The Western Latin church as a place for music and preaching: An acoustic assessment

The history of Western architecture cannot be understood separately from the evolution followed by church types from the first Christian churches to the late baroque churches. But the fact is, in the absence of a specific architecture for music, the church has been the place which has long welcomed it as well as contributing to its development. In addition, during certain periods of history, the intelligibility of the word, primarily for preaching purposes, is an essential objective of its activity. This was the case in the beginnings of the first Christian churches, with the appearance of mendicant orders in the thirteenth century, the Reformation and Counter-Reformation movements in the sixteenth century, and more recently, after the Second Vatican Council. This article proposes a new approach, through an acoustic assessment of the church as a place for music and preaching.