Ears of the past, an inquiry into the sonic memory of the acoustics of Notre-Dame before the fire of 2019

•Collaborative work between sciences of acoustics and anthropology allows to decipher the reported perceptions of the acoustics of Notre-Dame de Paris.•Although the acoustics of Notre-Dame de Paris before the fire were remarkable in several aspects, musicians report than they were dificult to “tame” in the context of modern musical and liturgical uses.•Musical clarity suffered from large distances between the singers and the assembly as well as from architectural particularities of Notre-Dame de Paris.•Due to poor clarity in the nave, various sound system configurations were used to assist musical, vocal, and speech productions. This interdisciplinary study brings together acousticians and anthropologists to examine the memory of the acoustics of Notre-Dame de Paris before the fire of April 2019, using a qualitative approach to collect the testimonies of 18 people involved in the sound usages of the cathedral. Testimonies were analyzed in light of research conducted in the anthropology of the senses, sensory perception, memory, and cultural heritage. Analysis highlights an apparent contradiction between the remarkable acoustics of the monument before the fire and the impression of musicians. These musicians reported a struggle to tame the cathedral’s sound space, to hear each other well enough to craft their performances and to reach an acceptable level of clarity in their musical practice. These phenomena are examined with acoustic measurements and numerical simulations using a calibrated geometrical acoustics model of the cathedral before the fire, which allows for an objective exploration of the acoustic characteristics of Notre-Dame. This analysis concludes that the well-known reverberation of Notre-Dame, as well as the acoustic barrier of the transept and the poor acoustic return on the podium (the usual place for concert performers) negatively impact singers’ comfort. This highlights the tension between the original architectural design of the cathedral and its modern religious and cultural usages. However, the regular occupants have developed a deep familiarity with these constraints during their ritual and musical practices, adjusting to the acoustics in a unique way. Such a tradition of adaptation must be considered as a part of cultural practice, not to be overlooked during the reconstruction.