Byrne relates to the ideas that Rath expresses in “No Corner for the Devil to Hide” because they both recognize the role played by the space that the sound is produced in. They know that the same sound can have a completely different sound if produced in another room or building. However, Byrne uses the building as a source of sound whereas Rath simply uses the building for its acoustic effects on the sound produced by another source, such as his clap or the voice of a priest in a European Church. The relationship between architecture, acoustics, and sound is an idea that one does not think of often, but after reading both of these sources I began to realize that sounds are heard differently in my daily life based on the room, such as music in the shower/bathroom versus the same song played on the same device outside. Barry Blesser and Linda-Ruth Salter support Byrne’s ideas of acoustics in their piece “Ancient Acoustics Spaces”, and even trace these ideas as far back as 1500 BC, when the Mayans perfected the acoustics of The Great Ball Court. Upon further examination, it is evident that these principles are common in several other ancient civilizations. The idea of a space transforming how one hears a sound is hard to grasp at first, but these societies knew this to be true long before technology could prove it. Sound waves bounce off of structures, walls, and objects in a space before reaching the ears of a listener, which makes each sound unique when played/produced in a unique space.
