Icons of Sound: Chant and Recitation in Hagia Sophia

"Icons of Sound" is a concept that allows us to think beyond the representational, mimetic image in Byzantium. The alternative is the methexic icon that partakes in the essence of the prototype. The Old Testament offers an example of such non-mimetic iconicity: Adam, who is called "eikōn tou Theou," when the Lord breathes in him, transforming his inert body made out of clay into a living being (Gen. 2:6). The interior of Hagia Sophia creates the conditions to experience this "eikōn tou Theou" as a spatial phenomenon that envelop the faithful. With its immense volume and reflective surfaces of marble and gold mosaics, Hagia Sophia produces extremely reverberant acoustics. Chant and recitation mobilize this wet sound to draw attention to breath and inspiriting which engender methexic iconicity. This talk explores two manifestations of the methexic "eikōn tou Theou." The first example focuses on the interaction of sound and light in the interior of the Great Church. The second explores how the melodic design of the chants and the structure of recitations which make the reverberation the focus of perception. Here the emphasis will be on the use of melismas (singing many notes to a syllable) in the liturgical chants and the integration of long pauses in the recitation of the Gospel texts that together draw attention to reverberation: the gradual dissipation of residual sonic energy below the threshold of human audibility.