How to restore the legendary acoustics of Notre Dame
For centuries, the interior of Notre Dame never saw much sunlight. But when Brian Katz stepped inside the cathedral last July, the place was drenched in light, its famous arched ceiling open to the sky. Nearly three months before, on April 15, 2019, a fire had ripped through the Paris cathedral. Now, charred wood lay heaped on the floor, mingled with toxic lead dust. The acrid scent of fire lingered. But Katz and his colleague Mylène Pardoen had one main concern: the sound. Something fundamental to Notre Dame’s voice was missing: its reverberance, that echolike quality that the grandest cathedrals are known for. “You didn’t hear the building anymore,” Katz says. Before the fire, the tap of a heel or a cough would hang in the air for many seconds, a feature that imbued visitors with a tendency to step softly and keep voices low. Notre Dame de Paris — which translates as “Our Lady of Paris” — had a way of imposing silence...