When I visited Notre Dame in the spring of 2021, the whole space seemed to be ringing. The sounds were coming not from the cathedral’s chorus or its organs, but from the workers rushing to repair the building. Everywhere were scaffolds, fences, white sheets. My eye was drawn up toward the vaults. In the nave were three holes, where the spire fell.
Much of the cathedral’s restoration, projected to be completed in 2024, will address these large holes. They affect not just the structure of the building, but also something that cannot be seen: the acoustics. “Notre Dame has lost about 20 percent of its acoustics,” says Mylène Pardoen, who is the co-director of the acoustics team working on Notre Dame — under the aegis of the French Ministry of Culture and the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (C.N.R.S.), a research organization from whose ranks specialists have been drawn for the restoration. The holes caused a measurable decline in the glorious resonances that gave the building its unique sound.
Every space has its own sonic fingerprint. Sit up and say something out loud. If you’re sitting in a room, the sound will bounce off a bookshelf and scatter — or off a plaster wall, and its return will be clearer. In a larger space, the sound might linger. Your voice, your pitch, and your words might be the same, but what you hear will be different. When you listen to a performance or a speech what you hear isn’t just the voice, researchers will tell you. It’s the space.
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