Work Type
Article
Publication Date
2021
Department
Music Production and Engineering (MP&E)
Abstract
Were Byzantine writings about the intermingling of human and angelic voices within ecclesiastical settings merely reflections of mystical theology, or were they actual observations about the movement of sound? Focusing on Thessaloniki, we consider how Byzantine writers described the voices of angels, how certain chants in the divine services animated the voices of celestial beings, and how and where painters represented angels, particularly within the city’s monastic churches. We then turn to the study of the acoustical property of reverberation in eight Byzantine churches in the city in order to investigate whether undefined voices heard by subjective listening could be documented by objective, scientific testing.
Recommended Citation
Gerstel, Sharon E.J.; Kyriakakis, Chris; Antonopoulos, Spyridon; Raptis, Konstantinos T.; and Donahue, James, "Holy, Holy, Holy: Hearing the Voices of Angels" (2021). Faculty Works.
https://remix.berklee.edu/faculty-works/77
Comments
This article is being made available in this repository under a CC BY-NC 4.0 license in compliance with University of Chicago Press policy. This article's copyright is owned by by the International Center of Medieval Art, and was first published by the organization in Volume 60, No.1 of the journal Gesta.