Mallorca Cathedral probes Gaudí's possible sound plan

Mallorca Cathedral in Palma is checking whether Antoni Gaudí moved its choir so worshippers in the main nave could hear music better. Cathedral documentalist Sebastián Escalas described the research on Tuesday, 20 October. His team is also examining two devices that may have helped sermons carry.

Music from the choir

The choir once stood in the centre of the cathedral. Escalas believes Gaudí may have moved it to the main chapel to help its music reach the nave. The choir seats had a resonance box that helped carry the singing at a time when there was no other way to amplify sound.

Researchers are also studying two sound-projecting devices known as tornavoces. They are looking at their shape and materials, including wood, cotton and fabric. Escalas thinks the devices were probably intended to help people hear sermons, but says Gaudí’s role in designing them remains a hypothesis, as does his role in moving the choir.

Old photos may provide the answer

Gaudí left no written project for the cathedral, making his intentions hard to pin down. Plans signed by Joan Capó in 1902 do survive. Escalas wants to recreate the two devices to scale from old photographs to test how they worked.

The team’s next step is to reconstruct how the cathedral was arranged before its present layout. Escalas, researcher Mercè Gambús and Rafel Morro, head of the Mallorca Cathedral Chapter Archive, will present work on Gaudí’s intervention at the Gaudí International Congress at La Pedrera in Barcelona later this month.

Topics: Culture

Source: Europa Press / Mallorca.com