Acoustical characterization of live music and singing in Nossa Senhora do Pilar Church - Goa

• Autor(a) principal: Menino Allan Tavares
• Data de Publicação: 2014
• Outros Autores: Buland Shukla, António P. O. Carvalho
• Tipo de documento: Livro
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: https://repositorio-aberto.up.pt/handle/10216/78654
• topic: Engenharia do som, Ciências Tecnológicas, Ciências da engenharia e tecnologias; Sound engineering, Technological sciences, Engineering and technology

This case study was conducted at the church of Nossa Senhora do Pilar, Goa and is part of a series of tests to gauge the acoustical difference in this 400 year old church from a pre-restoration phase to the post-restoration phase. The worship space was acoustical characterized using objective acoustical parameters (RASTI, RT, D50, C80, TS, and LAeq) and subjective acoustical impressions of listeners for live performances of sacred music and sacred singing. Solo performances on stringed and blowing instruments were compared with solo voice recitals. A choral group with and without accompaniment was also tested. Two different performance locations in the worship space were tested for ensemble music and for choir singing. Amongst the significant results, the choir loft source location registered a 89% better LAeq value and 80% better RASTI value than the nave floor source location. Amongst the subjective acoustical results, ACII (p = 0.15), SSaF (p = 0.06) and SInF (p = 0.18) for sacred singing by the choir with an accompanying ensemble showed significantly better results at the choir loft location than at the nave floor location. The values of the objective acoustical parameters obtained in this survey were compared with those obtained earlier, so as to gauge the impact of the restorative exercises (so far) undertaken in the church. RT, RASTI, D50 and C80 values showed improvement. This study thus adds on to a comparative explanation of the restoration of the acoustical heritage of Nossa Senhora do Pilar church.