Sound perception of choral music in San Vitale, Ravenna, Italy

The musical heritage of Western Europe, which has its beginnings in the Roman Empire, covers almost twenty centuries of history. Nevertheless, after the fall of Rome and the establishment of Ostrogothic rule in Ravenna in 493, and, subsequently, Byzantine rule from 540, only a few historic elements are available to describe musical features of that period. Only a very few spaces from the sixth century are still available. Among them, the churches of S. Sofia in Constantinople (later transformed into a mosque) and the Basilica of S. Vitale in Ravenna, were the main representative buildings of that time. In order to properly evaluate the sound effect of the dome, acoustic measurements in the church were performed, obtaining binaural and B-format IRs. Moreover, a dry chant of the original Ravennate versus (namely Lux de luce Deus tenebris illuxit Averni) was recorded in the large anechoic room at ISVR, Southampton, UK. Finally, some listening experiments were conducted in the listening room at University of Bologna, virtually reproducing sound effects in the church by means of 3D Auralisation.