Aural Architecture in Byzantium: Music, Acoustics, and Ritual

Bissera V. Pentcheva is professor of medieval art at Stanford University, USA. She has published three books to date: Icons and Power: The Mother of God in Byzantium, The Sensual Icon: Space, Ritual, and the Senses in Byzantium, and Hagia Sophia: Sound, Space, and Spirit in Byzantium. Her articles on phenomenology and aesthetics of medieval art have appeared in the Art Bulletin, Gesta, Speculum, RES Journal of Anthropology and Aesthetics, Performance Research International, and Dumbarton Oaks Papers.

• Introduction Bissera V. Pentcheva 1. Aural Architecture in Jerusalem, Rome, Constantinople, and Alexandria Peter Jeffery 2. The Great Outdoors: Liturgical Encounters with the Early Medieval Armenian Church Christina Maranci 3. Byzantine Chant Notation: Written Documents in an Aural Tradition Christian Troelsgård 4. Understanding Liturgy in the Byzantine Liturgical Commentaries Walter D. Ray 5. Christ’s All-Seeing Eye in the DomeRavinder Binning 6. Transfigured: Mosaic and Liturgy at Nea Moni Lora Webb 7. We Who Musically Represent the Cherubim Laura Steenberge 8. Spatial Embodiment and Agency in Ekphraseis of Church Buildings Ruth Webb 9. The Acoustics of Hagia Sophia: A Scientific Approach to the Humanities and Sacred Space Wieslaw Woszczyk 10. Live Auralization of Cappella Romana at the Bing Concert Hall, Stanford University Jonathan S. Abel and Kurt Werner