Why The Greeks Could Hear Plays From The Back Row

Nature ^ | 3-23-2007 | Phhillip Ball

[blam]

GGG Ping.

[CarrotAndStick]

Couldn't they have also had groups of 'repeaters' placed in different positions along the auditorium, lip-synching with the actors?

[GSlob]

A good idea. Filtering off the coughing, sneezing and farting from the audience [ see, e.g., Aristophanes' "Knights", where Agoracritus mentions a person farting with thunderous noise, and takes it for a good omen] must have been wonderful for the performers' egos.

[expatpat]

Later writers have speculated that the excellent acoustics of Epidaurus, built in the fourth century BC, might be due to the prevailing direction of the wind (which blows mainly from the stage to the audience)

I have a serious technical question here. It seems intuitive that the wind would blow sound to us, like smells. However, it is far from obvious when you look at the physics, and I would appreciate any help from another freeper.

Sound travels at around 1100 ft/sec whereas a good breeze is 30 ft/sec. So the sound can buck a head-wind easily, and a tail wind makes little difference, so why would sound be louder if the wind is from source to listener?

[Dante3]

Interesting.

[CarrotAndStick]

I could only guess that when the wind travels stage-side to the audience, it probably produces far less noise than when it travels in the opposite direction, beginning with the obstructions of the seating area.

[tet68]

Why could they hear so well?

No cell phones in audience.

[BenLurkin]

Very interesting!

[expatpat]

The only thing that I can think of is that there is wind-shear which 'channels' the sound waves. In other words, the air-flow close to the ground is much slower than it is, say, 10ft above the ground. The sound at higher levels is traveling faster than that near the ground if the wind is from source to listener. It is bent back toward the horizontal, thereby channeling or 'wave-guiding' sound energy which might otherwise travel more upward and pass over the head of the listener.

(When the wind is in the opposite direction, sound would be deflected to a more-upward angle and energy would be lost upwards).

It seems reasonable, but I would like to hear from others who may know more about it.

[wagglebee]

Very interesting.

[Right Wing Assault]

low-frequency noise," the researchers say: rustling trees and murmuring theatre-goers, for instance.

I would think rustling trees would be high-frequency.

[Jemian]

Now he and Dekeyser have calculated how the rows of stone benches at Epidaurus affect sound bouncing off them

Wouldn't that mean that when bodies and clothing are placed onto the benches it would absorb the sound?

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks Blam. "Rudy Vallee" ping.

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[ken21]

gracias!

[blam]

"Thanks Blam. "Rudy Vallee" ping. "

Cherie, Cherie baby...

[July 4th]

I was here maybe 7 years ago. An American tour group sang the Star Spangled Banner. It sounded great...even all the way at the back.

[SunkenCiv]

"In the first century BC the Roman authority on architecture, Vitruvius..."

http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/20239

[eleni121]

I've been at Epidaurus a number of times for performances and just visiting...a magnificent place...all true.

I had someone down at the center of the stage (skene) drop a coin and I at the top could hear it clearly.

Hoping to go again ths summer...

[aruanan]

Why The Greeks Could Hear Plays From The Back Row

Because their hearing hadn't been destroyed by headphones and industrial sound?