Seating Arrangement in the Concert Hall

There is no uniform rule for seating arrangements within an orchestra; the placement of individual instrument groups is handled in many different ways. Thus, tonal as well as performance technical reasons play a role, and finally, the shape and size of the available floor space also are important factors. The latter naturally is especially relevant in orchestra pits of opera houses; however, also for concert stages, which generally provide adequate expansion possibilities for ensembles there is no seating arrangement universally recognized as optimal. The reason for this can be seen in the fact that acoustical conditions differ from hall to hall and that there will always be an attempt to adjust the orchestra arrangement to the given room acoustic circumstances. Naturally this is the case for the local concert hall, which is mainly used by one orchestra on a routine basis, however, it is certainly not ignored during tours. Thus, for example, it is well known that W. Furtwa¨ngler insisted on corrective changes in seating arrangements in various halls during rehearsals, while on tour with the Berlin Philharmonic (Furtwa ¨ngler, 1965). Other conductors, however, for sound esthetic reasons, insisted on the same seating arrangement, which appeared optimal to them, for each orchestra with which they performed, even when the relevant orchestra was accustomed to a different arrangement (Boult, 1963). The seating arrangement preferred, naturally depends on the personal interpretation style and the subjective tonal perception of the conductor.