Two scholars at Stanford University have joined forces to recreate what a Christian choir might have sounded like inside Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia before it became a mosque in the 1400s. Bissera Pentcheva, Professor of Art History, and Jonathan Abel is Consulting Professor at the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics.
Pentcheva’s work is focused on reanimating medieval art and architecture, Abel studies the analysis, synthesis and processing of sound.
When the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul was built in the 6th century, it was the largest building in the world, an engineering marvel. And the unique acoustics inside inspired composers to write 10 centuries worth of religious music specifically to be sung there. Then the Ottoman Empire invaded in 1453, and the Hagia Sophia became a mosque. Choral music was banned, even the music of BJ Leiderman, who writes our theme music. And the sound of the Hagia Sophia was forgotten until now.
Sam Harnett of The World According to Sound podcast has the story. The podcast transcript via NPR.
This 13th century Byzantine chant is being sung by Cappella Romana, a choir from Portland, Ore. This is what they sound like in a studio.
Now imagine – it’s the early 13th century. You’re sitting inside the Hagia Sophia. Marble pillars rise up around you. Dusty light filters into the windows in the massive dome above. And this is how you might hear Cappella Romana.
This transformation is possible because of two scholars at Stanford University in two very different fields. Bissera Pentcheva is a professor of art history.
When the two scholars met, Pentcheva started telling Abel about the Hagia Sophia – how we couldn’t really understand the experience of worshipers there unless we could hear the music the way they did. And as she talked, Abel started to feel a prickling of excitement. They could recreate what that music would sound like. If only they could get in the Hagia Sophia and pop a balloon.
When a balloon pops, it makes an impulse, a sharp, quick sound that takes on the character of whatever space it’s in. So when a balloon pops, you’re really hearing the acoustics of the space itself, says Abel.
ABEL: The space interacts with the sound, bringing back to listeners information about the geometry, the size, the materials present, that sort of thing.
Pentcheva managed to get permission from the Hagia Sophia Musuem and spent there five days with all her equipment.
You can read more about the experiment here at NPR website incl the whole podcast and sound bites.
Capella Romana recently released an entire album with this filter called “The Lost Voices of Hagia Sophia.”
How could those people talk over that exquisite music and the film of sunlight streaming through the great dome of Hagia Sophia. Perhaps NPR did it. Most of those leftist people are not believers so they would not respect or understand what I am talking about.
Thanks to Keep Greece Talking for its interesting variety of articles.