engineering

Gewandhaus

Gewandhaus is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Gewandhaus rather than just read about it. In short: Gewandhaus (German: [ɡəˈvanthaʊs] ) is a concert hall in Leipzig, the home of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. Today's hall is the third to bear this name; like the second, it is noted for its fine acoustics.

Key takeaways

Gewandhaus belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Gewandhaus to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Gewandhaus from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Gewandhaus (German: [ɡəˈvanthaʊs] ) is a concert hall in Leipzig, the home of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. Today's hall is the third to bear this name; like the second, it is noted for its fine acoustics.

History

The first Gewandhaus (Altes Gewandhaus) The first concert hall was constructed in 1781 by architect Johann Carl Friedrich Dauthe inside the Gewandhaus, a building used by cloth (garment) merchants. Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5 (The Emperor Concerto) premiered there in 1811. Felix Mendelssohn is particularly associated with the first Gewandhaus, of which he became director in 1835. Other works that premiered at the Altes Gewandhaus include:

Schubert's Great Symphony (21 March 1839) Schumann's Spring Symphony (31 March 1841) Mendelssohn's Scottish Symphony (3 March 1842) Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto (13 March 1845) Wagner's overture to Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (2 June 1862; the full opera was not performed until 1868) Brahms's A German Requiem (first full performance, 18 February 1869) Brahms's Violin Concerto (1 January 1879) The Altes Gewandhaus was used for concerts until 1886. Despite several expansions, it eventually became too small to accommodate the burgeoning number of concertgoers from Germany's newly emergent middle class. Between 1893 and 1896 it was repurposed, partially demolished, and refitted to form an annexe of the Städtisches Kaufhaus.

The second Gewandhaus The second Gewandhaus was designed by Martin Gropius. It was in the new neighbourhood Musikviertel and opened on 11 December 1884. It had a main concert hall and a chamber music hall. During this era the Gewandhaus was directed by conductors such as Arthur Nikisch, Wilhelm Furtwängler and Bruno Walter. It was severely damaged in the firebombing of Leipzig in World War II during raids on 4 December 1943 and 20 February 1944. Despite initial plans for rebuilding, the East German government deemed the ruins too structurally unsound, and they were demolished on 29 March 1968. The site was used as a car park for decades until the Humanities faculty of Leipzig University opened on the grounds in 2002.

The third Gewandhaus

The third, current Gewandhaus, on Augustusplatz and the eastern part of the inner city ring road, opened on 8 October 1981, 200 years after the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra moved into the original hall. Conductor Kurt Masur laid the foundation stone on 8 November 1977. The architect was Rudolf Skoda, who like Dauthe was a native of Leipzig. The design carefully took into consideration its precedents' reputation for excellent acoustics. During construction, the hall was filled several times with soldiers of the East German Nationale Volksarmee to test its sound quality at full capacity. During the Autumn of Nations in 1989, the Gewandhaus became a platform for political dissent against the Communist authorities, as Masur opened up the hall for public discussion on the future and reform of the GDR (the so-called "Gewandhaus Talks"). Today's Gewandhaus has a seating capacity of 1,900 and features a Schuke concert organ with 6,845 pipes.

Gallery

See also Architecture of Leipzig#New Gewandhaus

References

Sources Leo Beranek, Concert Halls and Opera Houses: Musics, Acoustics, and Architecture, Springer, 2004, page 280. ISBN 0-387-95524-0.

External links

Official Website (english) History of the Gewandhaus from the official site

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Gewandhaus

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Gewandhaus claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Gewandhaus before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Gewandhaus ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Gewandhaus

In research: Gewandhaus appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Gewandhaus in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Gewandhaus is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1981 establishments in East Germany, Augustusplatz, Buildings and structures completed in 1981, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Gewandhaus outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Gewandhaus in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Gewandhaus means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Gewandhaus out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Gewandhaus in simple terms?

Why does Gewandhaus matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Gewandhaus?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Gewandhaus.