score designer for
manipulating the space perceived by me mearre audience.

* SCALE
What is me size of the apparem acoustic? The apparem
acoustic will comain a combination of the audience's imagined perception of the dramatic auditory space and meir very
real perception of me physical acoustic space of me theatre.
What is the size of me world of me play? What is me visual
size and mass of me objects mat occupy me visual space of
me play? The audience can imagine me dramatic space and
me mass that fills it to be meoretically differem man the
acoustic defined by me physical size of me theatre, or at least
umil an auditory spatial clue distracts mem. What is the real
size of the meatre? Remember that everything must be done
possible to focus me arrention of me audience on me scale of
the dramatic auditory space of me production.

* PERSPECTIVE
How close is the audience ro me dramatic action? The audience is generally made ro believe that they are much closer ro
it than they physically are. The size, shape and reverberant
qualities of the theatre can be made ro help accomplish the
same objective in the auditory domain, by placing as much
as possible of the audience within the critical distance from
the visual picture, and by keeping the physical size of the
meatre under comrol.
Where is the sound located in me 360 0 plane of the horizontal or me 180 0 of me vertical? If me audience is kept relatively unaware of me acoustic of me theatre, me sound
score designer now has a hemisphere with which ro work.
Sounds can be made to sound further away man the supposed boundaries of the theatre, and sounds can be made to
appear closer. Sound can also be used to mask the physical
audirory space and create an apparem audirory space that is
differem (such as is arrempted with electro-acoustically
enhanced reverberation systems), or to create an impression
of spatialiry that is not relative ro any known acoustic (such
as a film surround sound system).

* STEREO
The use of recordings rhat have been processed for stereo
reproduction is anomer way of creating an audirory space

WINTER

1995

TD&T

mat does not physically exist. One of the most common criticisms in the meatre is that "stereo" is inappropriate for an
audience because it only creates appropriate images for mose
sirring in me cemer between me twO speakers. In this sense,
ir is usually inappropriate ro refer ro two channel sound in
theatre as stereo. Stereo in theatre parlance is nor
'stereophony' for imaging purposes bur rather the use of two
channels and twO loudspeakers for added spatialiry. It is
importam to remember, men, that the goal of stereo in me
theatre is not so mat the audience can precisely locate the
source of the sound (use individual speakers and intelligem
acoustic design of me scenery for mis), bur ro give the sound
added spatialiry.

* MOVEME T
How does sound move rhymmically in me space? What is me
speed, tempo, and direction of me movemem? So far the discussion has predominantly been based on me perception of
stationary acoustic environmems and stationary acoustic
sounds mat emanate from me environmems. The siruation
gets much more complicated in execurion when me audience
is to perceive sounds that move mrough me dramatic audirory space. Sound can eimer be made ro move wim the visual
picrure or in its own dramatic space-encoumering the audience from wimour, and not tied ro a recognizable source.
It is very difficult to make a sound move mrough space
to accompany a visual picture. The key to creating movements such as mis is ro focus the audience's arrention on the
speed or tempo of the movemem wimin me dramatic context of the scene ramer man on me source of me sound. In a
quiet, romantic scene, the train may be pushed imo the dramatic distance and move across the dramatic picrure very
slowly. In a highly energetic fight scene, me train might
move closer to me action and orchestrare me fight with the
rhythm of the wheels and the speed with which it passes. In
eimer case, it is necessary ro estimate transition times accurately within me dramatic scale devised.

* MOVI G SOUND I STEREO OR MO AURAL PANS
There are two basic ways ro cause a sound to appear to move
to an audience member. The first is to physically pan the
source between an appropriate number ofloudspeakers. The
disadvantage of this technique it tllat it requires an infinite
number of theoretical poim source loudspeakers ro realistically recreate the movement. The second is ro make a stereo
recording and then play the sample back over a pair of loudspeakers. The disadvantage of mis technique is that differem
parts of the audience will perceive me movemem in differem
ways. For example, those lerr of cemer will image further to
the left, and those to the right of center will image further to
the right. However, audience members will be all be able to
gain an enhanced perceprion of the relative size of the sound
compared ro a monaurally recorded sound.

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 1995