Soundscapes of Byzantium

Soundscapes of Byzantium By S p y r i d o n A n t o n o p o u l o s , S h a r o n E . J . G e r s t e l , Chris Kyriakakis, Konstantinos T. Raptis, and James Donahue Soundscapes of Byzantium is an international collaborative effort that seeks to investigate Byzantine liturgical spaces through the scientific analysis of acoustics in conjunction with the study of changing architectural forms, the documentation of imagery inspired by choral performance and hymn composition, and the transcription and recording of medieval chant. In June 2014, an interdisciplinary team of scholars studied eight of medieval Thessaloniki’s most significant churches in order to assess the relationship of architectural design and acoustics; the association of chant, acoustics, architecture, and monumental painting; and the role of sound in the experience of the medieval worshipper.1 The project team, led by Sharon Gerstel (art history and archaeology) and Chris Kyriakakis (electrical engineering), includes specialists from a variety of fields: Spyridon Antonopoulos (musicology and performance), James Donahue (music production and engineering), and Konstantinos Raptis (architecture and archaeology).2 Performers involved in the project include Nektarios Antoniou, Fr. Spyridon Antoniou, Dimos Papatzalakis, and several other local chanters, both lay and monastic.3 The Byzantine Liturgy: “Heaven on Earth” According to the theological tradition that dominated Byzantine thought, liturgy is a concelebration of the earthly and heavenly realms, and the physical church was the locus of this cosmic intermingling. This mystagogical interpretation of worship is attested as early as late antiquity. John Chrysostom (d. 407) refers to the church edifice as “the place of the angels, of the archangels, the Kingdom of God, heaven itself”;4 while the liturgical commentator Germanus of Constantinople (d. 733) re- 1 The initial phase of this project was funded by a University of California, Los Angeles, OVCRCOR Transdisciplinary Seed Grant. We are grateful to the Metropolitan of Thessaloniki, Anthimos, and to the Central Archaeological Council for facilitating study of the city’s churches. 2 Amy Papalexandrou (Stockton University), was a participant in the project’s first year. The team was assisted by Vasilis Chourmouziades, a sound engineer from Thessaloniki. 3 We are grateful to Alexander Lingas for his advice on a liturgically appropriate repertoire for the team’s fieldwork. Performers included George Antoniou, Nektarios Antoniou, Fr. Spyridon Antoniou, Spyridon Antonopoulos, Symeon Kanakis, Fr. Romanos Kenanides, Dimos Papatzalakis, Demetrios Papavarnavas, George Sarilis, and Fr. Ioannis Theodosiadis. 4 Bishop Kallistos of Diokleia, “The Meaning of the Divine Liturgy for the Byzantine Worshipper,” in Church and People in Byzantium, ed. Rosemary Morris (Birmingham, UK, 1986), 9. Speculum 92/S1 (October 2017). © 2017 by the Medieval Academy of America. All rights reserved. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0), which permits non-commercial reuse of the work with attribution. For commercial use, contact [email protected]. DOI: 10.1086/693378, 0038-7134/2017/92S1-0013$10.00. This content downloaded from 045.077.003.050 on October 16, 2017 10:51:34 AM All use subject to University of Chicago Press Terms and Conditions (http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/t-and-c). S322 Soundscapes of Byzantium fers to the church as “an earthly heaven.”5 Music played a particularly salient role in the context of this cosmic concelebration. In his commentary on the sack of Thessaloniki in 904, the church official John Kaminiates, who was probably a liturgical singer in the city’s cathedral, Hagia Sophia, expresses the view that humans and angels were not just worshipping together on an existential plane, but actually singing with one another during the liturgy.6 In the fifteenth century, this view prevails in the writings of the prolific liturgical commentator and last archbishop of Thessaloniki, Symeon (d. 1429), who promotes an interpretation of the holy temple as holding “the place of the heavens and the paradise of Eden,”7 while the movement of clergy and singing of cantors reveal the unity of humans and angels in the celebration of the liturgy.8 These and other observations about the intermingling of human and angelic voices are not just metaphorical observations but, as Sharon Gerstel notes, “accurate perceptions of the movement of sound” within the various churches studied as part of Soundscapes of Byzantium. “Rising in pitch and alternating between soloist and choir, sound travels to the upper reaches of the building, rising from the floor to the dome and cascading downward, creating the impression that voices emanated from both heaven and earth, mingling in the center of the nave harmoniously and seamlessly.”9 One objective of this project was to test ideas about the mingling of heavenly and human voices from a scientific perspective: what were the acoustical attributes of the various buildings in question that resulted in this perception of voices from above and below mixing together, complementing the robust mystical theology articulated above? Furthermore, how did sound interact with images and the physical trappings of liturgical worship? Thessaloniki in the Late Byzantine Period Thessaloniki provides an ideal laboratory for acoustical testing since the city’s Byzantine monuments, dating from the fifth through fifteenth century, present a wide variety of architectural forms and decorative strategies, from longitudinal basilicas designed to serve the civic population, to centrally planned, monastic katholika.10 We are able therefore to consider how changes in architecture and monumental decoration may coincide with changes in liturgical celebration and musical composi- 5 Saint Germanus of Constantinople, On the Divine Liturgy, trans. Paul Meyendorff (Crestwood, NY, 1984), 56–57. 6 Alexander Lingas, “Sunday Matins in the Cathedral Rite: Music and Liturgy,” (PhD diss., University of British Columbia, 1996), 178–83. 7 PG 155:708. 8 PG 155:720–21 (Symeon’s commentary on the movement of the clergy at the Small Entrance and the singing of the Trisagion hymn). 9 Sharon E. J. Gerstel, “Monastic Soundspaces in Late Byzantium: The Art and Act of Chanting,” in Resounding Images: Medieval Intersections of Art, Music, and Sound, ed. Susan Boynton and Diane J. Reilly (Turnhout, 2015), 135–52, at 139. 10 For an overview of Byzantine Thessaloniki and its monuments, see Eutychia KourkoutidouNikolaïdou and Anastasia Tourta, Wandering in Byzantine Thessaloniki (Thessaloniki, 1997); and Anastasia Tourta, “Thessalonike,” in Heaven and Earth: Cities and Countryside in Byzantine Greece (Athens, 2013), 75–93. Speculum 92/S1 (October 2017) This content downloaded from 045.077.003.050 on October 16, 2017 10:51:34 AM All use subject to University of Chicago Press Terms and Conditions (http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/t-and-c). Soundscapes of Byzantium S323 tion. The project focused especially on the late Byzantine period, a time of sweeping liturgical changes in the Byzantine sphere. Although the cathedral rite, also known as the ecclesiastes, demonstrated more resilience in Thessaloniki than it did in Constantinople, lasting in the former city’s Hagia Sophia until the Ottoman conquest in 1430, the majority of churches in Thessaloniki were celebrating the ascendant rite of Jerusalem by the late Byzantine period.11 The Jerusalem rite was replete with dozens of sung texts for each day of the liturgical year, featuring narrative accounts of scriptural events, lives of saints, or personalized contemplation on the state of the individual soul.12 This movement away from allegory and towards literalism in hymn composition seems to be reflected in the architecture, art, and even music of late Byzantium. During this period, a confluence of factors seems to elevate the importance of sound and music in Byzantine worship. Representations of anonymous singers, saintly composers, and even of liturgical hymns appear in monumental paintings in the city, while architectural features were designed to enhance the acoustical properties of the churches and expand the number of spaces that could accommodate chanted ceremonies. These developments reflect a heightened consciousness of the music and sounds that adorned the liturgical services. The most direct witnesses to changes in the conception (and experience) of sound and music are the musical manuscripts. Around the mid- to late thirteenth century, a new species of elaborate, highly personalized chant appears in the sources alongside older, traditional melodies. This was kalophonia (literally, “beautiful sound”), an embellished style of psalmody enabled by a new notational technology that was precise enough to serve the expressive needs of a cadre of composers who operated in the urban and monastic centers of late Byzantium, especially Constantinople and Thessaloniki. Kalophonic chant was florid and virtuosic and tended towards abstraction. Composers took great liberties in reshaping older melodies, composing virtuosic melodic lines while manipulating the proper texts of the Divine Offices to serve their expressive needs. In some cases, nonsemantic syllables were employed as the textual elements of entire compositions. One of the central questions of this research project is concerned with kalophonic chant and changes in Byzantine architectural forms, which seem to correspond chronologically. The Churches and Acoustical Measurement The eight selected churches, ranging in date from the fifth through the fourteenth centuries, retained, to a large extent, their original form and decoration.13 The three earliest include the church of the Acheiropoietos, a timber-roofed basilica of the late fifth or early sixth century;14 Hagia Sophia, a cross-domed church of the second half 11 Robert Taft calls this liturgical rite—which became the rite of “World Orthodoxy”—the “NeoSabaïtic” rite in The Byzantine Rite: A Short History (Collegeville, MN, 1992). 12 See, for example, Derek Krueger, Liturgical Subjects: Christian Ritual, Biblical Narrative, and the Formation of the Self in Byzantium (Philadelphia, 2014). 13 For earlier acoustical measurements in these churches, see Emmanuel Tzekakis, “Data on the Acoustics of the Byzantine Churches of Thessaloniki,” Acustica 43 (1979): 275–79. 14 For a recent summary of the history of the monument, see Christina Papakyriakou, “Acheiropoietos,” in Impressions: Byzantine Thessaloniki through the Photographs and Drawings of the Brit- Speculum 92/S1 (October 2017) This content downloaded from 045.077.003.050 on October 16, 2017 10:51:34 AM All use subject to University of Chicago Press Terms and Conditions (http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/t-and-c). S324 Soundscapes of Byzantium of the eighth century, marking the shift from early Byzantine basilicas to the later, centrally planned churches;15 and Panagia ton Chalkeon, a cross-in-square church dated by an inscription to 1028.16 The five late Byzantine churches tested, all dating to the fourteenth century, were built for monastic communities. The Churches of the Holy Apostles17 and Hagia Aikaterine (Saint Catherine)18 are both cross-in-square churches with ambulatories and domed bays. Prophetes Elias features an Athonite triconch plan, characterized by lateral apses (choroi), an expanded narthex (lite), and a gallery-level west chamber.19 Saint Nicholas Orphanos, a small, timber-roofed basilica, was remodeled into a single nave surrounded on three sides by an ambula- ish School at Athens (1988–1910), ed. Aristoteles Mentzos (Thessaloniki, 2012), 64–81. The dating is based on Konstantinos T. Raptis, “Αveiqοpοίgτος Verrakοmίjgς: Αqviτejτοmijή jai γktpτός diάjοrlος” (PhD diss., Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 2016). For the church’s monumental decoration, see Eutychia Kourkoutidou-Nikolaidou, “Acheiropoietos,” in Mosaics of Thessaloniki: 4th– 14th Century, ed. Charalambos Bakirtzis (Athens, 2012), 196–237; Benjamin Fourlas, Die Mosaiken der Acheiropoietos-Basilika in Thesssaloniki: Eine vergleichende Analyse dekorativer Mosaiken des 5. und 6. Jahrhunderts (Berlin, 2012); Konstantinos T. Raptis, “The Mural Decoration of Acheiropoietos Basilica Revisited,” in Niš and Byzantium 12 (2014): 101–14. 15 Marinos Kalligas, Die Hagia Sophia von Thessaloniki (Würzburg, 1935); Kalliopi Theocharidou, The Architecture of Hagia Sophia, Thessaloniki: From Its Εrection up to the Turkish Conquest, British Archaeological Reports International Series 399 (Oxford, 1988). For the date of its foundation, see Georgios Velenis, “H vqοmοkόγgrg τοt maού τgς Αγίaς Σο/ίaς Verrakοmίjgς lέra apό τa epiγqa/ijά dedοlέma,” in Hεjjalοnikέqn Pόliς—Crafές kai Phγές 6000 xrόnqn 3 (1997): 70–77. See also Aristoteles Mentzos, “Hagia Sophia,” in Mentzos, Impressions, 185–95. For the church’s monumental decoration, see Stylianos Pelekanides, “I mosaici di Santa Sofia di Salonicco,” in Corsi di cultura sull’arte ravennate e bizantina (1964): 337–49; Maria Panayiotidou, “H paqάrτarg τgς Αmάkgψgς rτοm τqούkο τgς Αγίaς Σο/ίaς Verrakοmίjgς: Εijοmογqa/ijά pqοbkήlaτa,” in Εpijτhmοnikή Εpετhrίς Pολuτεxnikής Rxολής Αrijτοτελείοu Panεpijτhmίοu Hεjjaλοnίkhς 7 (1974): 69–82; Robin Cormack, “The Apse Mosaics of S. Sophia at Thessaloniki,” in Dεlτίοn τhς Χrijτianikής Αrxaiοlογikής Ετairείaς 10 (1980–81): 111–35; Chrysanthe Mavropoulou-Tsioumi, “Hagia Sophia,” in Bakirtzis, Mosaics of Thessaloniki, 241–95. 16 Demetrios Evaggelidis, H Panaγίa τqn Χaλkέqn (Thessaloniki, 1954); Slobodan Ćurčić, Architecture in the Balkans from Diocletian to Süleyman the Magnificent (New Haven, 2010), 371–73; Melina Paisidou, “Panagia ton Chalkeon,” in Mentzos, Impressions, 127–35. For the church’s monumental decoration, see Andreas Xyngopoulos, “Αi apοkerhήrai τοivογqa/ίai τgς Pamaγίaς τxm Χakjέxm Verrakοmίjgς,” Makedonika 4 (1956–60): 1–19; Xyngopoulos, “Ai τοivογqa/ίai τοt Αjahίrτοt eiς τgm Pamaγίam τxm Χakjέxm Verrakοmίjgς,” Dελτίοn τhς Χrijτianikής Αrxaiολογikής Ετairείaς 7 (1974): 61–77; Anna Tsitouridou, “Die Grabkonzeption des ikonographischen Programms der Kirche Panagia Chalkeon in Thessaloniki,” in Akten des XVI. Internationalen Byzantinistenkongresses, 2/5; Jahrbuch der Österreichischen Byzantinistik 32/5 (1981): 435–41. 17 Georgios Velenis, “Οi Άγiοi Αpόrτοkοi Verrakοmίjgς jai g rvοkή τgς Κxmrτamτimούpοkgς,” in Akten des XVI. Internationalen Byzantinistenkongresses, 2/4; Jahrbuch der Österreichischen Byzantinistik 32/4 (1981): 457–67; Marcus L. Rautman, “The Church of the Holy Apostles in Thessaloniki” (PhD diss., Indiana University, 1984). For a recent summary of the history of the monument, see Paschalis Androudis, “Hagioi Apostoloi,” in Mentzos, Impressions, 147–57 (with earlier bibliography). For the church’s monumental decoration, see Andreas Xyngopoulos, H ψhfidqτή diakόjmhjiς τοu naού τqn Αγίqn Αpοjτόλqn Hεjjalοnίkhς (Thessaloniki, 1953); Chrysanthe Mavropoulou-Tsioumi, “Hagioi Apostoloi,” in Bakirtzis, Mosaics of Thessaloniki, 299–353. 18 Evangelia Hadjitryphonos, “The Church of St. Catherine in Thessalonike: Its Topographical Settings and the Current State of Scholarship,” Byzantinische Zeitschrift 108 (2015): 673–714; Athanasios Semoglou, “Hagia Aikaterine,” in Mentzos, Impressions, 159–65. 19 Anastasios Tantsis, “Prophetes Elias,” in Mentzos, Impressions, 185–95 (with earlier bibliography). Speculum 92/S1 (October 2017) This content downloaded from 045.077.003.050 on October 16, 2017 10:51:34 AM All use subject to University of Chicago Press Terms and Conditions (http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/t-and-c). Soundscapes of Byzantium S325 tory.20 The Church of the Metamorphosis of the Savior is an inscribed tetraconch that can only hold a few people inside its walls.21 Within each church we measured impulse responses at multiple locations in order to study the spatial variations of the acoustical characteristics and to create filters (which can be used to render virtual performances) with the proper acoustical and perceptual cues, which are highly direction dependent. The churches were measured at the same time every day in order to ensure consistent testing based on temperature and humidity. Our acoustical measurements are based on the principle of system identification, by treating the loudspeaker-church combination as a linear time-invariant (LTI) system. LTI systems can be fully characterized by their impulse response. A known stimulus signal was reproduced over loudspeakers and recorded by microphones in the tested space.22 The stimulus signal consisted of an eight-second logarithmic sine sweep (from 20 Hz to 24 kHz) that was averaged multiple times per microphone location to mitigate the problems of background noise from the surrounding streets (Recording 1; Recordings 1–6 available in the version of this article online at https:// doi.org/10.1086/693378).23 One benefit of the logarithmic sweep is that its frequency spectrum more closely matches the loudness sensitivity of human hearing by placing increasingly more emphasis toward the low frequencies. Deconvolution of the measurements in each microphone produces an impulse response that can be analyzed to determine several acoustical parameters for the space, including reverberation time, clarity, definition, and early decay time. In each church, we varied the location of the loudspeakers to match the place of the chanters during various services. We also varied the location of the microphones to capture different listening perspectives in the church. In all cases, the measurements followed the ISO 3382 standard recommendation of maintaining a distance of one quarter wavelength (about one meter) from nearby reflecting surfaces, including the floor. Analysis of the measurements allows us to compare the churches to each other and, in the future, to those from other Byzantine cities and sites. In addition to analyzing data from the ground level of the church, testing in the Church of Prophetes Elias provided the opportunity to consider the soundscape of the chamber above the narthex (Fig. 1). Elevated spaces like this one may have been used as private chapels for important patrons,24 as contemplative settings in mon20 Andreas Xyngopoulos, Οi τοixογrafίες τοu Αγίοu Νikολάοu τοu Οrfanού Hεjjaλοnίkhς (Athens, 1964); Anna Tsitouridou, O zqγrafikός diάkοjmος τοu Αγίοu Νikολάοu Οrfanού jτh Hεjjaλοnίkh: Rumbολή jτh mελέτh τhς paλaiολόγεiaς zqγrafikής kaτά τοn prώimο 14ο aiώna (Thessaloniki, 1986); Charalambos Bakirtzis, ed., Ayios Nikolaos Orphanos: The Wall Paintings (Athens, 2003). 21 Eutychia Kourkoutidou-Nikolaidou, The Church of Christ the Saviour (Athens, 2008) (with earlier bibliography). 22 The loudspeakers were JBL EON 515 and were selected primarily because of their power-handling capability (test signals must be played at sound pressure levels above 100 dB to fully load the space). The microphones were Audyssey APM-1 (omnidirectional, one quarter inch) with a diffuse field calibration (grazing incidence). 23 The software used to perform the measurements was FuzzMeasure, on a MacBook Air with an MAudio ProFire 2626 8-channel sound card. The data was collected at a sampling rate of 48 kHz and a bit depth of 24 bits. 24 For the upper galleries in Byzantine architecture, see Anastasios Tantsis, “Το tpeqώο rτg btfamτimή maοdοlίa” (PhD diss., Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 2008). For the Βyzantine galler- Speculum 92/S1 (October 2017) This content downloaded from 045.077.003.050 on October 16, 2017 10:51:34 AM All use subject to University of Chicago Press Terms and Conditions (http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/t-and-c). S326 Soundscapes of Byzantium Fig. 1. Gallery Chamber over Narthex, Prophetes Elias. Photo: Soundscapes of Byzantium. asteries, or as small oratories devoted to saints venerated by specific communities or donors. The upper-level chamber communicates with the nave through an arched opening resting on two columns; the space is accessed by a narrow staircase hidden within the thickness of the wall. Today, there are no traces of Byzantine monumental painting in the gallery, which is whitewashed. We contrasted the frequency response in the gallery and below the dome of this church. As shown in Fig. 2, the gallery response, in red, starts to drop off below about 300 Hz and diminishes quite dramatically below 100 Hz compared to the response under the dome, in blue. The effect of the low-frequency drop-off made the sound in the gallery perceptually crisper and clearer than at ground level. This was also verified through a listening evaluation in the two locations. Is it possible that such elevated spaces were desirous not only because of the excellent optical view of the nave, but also because of the purity of the sound? Future studies will test the acoustics of ground level versus elevated spaces in order to investigate how they correlate with perceptual differences. The Churches and Chant Throughout the project acoustic testing was coupled with recording music that would have been sung in these churches, in order to bring us closer to the actual ies in Thessaloniki, see Anastasios Tantsis, “Βtfamτimά Υpeqώa rτg Verrakοmίjg,” Hεjjaλοnikέqn Pόλiς 10 (2003): 85–90. Speculum 92/S1 (October 2017) This content downloaded from 045.077.003.050 on October 16, 2017 10:51:34 AM All use subject to University of Chicago Press Terms and Conditions (http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/t-and-c). Soundscapes of Byzantium S327 Fig. 2. Frequency Responses in gallery (red) and under dome (blue), Prophetes Elias. Graph: Soundscapes of Byzantium. experience of medieval sound in these spaces. To that end, the singers rehearsed and recorded medieval chant transcribed from original sources into contemporary Byzantine notation; some of these works had not been sung before in the modern era.25 Despite the seemingly impenetrable gulf separating our modern research (“the score”) from the sounds of the medieval period, Middle Byzantine chant notation transmits enough information so that it is possible to produce transcriptions that reflect the melodic and rhythmic profile of these medieval melodies.26 It was also important to record chant from the “received repertory” of Byzantine chant, in other words, traditional Byzantine chant reworked or newly composed by contemporary Greek chanters, to help us understand any differences between these two repertories with respect to acoustics.27 The singers were recorded in solo performance, in antiphonal choirs, and, on one occasion in Hagia Sophia (Thessaloniki), accompanied by a children’s choir (Fig. 3). This, in particular, was a rare opportu25 Transcriptions and editions of medieval chants were made by Ioannis Arvanitis and Spyridon Antonopoulos. For the most part, transcriptions were based on a “short” reading of the neumes (that is, 1 neume 5 1 to 2 notes). 26 For the rhythmic transcription principles employed, see Ioannis Arvanitis, “Ο Ρthlός τxm Εjjkgriarτijώm Μekώm lέra apό τg Pakaiογqa/ijή Έqetma jai τgm Εnήγgrg τgς Pakaiάς Σgleiογqa/ίaς” (PhD diss., Ionian University, 2010). 27 It is an oversimplification to suggest that there is a “medieval style” and a “contemporary style” of Byzantine chant, for the thousand-year-long manuscript tradition of notated Byzantine psalmody confirms an unbroken tradition of transmission, composition, and pedagogy that is several layers deep and always evolving. Nevertheless, this binary division is a useful heuristic for speaking about the music recorded as part of this project. Speculum 92/S1 (October 2017) This content downloaded from 045.077.003.050 on October 16, 2017 10:51:34 AM All use subject to University of Chicago Press Terms and Conditions (http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/t-and-c). S328 Soundscapes of Byzantium Fig. 3. Treble Chorus (Schola Cantorum) and Chanters in Hagia Sophia, Thessaloniki. Photo: Soundscapes of Byzantium. nity to experiment with the treble voices that were an integral component of cathedral rite worship, whether they were those of the orphans’ choir in Constantinople or of the eunuch singer-composers who featured prominently in the corps of singers prior to the Fourth Crusade.28 Furthermore, the music was selected based on its appropriateness for the liturgical rite that would have been celebrated in each of the given churches, and the singers were recorded in sites where they likely would have stood in the Middle Ages as participants in those liturgical rites. At the Acheiropoietos basilica, we recorded Psalm 85, the first antiphon of vespers from the Constantinopolitan cathedral rite (celebrated there until at least the twelfth century)29 as well as the first antiphon of vespers from the later neo-Sabaïtic rite (the Anoixantaria). For the cathedral rite selection, the ten chanters assembled behind the original location of the sixthcentury high ambo, whose position, located between the sixth and eighth columns of the nave arcade, can be seen in an early twentieth-century photo (Figs. 4, 5; Rec- 28 For the choir in Byzantium, see Evangelia Spyrakou, Οi xοrοί ψaλτώn kaτά τh buzanτinή parάdοjh (Athens, 2008); and Neil K. Moran, Singers in Late Byzantine and Slavonic Painting (Leiden, 1986). 29 Cathedral rite vespers was transcribed by Ioannis Arvanitis from Athens, National Library, MS 2061, fols. 59v–61v, dated to 1393–1425 and one of the most important witnesses to cathedral rite psalmody. The first modern celebration of this reconstructed ecclesiastical service was sung by the Greek Byzantine Choir directed by the late Lycourgos Angelopoulos, at St Peter’s College, Oxford University, on 26 May 2001, based on a reconstruction by Alexander Lingas. Speculum 92/S1 (October 2017) This content downloaded from 045.077.003.050 on October 16, 2017 10:51:34 AM All use subject to University of Chicago Press Terms and Conditions (http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/t-and-c). Soundscapes of Byzantium S329 Fig. 4. Chanters behind position of tall ambo, Acheiropoietos Basilica, Thessaloniki. Photo: Soundscapes of Byzantium. ording 2).30 For the Anoixantaria (a quasi-kalophonic setting by the fifteenthcentury composer, Manuel Chrysaphes), the chanters divided into two choirs, standing opposite each other on the north and south sides of the nave to reflect the changing position of the choir in late Byzantium. Rubrics in the musical manuscripts called for antiphonal singing throughout the Anoixantaria until a dramatic finale in the last verse, during which the choirs are told to unify. In a church the size of Acheiropoietos, this unified singing by two separated choirs yielded a difficult challenge. It was only by means of highly demonstrative conducting motions that the choirs were able to sing in unison. On the other hand, listeners reported an otherworldly experience as they perceived being surrounded on all sides by the sound of rich, male voices (Recording 3). That Acheiropoietos was a favorable space from both singer and listener perspectives is reflected in the acoustical measurements, which showed it to have a long reverberation decay time. However, due to the size of the basilica, a choir of ten singers expending significant vocal energy was required to fill the space, which was not the case in the late Byzantine katholika. A comparison of two recordings of another hymn, a Cheroubikon composed in the kalophonic style by Manuel Chrysaphes, demonstrates the impact of space on the singers’ approach and the sound results achieved (Recordings 4, 5).The first version was recorded in Acheiropoietos with ten singers, whereas the second was recorded in the smallest domed church, the Church of the Savior, with only three singers. 30 The ambo originally measured 5.5–6.0 m in length. For the placement of the ambo, see Elias Petropoulos, Salonique: L’incendie de 1917 (Thessaloniki, 1980), 85; Raptis, “Αveiqοpοίgτος Verrakοmίjgς,” 194–96, 327–30, figures 101, 202. Speculum 92/S1 (October 2017) This content downloaded from 045.077.003.050 on October 16, 2017 10:51:34 AM All use subject to University of Chicago Press Terms and Conditions (http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/t-and-c). Fig. 5. Early- twentieth-century photo of Interior of Acheriopoietos Basilica with visible traces of ambo. Photo after Elias Petropoulos, Salonique: L’incendie de 1917 (Thessaloniki, 1980), 85. This content downloaded from 045.077.003.050 on October 16, 2017 10:51:34 AM All use subject to University of Chicago Press Terms and Conditions (http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/t-and-c). Soundscapes of Byzantium S331 The Churches and Sound Imagery Of critical importance to the project was the analysis of sound images, including figures of hymnographers carrying scrolls inscribed with chanted parts of the service. In Holy Apostles, for example, Cosmas the Poet, represented adjacent to the scene of the Dormition of the Virgin, extends a scroll inscribed with a hymn ̔ ̔ ieqà j(aì) et̓ jkeg̀ ς Paqhέme lmήlg rοt, text, “Pepοi[j]iklέmg τῇ heίaͅ dόnῃ, g pάmτaς [r]t[mgγάγeτο]” (Adorned with glory divine, O Virgin, is your most sacred and illustrious memorial, gathering the faithful all together), sung on the August 15 feast.31 In the Church of the Metamorphosis of the Savior, the figure of John of Damascus is represented on the lower register of the wall, holding a scroll inscribed ̓ mgqέhg g ̔ τtqammίς” (By your Crucifixion, O Christ, “Στatqxhέmτος rοt Χqirτέ, a tyranny was abolished), the opening words of a hymn sung on Wednesday and Friday mornings in monastic communities (Fig. 6).32 The inscription of hymn texts in churches increased in Byzantium from the late twelfth century;33 by the fourteenth century, hymn texts and depictions of hymnographers were commonly included in church decoration. In Thessaloniki, churches also contain representations of hymns, including the Akathistos and the so-called Christmas troparion, “Τì rοi pqοremέγjxlem Χqirτέ;” (What shall we offer you, O Christ?). It is possible, too, that the unusual compositions included in several of the city’s churches, like that of the martyrdom of Saint Demetrios represented in the Holy Apostles (Fig. 7),34 may parallel new hymn compositions of the period. For example, the fourteenthcentury composer Manuel Plagitis, first cantor (protopsaltes) of Hagia Sophia Thessaloniki, composed kalophonic heirmoi for the feast of Saint Demetrios, a fact that reflects the importance of the city’s patron, since kalophonic heirmoi were composed otherwise only for the three highest feast days of the liturgical year, Christmas, Easter, and the Annunciation.35 As part of the team’s acoustical exploration, we conducted 31 Andreas Xyngopoulos, H ψhfidqτή diakόjmhjiς τοu naού τqn Αγίqn Αpοjτόλqn Hεjjaλοnίkhς (Thessaloniki, 1953), 49–50. 32 Gerstel, “Monastic Soundspaces,” 149. 33 Among others, see André Grabar, “Les images des poètes et des illustrations dans leurs oeuvres et dans la peinture Byzantine tardive,” Zograf 10 (1979): 13‒16; Gordana Babić, “Les moines-poètes dans l’église de la Mère de Dieu à Studenica,” Studenica et l’art byzantin autour de l’année 1200 (Belgrade, 1988), 205–16; Nancy Ševčenko, “The Five Hymnographers at Nerezi,” Paleoslavica 10 (2002): 55–68; Elka Bakalova, “Hymnography and Iconography: Images of Hymnographers in Twelfth- and Thirteenth-Century Paintings in Bulgaria,” in Ritual and Art: Byzantine Essays for Christopher Walter, ed. Pamela Armstrong (London, 2006), 246–73. 34 Andreas Xyngopoulos, “Η τοivογqa/ίa τοt laqτtqίοt τοt aγίοt Dglgτqίοt eiς τοtς Αγίοtς Αpοrτόkοtς Verrakοmίjgς,” Dελτίοn τhς Χrijτianikής Αrxaiολογikής Ετairείaς 8 (1975–76): 61–77. 35 The kalophonic heirmoi to Saint Demetrios are notated in the mid-fifteenth century manuscript Mount Athos, Iviron, MS 1120 (fols. 631v–636r); and in Mount Athos, Laura, MS I 185 (likely from the first three decades of the fifteenth century). Prior to these compositions, an inscription on fol. 189r of the latter source reads, “canon to the great martyr Saint Demetrios the myrrh-streaming, poem of Konstantinos Porphyrogennitos, composed by the protopsaltes of Thessaloniki, Manuel Plagiates, second mode, Come, O ye people.” For the dating of Laura I 185, see Spyridon Lauriotes and Sophronios Eustratiades, Catalogue of the Greek Manuscripts in the Library of the Laura on the Mount Athos, with Notices from Other Libraries (Cambridge, MA, 1925; rep., New York, 1969), 211. For an updated entry on Manuel Plagites, see Ioannes Liakos, Η Βuzanτinή Parάdοjh τhς Hεjjaλοnίkhς kaτά τοn ΙD0 –ΙΕ0 Αiώna (Athens, 2007), 117–20. Speculum 92/S1 (October 2017) This content downloaded from 045.077.003.050 on October 16, 2017 10:51:34 AM All use subject to University of Chicago Press Terms and Conditions (http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/t-and-c). Fig. 6. St. John of Damascus, Church of the Metamorphosis of the Savior (Soteraki), Thessaloniki. Photo: Soundscapes of Byzantium. This content downloaded from 045.077.003.050 on October 16, 2017 10:51:34 AM All use subject to University of Chicago Press Terms and Conditions (http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/t-and-c). Soundscapes of Byzantium S333 Fig. 7. Martyrdom of St. Demetrios, Narthex, Church of Holy Apostles, Thessaloniki. Photo: Soundscapes of Byzantium. measurements in front of some of these representations of hymns to see if they were painted in spaces that were enhanced for sound. Based on our testing, it appears that audience sound reception might have been a consideration in the placement of images connected to chanting. Cautionary Tales Projects measuring soundscapes must consider changes made to buildings over time and the effect of those changes on acoustics. Careful attention was paid to issues of sound in the construction and design of Holy Apostles, a lavish church originally dedicated to the Virgin Mary. As it is one of the most elegant and proportionally harmonious buildings in the city, we had expected the church to provide an exceptional sound space. Acoustical testing, however, revealed Holy Apostles to be a “dry” space—a term used to characterize a building with low reverberation time (Recording 6). The scientific findings confirm the effects of substantive alterations that were made to the church from the time of its initial construction and use. In its original form, the nave was accessed through three portals. In the Ottoman period, however, the four blind arches that lined the nave were pierced to create additional portals, destroying wall paintings in order to forge a space with an integrated ambulatory and nave (Fig. 8). Moreover, in its original, fourteenth-century form, the three portals of the nave had wooden doors that would have been shut during the service. The original sonics in this enclosed space must have been impressive. It is important to note that changes in decoration—for example, the loss of tesserae from the mosaics that sheathed the interior of the nave—also have an effect on the modern-day acoustics of the building. The Byzantines were careful to cover the walls and floors of Speculum 92/S1 (October 2017) This content downloaded from 045.077.003.050 on October 16, 2017 10:51:34 AM All use subject to University of Chicago Press Terms and Conditions (http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/t-and-c). S334 Soundscapes of Byzantium Fig. 8. Military Saints with Ottoman portal, Church of Holy Apostles, Thessaloniki. Photo: Soundscapes of Byzantium. their churches with highly reflective materials—marble, ceramic tiles, mosaic, and polished plaster. These signature decorative media had an important effect on sound, increasing the early reflections of voices and resulting in increased reverberation overall. Case studies of church acoustics must account for what is missing as well as record what is present. Conclusions Soundscapes of Byzantium takes as its starting point the view that the churches, monumental art, and musical manuscripts of the medieval period in the Byzantine East are cultural artifacts that can be fully understood only if we account for their performative function in the context of worship, which was, according to the Byzantines themselves, a profoundly embodied, multisensory experience. Our interdisciplinary approach looks beyond the early Byzantine timber-roofed basilica as an empty floor plan and contemplates instead how its interior was filled with reflected light, the smoke and scent of incense, and the undulating waves of sound emanating from choirs of singers, punctuated by the movement of clerics through the space and the bustling of crowds of congregants. It sees in the frescoes above an apse not just figures that would have been visible, but figures—both human and angelic—that would have been perceived to be in communion with the singers and congregants during the performance of a musical composition within the context of a service. Speculum 92/S1 (October 2017) This content downloaded from 045.077.003.050 on October 16, 2017 10:51:34 AM All use subject to University of Chicago Press Terms and Conditions (http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/t-and-c). Soundscapes of Byzantium S335 This is an auspicious time for collaboration between the humanities and digital technologies. By capturing impulse responses from the churches of Byzantium, we preserve the acoustical signature of every building. Using anechoic recordings, we can process chant through the captured impulses to recreate sounds that one would have heard in those structures. Additionally, we can begin to compare spaces crossculturally, in an attempt to understand how certain types of voices and compositions may have been shaped by specific forms of architecture and acoustical effects. Our ultimate goal in assembling an archive of acoustical signatures is to create an “acoustical museum,” which preserves the sound of spaces, both of the past and of the present. This preservation of a multisensory past will pass on experiences as well as the soundscapes of monuments to future generations. Spyridon Antonopoulos, University of London ([email protected]) Sharon E. J. Gerstel, University of California, Los Angeles ([email protected]) Chris Kyriakakis, University of Southern California ([email protected]) Konstantinos T. Raptis, Ephorate of Antiquities of Thessaloniki (raptis.constantinos@gmail .com) James Donahue, Berklee College of Music ([email protected]) Speculum 92/S1 (October 2017) This content downloaded from 045.077.003.050 on October 16, 2017 10:51:34 AM All use subject to University of Chicago Press Terms and Conditions (http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/t-and-c).