Brandeis Magazine

Editor-in-Chief Laura Gardner
Photo Credit: Mike Lovett

Life is full of unexpected twists. Brian F.G. Katz ’90, a double-major in physics and philosophy, almost didn’t graduate from Brandeis after he failed an introductory French class. (The course he had hoped to take to fulfill the university’s language requirement — a hieroglyphics class — hadn’t been offered.) Fortunately, Katz was able to retake the French class and graduate on time.

In the years since, it’s safe to say that French class has come in very handy. Katz moved to France more than two decades ago, with a doctorate in acoustics, and joined Sorbonne University as a research director, studying historical soundscapes.

In another unexpected reverberation, when fire devastated Notre-Dame Cathedral in 2019, Katz’s lab was the only one in France that had captured a computer model of what the cathedral sounded like pre-conflagration. This data made it possible to compare the acoustics of the restored Notre-Dame with its earlier sonic self, and keep the sound of the reconstructed edifice as true as possible to that of the original building.

Katz and his team have also been able to digitally resurrect the sound within the cathedral to demonstrate how it evolved over the centuries, including showing how the structure itself likely gave rise to polyphony and, ultimately, Western music as we know it today.

This issue’s cover story (“The Sonic Soul of Notre-Dame”) takes you behind the scenes of this work.

I met Katz outside Notre-Dame on a warm, sunny afternoon last April. Pony-tailed, slightly sunburned, a messenger bag slung across his chest, he had walked over from his Sorbonne office. For the next couple of hours, both inside and outside the gleaming cathedral, he talked about his Brandeis experience, his fascination with sound, his pursuit of capturing various Notre-Dame soundscapes, his bonheur in France (“Life here is so much more humanistic,” he said).

Katz’s unique role in preserving and enlarging Notre-Dame’s acoustic legacy struck me as a lovely echo of how Brandeisians from every corner and background, with diverse skills and aspirations, apply their talents to repairing the world.

Here in Waltham, the Brandeis Magazine team also aims to make a positive impact on the world, especially the Brandeis community. With this in mind, we hope you will take our web-based survey about how and why you read the magazine. The survey, which will take about 10 minutes to complete, is hosted by the Council for Advancement and Support of Education, of which Brandeis is a member. To begin the survey, go to brandeis.edu/survey.

If you have any questions about the survey, please contact me at gardner@brandeis.edu. And thank you in advance for giving us your feedback. It will help us shape Brandeis Magazine to ensure we meet your needs.

Best,

Laura Gardner, P’12
Editor-in-Chief