YEARBOOK OF THE ALAMIRE FOUNDATION

Figure 4. Plan of the Marienkirche while the
Gothic choir was under restoration
in 1998.
THE ROLE OF ACOUSTICS IN THE PERFORMANCE OF RENAISSANCE POLYPHONY
Saint Peter, the church’s altar for the
daily high mass, was relocated to
the east end of the choir and rededicated.
In sum, the octagon had
been given over to the laity and
became analogous in function to the
nave of a Gothic cathedral, while
the canons and other clerics inherited
the new, brighter space of the
Gothic choir. When the original
apse was razed, the altar of Saint
Mary stood in the open at the intersection
of the two large spaces. The
canons subsequently became dissatisfied
with this altar’s configuration
and constructed a small
chapel within the Gothic choir that
surrounded it and restricted access
to it. 8 The chapel’s windows were
completely open, so that the structure
had a relatively small effect on
the acoustics of the building (see
Figure 8).
Figure 5. Graph of pistol shot produced and recorded in the church’s octagon with the temporary
wall in place between the Carolingian building and the Gothic choir, June 1998.
8 K. BECKER, Die ehemalige Marienkapelle des Aachener Münsters, die Krönungsstätte der deutschen
Könige, in Zeitschrift für Bauwesen, 4–6 (1916), pp. 195–234.
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