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Hagia Sophia:

Sound, Space, and Spirit in Byzantium

ISBN-13: 9780271077260
Publisher: PENN STATE UNIVERSITY PRESS
Imprint: PENN STATE UNIVERSITY PRESS
By Bissera V. Pentcheva
Price: AUD $75.99
Stock: 11 in stock
Availability: Order will be despatched as soon as possible.
Local release date: 14/12/2018
Format: Paperback (254.00mm X 178.00mm) 304 pages Weight: 907g
Categories: linguistics [CF]

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Table of Contents

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Experiencing the resonant acoustics of the church of Hagia Sophia allowed the Byzantine participants in its liturgical rituals to be filled with the Spirit of God, and even to become his image on earth.

Bissera Pentcheva's vibrant analysis examines how these sung rites combined with the church's architectural space to make Hagia Sophia a performative place of worship representative of Byzantine religious culture in all its sensory richness. Coupling digital acoustic models and video with a close examination of liturgical texts and melodic structures, Pentcheva applies art-historical, philosophical, archeoacoustical, and anthropological methodologies to provide insight into the complementary ways liturgy and location worked to animate worshippers in Byzantium. Rather than focus on the architectural form of the building, the technology of its construction, or the political ideology of its decoration, Pentcheva delves into the performativity of Hagia Sophia and explains how the "icons of sound" created by the sung liturgy and architectural reverberation formed an aural experience that led to mystical transcendence for worshippers, opening access to the imagined celestial sound of the angelic choirs.

Immersive, deeply researched, and beautifully illustrated, this exploration of Hagia Sophia sheds new light on sacred space, iconicity, and religious devotion in Byzantium. Scholars of art and architectural history, religious studies, music and acoustics, and the medieval period will especially appreciate Pentcheva's field-advancing work.

Contents

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1 Sophia and Choros: The Making of Sacred Space in Byzantium

2 Inspiriting in the Byzantine Consecration (Kathierōsis) Rite

3 Icons of Breath

4 Aural Architecture

5 Material Flux: Marble, Water, and Chant

6 The Horizontal Mirror and the Poetics of the Imaginary

7 Empathy and the Making of Art in Byzantium

Conclusion

Notes

Bibliography

Index

“In this forceful study we come to understand how sound and image come alive in architecture. Hagia Sophia does important work in paving the way towards a multisensorial analysis of architecture that does not prioritize or privilege one sense over another nor flatten distinctions between the senses.”

—Emanuela Vai, Art History

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Hagia Sophia:

Sound, Space, and Spirit in Byzantium