Weimann (Johannes Gutenberg-Universitt Mainz) for the Rudolstdter Arbeitskreis zur Residenzkultur, this conference was held in cooperation with the Stiftung Thringer Schlsser und Grten.It aimed to explore the complex interrelationships among space, music and acoustics in early-modern European court architecture, focusing on the acoustic and sonic dimensions of representative areas in which musical performance played a central role.This means that the entire early-modern ensemble of castle, chapel and garden was taken into account.The special sonic qualities of various architectural spaces, including throne rooms, audience chambers, staircases and courtyards, were examined from a number of perspectives, incorporating disciplines such as architectural and art history, musicology and historical performance practice, sound studies, (archaeo)acoustics, digital engineering and tourism.Shedding light on venues whose acoustic qualities are not necessarily obvious, the conference addressed a topic that had not been present in previous research on sound-specific architecture, such as theatres, concert halls, chapels and churches.Particularly fortunate was the fact that the conference venue was located close to a preserved Schallhaus (sound house) from the eighteenth century (see Figures 1 and2).Participants were able to visit the building on a guided tour and experience a musical performance inside.Early examples of architectural sound spaces were discussed by Ana Cludia Silveira (Universidade Nova de Lisboa), who provided an insightful analysis of Portuguese court architecture during the transition from the fifteenth to the sixteenth centuries.She examined the acoustic, architectural and visual interplay of the court complexes in Lisbon and vora, as well as the royal summer residence in Sintra, with an emphasis on how they served the purposes of princely representation.Dirk Jansen (formerly Forschungszentrum Gotha der Universitt Erfurt) examined the architecture and musical performance practice in two rooms of the pleasure palace Neugebude near Vienna, whose construction began in the last third of the sixteenth century under Emperor Maximilian II.In a hall in the west pavilion and a chapel in its eastern counterpart, music was performed from an elevated position, thus fitting into the iconographical programme of cosmology and, more broadly, into the emperor's political concepts.Drawing upon the ceremonial and performative use of the Palazzo Te in Mantua, built in the mid-sixteenth century, Iain Fenlon (University of Cambridge) discussed the original architecture and representative significance of the palace prior to its architectural transformation, which also had a substantial impact on the palace's acoustic space.An evening lecture from Arne Spohr (Bowling Green State University) on hidden musical performances in early-modern pleasure houses provided a comprehensive overview of the use and function
Helena Langewitz (Sun,) studied this question.