Known for his avant-garde theatre works, US director Robert Wilson has created an immersive sound installation at the Sainte-Chapelle church in the heart of Paris.
The work, Gloria, marks half a century since Wilson’s Le Regard du Sourd in Nancy (1971) and the first Autumn Festival in Paris (1972). ‘We have a policy of inviting contemporary artists because heritage and creation must work together,’ says Philippe Bélaval, President of the Centre des Monuments Nationaux. ‘We felt that Bob’s perception of space, his mastery of sound and light could bring a lot to a monument.’
‘It invites us to look at this monument, these windows, in a different way – it gives a new intensity to the visitor experience,’ adds Cécile Rives, administrator of the Sainte-Chapelle. ‘Some visitors will come to hear Bob Wilson; others will come to visit the monument and have the chance to discover it on this occasion.’
Wilson had discovered the church on first trip to Europe aged 17, a jewel of Gothic art in the Île de la Cité, in the heart of Paris, and felt ‘the same strong emotion’ when he returned to finalise preparations for Gloria; a 360° sound installation presented every Saturday and Sunday through October and December.
When the Centre des Monuments Nationaux gave Wilson carte blanche, for the work, his choice of venue was immediate.
In Gloria, running six times a day and lasting 25 minutes, Wilson creates a dialogue between music and words and the light passing through the windows of the upper chapel, an exceptional witness to the art of stained glass of the 13th century.
‘It’s very different from staging for the Paris Opera, as an example,’ Wilson says. ‘It took some time to figure out how to work in such a place, because of the reverberation time and the way you perceive sounds. The light is already so extraordinary, especially the way it changes throughout the day.’
Composer Richard Landry began working with Wilson in New York with Robert Rauschenberg, Philip Glass and Trisha Brown. He has composed for this occasion a post-minimalist style of music with stretched lines that are familiar to the ear, made of layers of synthetic strings imitating organ chords. ‘The music comes from a mass I wrote in 1985, from which I took the Gloria,’ he says. ‘I improvised on the keyboard, following the original structure of the hymn.’
The soundtrack includes excerpts from the poem De rerum natura (About the Nature of Things) by Latin philosopher Lucretius. A secular echo to the themes evoked by the stained glass windows. ‘It’s a text for all times, so modern, solid as a rock, indestructible,’ Wilson says.
It also quotes words in French recorded by a child and actors Cécile Brune and Eric Génovèse. ‘I chose them simply because I liked to hear their voices,’ Wilson says.
Amadeus installed a custom sound projection system in Saint-Chapelle, in coordination with the heritage conservation teams of the Centre des Monuments Nationaux and new technology consultant, Thierry Coduys. ‘Achieving this short-lived work led us to transpose to rental what has been our strength for a very long time, tailor-made design, and to support creators in their artistic approach on a technical level,’ says Amadeus CEO, Gaetan Byk.
‘At the request of the curator as well as Bob, the eight most visible speaker enclosures are covered in gold leaf. They totally disappear in front of the mouldings, pillars, buttresses and arches adorned with red, blue and gold, becoming a component of the architecture of the monument.’
The electroacoustic system comprises 15 loudspeakers surrounding and overhanging the audience, some of which are custom-made and finished with gold leaf. ‘We worked closely with the curator of the Saint-Chapelle and the teams of the National Monuments Centre (Centre des Monuments Nationaux) in order to find solutions guaranteeing the integrity of the monument as well as the utmost discretion of the electro-acoustic system,’ says Amadeus Technical Director, Pipo Gomes.
‘Some speakers are suspended by ultra-fine stainless-steel wires crossing the vault. These loudspeakers are stabilised by transparent nylon wires, totally invisible.’
These loudspeakers are controlled by sound spatialisation software called Holophonix Native, developed by Amadeus in coordination with IRCAM. ‘The sound overwhelms you,’ Wilson says. ‘ It comes from the right, the left, the centre, the ceiling…’
The software uses reverberation and spatialisation, allowing sound to move and reverberate in space, in two or three dimensions.
A spatialisation algorithm supporting synthesis of the soundfield in 3D and Wave Field Synthesis (WFS) was used to place and move the sound sources in space. ‘Nick Sagar, who was in charge of the sound creation, usually works with Logic Pro software ,’ says Adrien Zanni, R&D engineer at Amadeus for the Holophonix project. ‘We have, therefore, integrated Holophonix Native into his production workflow so that he can maintain his work habits while having access to the spatial capabilities offered by our software, both in object-oriented mixing or in direct points.
‘The integration of the new Holoscore plug-in allowed him to edit trajectories as automation directly from Logic Pro. We also used the reverberation engine available in Holophonix Native mainly to homogenise the diffusion of the system and the acoustic response of the chapel. This reverberation tool has also been used on the synthesiser composition to create a virtual organ, as this monument has none.
‘The two subwoofers placed at the altar level contributed to this sensation of acoustics down to the low frequencies,’ he continues. ‘To finalise the acoustic rendering, we pointed/aimed a few loudspeakers in a diffuse field (indirect diffusion), which brought complexity and cohesion to the overall perceptual rendering. Once the final mix was validated, we used Reaper as a multitrack recorder for the sound creation, then finally Qlab software for automated playback of the files at the scheduled broadcast times.’
The freedom given to Wilson offers a bath of light and sound under the vaults of the Sainte-Chapelle. A dive, to be discovered before the end of the year.
‘These kinds of places are essential, especially in cities,’ Wilson observes. ‘We have very busy lives, and Paris is a very animated city. So here’s a place where you can come and take the time to think and take the time to dream.’
