Boren Braxton
Audio Technology Program, Department of Performing Arts, American University, Washington, DC, United States.
Front Psychol. 2021 Mar 2;12:564542. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.564542. eCollection 2021.
To a first-order approximation we can place most worship services on a continuum between clarity and mystery, depending on the setting and content of the service. This liturgical space can be thought of as a combination of the physical acoustics of the worship space and the qualities of the sound created during the worship service. A very clear acoustic channel emphasizes semantic content, especially speech intelligibility. An immersive, reverberant acoustic emphasizes mystery and music. One of the chief challenges in acoustical design is the fact that both clarity and immersion are subjectively preferred by audiences, yet these two goals are almost mutually exclusive of one another. The movement along this continuum in liturgical space can also be seen in the religious contexts for many of the worship spaces constructed in the West in the last two millennia. In the case of religious ceremony, a free field acoustic environment provides more clarity and precision in the spoken word received from God and given to the congregation. Yet a diffuse field environment provides an embodied, otherworldly sense of the supernatural: the mystery of the faith received which cannot merely be put into words. This tension is perceptible in many of the religious controversies in the West during this time period. This article examines the history of the spaces used by early Western Catholic Christians as well as those of the traditions-Lutheran and Calvinist-that left the Catholic faith during the 16th century Reformation. By considering the stated goals of these traditions alongside the architectural and liturgical innovations they created, it can be seen that emergent liturgical spaces mirror the assumptions of their respective traditions regarding the proper balance between semantic and aesthetic communication during the worship service. The Reformed faiths' emphasis on the power of the Word is reflected in the liturgical space of their services, while the Catholic faith gave greater priority to the role of Mystery, in their liturgical space as well as their explicit theology. Once constructed, these spaces also aid the cultural transmission of the sung or spoken liturgy of each tradition to future generations.
从一阶近似的角度来看，根据礼拜仪式的场景和内容，我们可以将大多数礼拜仪式置于清晰与神秘的连续统之中。这个礼拜仪式空间可以被视为礼拜场所的物理声学特性与礼拜仪式中所产生声音特质的结合。一个非常清晰的声学通道强调语义内容，尤其是语音清晰度。一个沉浸式的、有混响的声学环境则强调神秘性和音乐性。声学设计的主要挑战之一在于，清晰度和沉浸感在主观上都为听众所青睐，但这两个目标几乎是相互排斥的。在过去两千年里西方建造的许多礼拜场所的宗教背景中，也能看到在这个礼拜仪式空间连续统上的变化。就宗教仪式而言，自由场声学环境能让从上帝传达给会众的言语更清晰、更精确。然而，扩散场环境能提供一种关于超自然的具身化、超凡脱俗的感觉：所领受的信仰之神秘无法仅仅用言语来表达。在这一时期西方的许多宗教争议中都能察觉到这种张力。本文考察了早期西方天主教基督徒所使用空间的历史，以及在16世纪宗教改革期间脱离天主教信仰的路德宗和加尔文宗等传统的空间历史。通过将这些传统所宣称的目标与其所创造的建筑和礼拜仪式创新相结合来考量，可以看出新兴的礼拜仪式空间反映了其各自传统对于礼拜仪式中语义与审美交流恰当平衡的假设。归正宗教派对于圣言力量的强调体现在其礼拜仪式空间中，而天主教信仰在其礼拜仪式空间以及明确的神学中则更优先考虑神秘性的作用。一旦建成，这些空间也有助于将每个传统的唱诵或诵读礼拜仪式文化传承给后代。
