An Evaluation of Room Acoustics in Rooms Used for Turkish Melodic Music

Developing since the early 1920s, the discipline of room acoustics has made important strides in correlating subjective and objective, or measurable, values for music rooms. By means of much research done throughout this period, internationally accepted objective and subjective parameters and optimum values for these have been determined for rooms in which distinct forms of music, such as Baroque, Classical, Romantic and Operatic are produced. This information, in combination with experience gained in existing halls of music, has allowed for the establishment of a set of design principles for architectural acoustics. On the other hand, little, if any, research has been done that would lead to the creation of such parameters for Turkish Melodic Music, a form of music entirely different from Western Music in terms of both structure and the rooms in which it is produced. The purpose of the interdisciplinary research project entitled "An evaluation of the parameters for room acoustics in rooms used for Turkish melodic music" was twofold: to research the effectiveness of existing room acoustics parameters for this music, and to propose specific values for a set of objective parameters to be used in the architectural design of such rooms. The project firstly researched and determined the rooms used for Turkish melodic music in Istanbul, the type of music produced in them, and the rhythms, instruments, player numbers etc. involved. The architectural and acoustic characteristics of the rooms were studied and the results evaluated with experienced musicians. Finally, a proposal was made for parameters for acoustics and their optimum values for the rooms. This article aimed to briefly explain the studies implemented based on the methodology of the research and to present the findings.