Room for Interpretation – a research project on musicianship and room acoustics
The artistic research project “Room for Interpretation – a research project on musicianship and room acoustics supported by the Swedish Research Council”, investigates the relationship between musical interpretation and concert hall acoustics.
The project exploits the special possibilities offered by the unique Studio Acusticum concert hall in Piteå, where the acoustic properties can be changed by raising and lowering the ceiling.
Putting artistic aspects at the center
The aim is to investigate how music practice and music experience in a concert hall is affected by varying acoustic properties under otherwise identical conditions (same venue, same musicians, same repertoire, etc.).
Some of the many questions that the project seeks to answer are about what “good“ or “bad“ acoustics actually means for a musician – whether the experience of good acoustics also means that the performance is also perceived as better when listening afterwards, and how the musician's adaptation to the acoustics takes place.
The project puts artistic aspects and musicians' own experiences at the center and thus differs from previous similar research, which has mainly been done within the framework of acoustics science.
The core is musical performances
The project brings together researchers/musicians with different specialisations in musical performance and audio technology. At the core of the project are musical performances by professional musicians in different configurations: piano, organ, flute solo, flute and piano, string quartet, wind quintet, a large chamber ensemble and a mixed choir. Three members of the research team also participate as musicians (piano, organ, conductor).
Audio recordings
The acoustics in Studio Acusticum
One of the guiding principles established for the design of the Studio Acusticum concert hall was that the reverberation time should be variable.
Broadly speaking, variable reverberation time can be achieved by changing either or both of: 1) the absorption of the room's surfaces (walls and ceiling) and/or 2) the size of the room (room volume). The easiest way is to use absorbers that can be folded out or placed in front of surfaces that are normally reflective. The problem with this is that it is difficult to get the same absorbing properties over the entire frequency range from bass to treble. In particular, it is difficult to shorten the reverberation time in the bass range through absorption. The option of changing the volume of the concert hall allows the mutual level balance of the different frequencies for different reverberation times to be less affected than in the case of absorbers.
Studio Acusticum is equipped with both adjustable size (room volume) and absorbers. The volume is changed by placing the ceiling of the hall at different heights, infinitely variable between 10 and 15 meters above the level of the stage floor, by means of many small motors, so called hoists. Absorbers in the form of motorised roller blinds can be lowered at the back wall of the stage and the side walls of the hall. The average reverberation time for the octave bands from 125 Hz to 4 kHz can be varied between 1.4 and 2.6 seconds with these two measures. The reverberation time of each octave is shown in the figure.

Recording philosophy
When recording Western art music as well as other acoustic music performed without sound reinforcement systems, different approaches can be used. The choice depends on a variety of factors such as the room, the ensemble, the piece of music, the goals of the production, etc. In this project, a variety of microphones of different types and in different configurations were set up in order to later have a choice in the recorded sound.
Since part of the study contains sections where it is advantageous that the magnitude of the reverberation cannot be detected with certainty, a microphone configuration and placement was chosen where the reverberation would not be too noticeable. This reduced the possibility of directly revealing the room acoustics at the time of recording. The recordings have been made with the aim of using a pair of microphones to capture the sound of the instruments/voices without taking up too much of the room's reverberation. No extra room sound, either from additional microphones or by means of artificial reverberation, was used in the recordings.
The chosen configuration first became known as the NRU stereo, later NOS stereo, after the Dutch radio company. It consists of two cardioid microphones (= microphones that are more sensitive in a specific direction) placed at a 90° angle from each other and with a capsule distance of 0.3 m. This means that the configuration can capture both level and time differences occurring at the microphones between incident sound waves from differently placed sound sources and reflective surfaces. The signals from the microphones are recorded on a stereo track (consisting of two channels) and then reproduced in a stereo system.
Sub project
Within the overall project, performance sessions were carried out in Studio Acusticum, using different solo instruments and ensembles. The recorded and evaluated performances of each of these constellations can be viewed as a separate subproject, making a total of eight: piano solo (pilot project), organ solo, flute solo, flute and piano duo, string quartet, wind quintet, a larger chamber ensemble with conductor, and mixed choir.
Timeline
Timeline, the research project Interpretation Space
Early 2013: Initial meetings between Professor Sverker Jullander, Associate Professor Jan Berg and Professor Petter Sundkvist.
September 2013: We apply for support to conduct a pilot study from Cross-Border Art and Technology, one of Luleå University of Technology's nine strong research and innovation areas.
September 2013: Assistant professor Helge Kjekshus is involved in the project
September 2013: Associate Professor Helge Kjekshus is involved in the project
October 28, 2013: Funding granted for pilot study
October 31, 2013: Recording sessions (pilot study) in Studio Acusticum. Kjekshus performs two pieces by Grieg in four different acoustics.
November 2013: Analysis of the recordings
December 2013-January 2014: Preparing abstracts for the conference Music Research Today 2014.
February 24, 2014: Conference paper accepted
February 25, 2014: Meetings, preparation of an application to the Swedish Research Council.
March 2014: Writing the application Interpretation space: musical interpretation in interaction with room acoustics.
March 25, 2014: Application submitted
June 12, 2014: The pilot study Room acoustics influence on musical interpretation is presented at Music Research Today, Linnaeus University, Växjö Sweden.
September 24, 2014: The research project Tolkningsrum: musical interpretation in interaction with room acoustics receives 2.5 million SEK in funding from the Swedish Research Council.
15:00, we celebrate with coffee and cake.
January 15, 2015: Project meeting I with the research group:
Project leader: Professor Sverker Jullander LTU
Professor Petter Sundkvist, LTU
Professor Karin Nelson, Norwegian Academy of Music
Associate Professor Jan Berg, LTU
Associate Professor Helge Kjekshus, LTU
February-March 2015: Planning of upcoming recording sessions in Studio Acusticum.
February 26, 2015: Project meeting II
March 19, 2015: Project meeting III, lector Tomas Johannesson joins the research group.
June 21, 2015: Technical preparation for recording sessions in Studio Acusticum.
June 22, 2015: Recording sessions with organ in Studio Acusticum, soloist Karin Nelson performs Buxtehude, Reger and Hambraeus. Three different acousticians
June 23, 2015: Prepares instructions for upcoming listening sessions of recordings in home environment
July 3, 2015: Establishes instructions for listening to recordings in the home environment.
August 1-15, 2015: Analysis of organ recordings
13 August 2015: Project meeting IV, summarizing listening reports from organ recordings. Joint listening in studio, comparison of recordings
August 14, 2015: Technical preparation for recording sessions in Studio Acusticum.
August 15, 2015: Recording sessions with flute and piano in Studio Acusticum with soloists Sara Hammarström flute and Helge Kjekshus piano, performances of Bach, Reinecke and Poulenc. Three different acousticians
August 16, 2015: Recording sessions with flute and piano in Studio Acusticum with soloist Sara Hammarström flute, performances of Telemann, Debussy and Berio. Three different acousticians
August 20-30, 2015: Preparation of abstracts for the conference Unfolding the Process at the Norwegian Academy of Music.
September 2015: Analysis of the recordings with flute and flute/piano.
October 6, 2015: Project meeting V, summary of listening reports from the flute and flute/piano recordings. Joint listening in studio, comparison of recordings
November 18, 2015: Presentation of the research project Unfolding the Process at the Norwegian Academy of Music.
November-December 2015: Working on an article for the Audio Engineering Society.
January 2016: Abstract to AES accepted.
March 2016: Final article submitted to AES.
February 2016: Planning recordings with Esbjerg Ensemble and Erik Westberg's Vokalensemble.
18th of March 2016: Technical preparation for recording sessions in Studio Acusticum.
March 19, 2016: Recording sessions with Esbjerg ensemble in Studio Acusticum, performances of Dvořák, Nielsen and Häll. Three different acousticians
April 2016: Analysis of recordings with Esbjerg ensemble
April 26, 2016: Technical preparation for recording sessions in Studio Acusticum.
April 27, 2016: Recording sessions of Erik Westberg's vocal ensemble in Studio Acusticum, performances by Olsson, Farmer, Bäck and Reger. Three different acousticians
April 28, 2016: Project meeting VI, summary of listening reports from the recordings with Esbjerg ensemble. Joint listening in the studio, comparison of recordings.
April 2016: Writing an abstract for the conference Making Time in Music at Oxford University.
April 2016: Writing abstract for the 2nd International Music and Performing Arts Conference Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris, Malaysia.
May 10, 2016: Article for the conference in Oxford accepted.
June 2016: Presentation at the Acoustical Engineering Society convention in Paris.
June 14, 2016: Conference paper for Malaysia accepted.
June 20, 2016: Due to lack of time, we decline to participate in the conference in Malaysia.
August 1-15, 2016: Analysis of the recordings with Erik Westberg's vocal ensemble.
August 18, 2016: Project meeting VII, summary of listening reports from the recordings with Erik Westberg's vocal ensemble. Joint listening in the studio, comparison of recordings.
September 14-16, 2016: Participation in the conference Making Time in Music at Oxford University, presentation of Room for Interpretation on the 15th.
October 2016: Drafting a chapter in the Making Time in Music edited volume.
November 4, 2016: draft not adopted
January 2017: Collection of articles and preparation of an updated bibliography of our research area.
End of January 2017: Writing abstracts for the Music Research Today 2017 conference.
Early February 2017: Writing abstract for EPARM conference 2017 in Brussels.
February 23, 2017: Article accepted for Music Research Today 2017.
February 24, 2017: Article accepted to EPARM.
28 February 2017: Project meeting VIII, planning of future articles, organization of the large collected material, planning for the end of the research project.
March 2017: Work on organizing the musicians' listening reports from the different recording and listening sessions.
April 6, 2017: Project meeting IX, planning of final recordings, planning of future articles
April 20-22, 2017: Presentation at the EPARM 2017 conference in Brussels.
May 15, 2017: Project meeting X, continued planning of final recordings, planning of website and future articles.
June 12, 2017: Technical preparations for the recording sessions in Studio Acusticum.
June 13, 2017: Recording session flute, Sara Hammarström performing Debussy. Recording session piano and flute, Sara Hammarström and Helge Kjekshus performing Poulenc. Recording session piano, Helge Kjekshus performing Grieg. An "ideal" acoustic for each recording chosen by the research team in consultation with the performers.
June 14, 2017: Presentation at the conference Music Research Today 2017, Piteå.
August 2017: Work with website and article writing
August 14-15, 2017: Writing abstract for Call for proposals - Swedish Research Council symposium on artistic research 2017.
Collaborating partners
Main funding body
Other partners
Contact us
The members of the research group (active at the School of Music, Luleå University of Technology, unless otherwise stated) are:
- Sverker Jullander, organist and professor of musical performance, project manager.
- Jan Berg, Associate Professor of Sound Engineering
- Helge Kjekshus, senior lecturer in piano
- Karin Nelson, professor of organ at the Norwegian Academy of Music, Oslo, and at the School of Music and Drama, University of Gothenburg.
- Petter Sundkvist, Professor of Musical Performance, specialising in orchestral conducting.
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