(upbeat instrumental transition music) - [Narrator] A cube is defined as a solid bounded by six equal sides, and when those sides are tilted, cut to various sizes, and positioned at different intervals, they become the acoustical marvel that is Orchestra Hall.
The 114 cubes of various sizes are more than an architectural showpiece.
They significantly contribute to how audiences hear the music.
Unique to the Minnesota Orchestra's downtown Minneapolis home, the cubes were considered modernist design when the hall was built in 1974.
They were created by revered acoustician, Cyril Harris, who was known for using geometric and unusual shapes as sound reflective surfaces.
The wood and plaster cubes appeared as though they were falling from the sky, and soon gained national recognition as a source of near-perfect sound.
- The cubes that everybody recognizes as iconographic elements of this hall do play a role in the acoustics.
What we have in this hall with the cubes is to provide some surfaces that scatter the mid- and high-frequency sound.
They do the same sort of thing that, in older halls that have columns and coffers and other aspects of classical architecture, which are important aspects of blending the sound and keeping the sound from being too harsh, the cubes were a modern evocation of that physics in a different architectural form.
- [Narrator] Even though the initial acoustic design was superior, it wasn't exactly perfect, at least not from the stage.
While audiences enjoyed optimum sound, musicians began to notice some flaws in their ability to hear one another on stage.
When the building underwent a lobby expansion in 2013, the auditorium itself also went through an upgrade process.
London-based engineers from Sound Space Vision were brought in to make adjustments based on the musician's feedback.
- Our work with the players involved off and on all the way through the project considerations that are not just about the physics and the architecture, but are about making music and about performance practice.
Our challenge in reducing the sound level or loudness on stage was we had to work within the architectural concept, including the cubes.
So what we did was we modified some of the cubes that are over the upstage players, the back of the stage where the percussion and brass typically are and change some of those surfaces into sound transparent and sound absorbing surfaces, still with the white cubical geometry, so it's not really visible.
- [Narrator] Toronto-based KPMB architects led the renovation and worked very closely with Robert Essert and his team to make improvements in the auditorium.
- The halls that I like best are the ones where it's one room and you kind of, the audience is drawn onto the stage, The sound just sort of permeates out from the stage.
So when it was time to decide what we would put on those side walls, I suggested that we take the balcony fronts, which were faceted anyway, and drive them into and beside the orchestra, And this was a solution that Bob liked and worked acoustically - [Narrator] Orchestra Hall's acoustics have solidified its reputation as one of the finest performance spaces in the country, and to understand why, you just have to look up.
- The cubes are a wonderful part of the hall.
When I saw this hall, I thought "Pretty amazing."
It's a hall that captures the spirit of its times.
It also captures the spirit of the individuals who contributed to create this hall.
- This is a wonderful hall.
People around the world respect it as so.
In my experience, the resident orchestra that plays in the hall regularly, considering it their home, develops a sound that goes with the sound of, the physics of the hall, and the two become one, in essence.
- [Narrator] Every year, tens of thousands of school-aged children come to engage with the orchestra and the cubes make a lasting impression on these young audiences.
Through the years, it has been said that the inspiration for the original cube design came from a comic book superhero figure made of falling rocks or a river running through stones.
Whether they appear as quirky geometry or creative architecture, the iconic cubes of Orchestra Hall are an enduring testament to the science and art of acoustic design.
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