Amadeus enables immersive art experience
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Within the scope of the Armistice Day commemorations, French author Maurice Genevoix, who wrote the four-part Ceux de 14 (The Men of 1914) about World War I, joined other luminary writers such as Voltaire, Rousseau, Dumas, Hugo, and Malraux, along with revered figures from culture, science, and politics in France’s secular temple, the Panthéon.
For the celebration, the President of the French Republic commissioned a work from two major figures of the contemporary art scene, German painter and sculptor Anselm Kiefer, and French composer Pascal Dusapin. This is the first public commission for the Panthéon since 1923.
Dusapin’s creation, In Nomine Lucis, is a piece for a musical ensemble of singers, recorded by the French chamber choir, Accentus, at the Philharmonie de Paris concert hall. To bring a more intimate human connection with the Great War into the Panthéon, nearly 15,000 representative names of soldiers who died for France have also been read and recorded by the French actors Florence Darel and Xavier Gallais. Visitors to the Panthéon will hear names spoken as they walk through different parts of the expansive building.
“I wanted to make the stones of the Pantheon sing, to create a huge 'vocal lung' where everyone will hear different echoes of its past, and of its history,” said composer Pascal Dusapin.
To support the new musical work, a bespoke sound system was designed and installed within the Panthéon. A total of 70 loudspeakers, designed and manufactured by French audio company Amadeus, are mounted around the transepts and at the dome-ground, which reaches more than 35m in height. The speaker enclosures, being coated in natural stone, have been made invisible, becoming an integral part of the monument.
“Amadeus became a space where technological innovations with arts and crafts, combine and complement each other,” said Gaetan Byk, marketing manager at Amadeus. “We take real pleasure in constantly surpassing and renewing ourselves, in exploring materials and technologies in all their forms, without limit. These 80 stone-finished speakers, forming part of the Monument, are the purest expression of our know-how and the values we defend.”
The electroacoustic system is controlled by Holophonix. “The Holophonix processor enables the sound spatialization of the different choirs through its various onboard algorithms, in two or three dimensions,” stated Thierry Coduys, director of technologies for the project, and a technical collaborator of Pascal Dusapin for many years.
“The spatial programming, the position of the choirs, their trajectory, as well as the other events that compose this 'electroacoustic score' are managed through a graphic computer sequencer, called IanniX. The processor receives, interprets and translates these millions of temporal and spatial messages to make them perceptive,” added Coduys.
Designed by the Amadeus company, in collaboration with IRCAM Institute, the Holophonix immersive sound system has also been selected by several performance venues, many among the most famous and prestigious in France, including Comédie-Française, Chaillot National Theatre, and La Scala (Paris).
Fifty-four Amadeus C12 model speakers are installed on the building’s columns at 16m high off the ground. The speakers feature an H60 x V60° bespoke conical waveguide to optimize the high-frequency directivity in such a reverberant space.
Another eight Amadeus C15 model speakers have been installed at the dome-ground at a height of 35m above the ground. These speakers also feature an H60 x V60° bespoke conical waveguide. They are used in an 'indirect' configuration, aimed toward the glass windows of the dome, to maximize the diffraction effect. This is an artistic choice.
“The composer Pascal Dusapin wanted something 'angelic coming from the sky’, with precision in the mid-high frequencies, but not allowing people to precisely locate the sound sources,” explained Zanni.
Both the 54 C12 and eight C15 speaker cabinet enclosures are stone-covered. Amadeus worked closely with French specialists and architectural conservators on researching shades and materials and nuances to determine the correct finish. The speaker cabinets are made of birch plywood but are covered by a micro-coating, made of Lime, natural stone powder, and resins with various additives.
An additional eight Amadeus C6 model speakers, six featuring a dark oak wood stain, while two are stone-covered, are installed 4m above the ground, and are dedicated to playing the audio of the spoken names of 15,000 representative soldiers who died for France which were read and recorded by the French actors Florence Darel and Xavier Gallais.
