Acoustic characterization of worship ambience in catholic churches. Old Goa's Capela do Monte: a comprehensive example

Abstract

The Acoustic Characterization of Worship Ambience, a method used in Old Goa's Capela do Monte (a significant Catholic church of Goa, a former Portuguese colony in India), introduces a new concept of describing the worship mood through evaluation of architectural acoustics results. Three acoustically constituted worship parameters named Sacred Factor (SaF), Intelligibility Factor (InF) and Silence Factor (SiF) are presented in this study. The constituent subjective acoustic measures were analyzed and averaged in four listener zones within the church. The objective acoustic parameters RASTI, RT, EDT, D50, C80, TS, ITDG, G, and Leq were measured. All acoustic parameters were normalized using the data of previous acoustic measurements in Portuguese Churches. SaF was found to relate with Initial Time Delay Gap (ITDG) (R2 = 0.99) with a "F-Statistic" probability (p < 0.01). InF related with D50 and EDT (R2 = 0.99) (p = 0.07) and with subjective Directionality (R2 = 0.95) (p = 0.03). SiF showed correlation with G (R2 = 0.99) (p = 0.05). The tested prediction equations derived from regression analysis showed the possibility of evaluating and designing a "Tranquil Worship Mood parameter in a Church, from measured and calculated acoustic parameters.