Listen: The Sound Of The Hagia Sophia, More Than 500 Years Ago

[Mme. Defarge]

https://www.npr.org/2020/02/22/808404928/listen-the-sound-of-the-hagia-sophia-more-than-500-years-ago

https://cappellaromana.org/lostvoices/

[Alex4Martinez]

1. Fascinating!

Highly recommended!

[Nevilledog]

2. I really enjoyed that. Thank you.

[wendyb-NC]

3. Incredible acoustics. What a haunting, ethereal wave of voices.

[Aristus]

4. That sound is just astonishing. Ethereal; even surreal...

I'm going to get that album from iTunes...

[Mme. Defarge]

6. I am so deeply gratified!

I served as Board President for this extraordinary vocal ensemble when the recording was made. Hoping it will be recognized at next year’s Grammy Awards.

[Aristus]

9. Well done!

It's extraordinary music.

It's true. Acoustics are everything. The studio recording of the chant was flat and uninspiring. Once the Hagia Sophia sound filter was laid over it, it sounded celestial...

[Hekate]

15. What a wonderful project to be involved with

I’ll listen tomorrow (hubby’s asleep now) and explore the link further.

Do I understand correctly that there is both a CD and a DVD? I am a lifelong lover of ancient music.

[Mme. Defarge]

36. There is a Blu-ray disc available.

[regnaD kciN]

17. Just ordered the CD/Blu-Ray combo...

Looking forward to hearing it in high-resolution surround sound.

[Mme. Defarge]

37. Merci milles fois!

So thrilled to introduce you to this transcendent music.

[Renew Deal]

5. Weird timing for this since Turkey is trying to turn it into a mosque

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/hagia-sophia-world-council-of-churches-dismayed-turkish-president-converted-back-to-a-mosque/

[Mme. Defarge]

7. It's why I posted this in General Discussion.

That would be a crime against civilization. It must not stand.

[BlueMTexpat]

14. Hardly a "crime" against civilization!

More a reflection of centuries of different cultures!

Many sites of worship around the world have changed religious identities over the years. Most began millennia ago as what we "enlightened" ones refer to as "pagan" sites. Those that survive our generation will likely continue to evolve.

Perhaps one day we will be free of the limitations and prejudices of man-made religions entirely.

In Geneva, Switzerland near where I live, St. Peter's Cathedral is situated on a site once sacred to Celtic tribes, then to the Romans, then to Catholic Christians who built the Gothic Cathedral, and since the Reformation, to Calvinist Protestants. Underneath the Cathedral, once can still visit the remains of the ancient Roman basilica today. http://www.geneva.info/st-peters-cathedral/

Please celebrate the cultures these monuments represent: ALL of them. They represent human history.

[rusty fender]

16. If, as a mosque and not as

Last edited Sun Jul 12, 2020, 12:00 PM - Edit history (1)

a museum, how can nonmuslims celebrate Hagia Sophia’s architectural brilliance if they can’t get inside?

[BlueMTexpat]

19. Non-Muslims are allowed to visit

the Blue Mosque! https://theistanbulinsider.com/the-blue-mosque-one-of-the-most-famous-misunderstandings/

Why shouldn't they continue to visit the Hagia Sophia?

I have had the honor and privilege of visiting both. I hope to visit both again.

Despite that current idiot Erdogan, Turkey has long been a much better guardian of previous civilizations and religions than many "Christian" nations have.

[Amishman]

30. Because fundamentalists would likely make it effectively impossible

And Ergodan sure seems to want a theocracy.

Turkey's past tolerance counts for nothing in the face of the current regime and intolerant direction. Iran was rather moderate within living memory.

[regnaD kciN]

18. The whole point of Hagia Sophia being a museum is precisely to "celebrate all the cultures"...

Turning it into a mosque erases all but one culture. Much like the Calvinists did at St. Pierre when they stripped it of all its ornamentation and left it bare and empty (except for the one chapel that was restored).

[BlueMTexpat]

20. It doesn't sound as if the Hagia Sophia

will be closed to ANY person who wants to visit it.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-53375739

...
He [Erdogan] defended his decision on Friday by stressing that the country had exercised its sovereign right in converting the building back to a mosque. The first Muslim prayers would be held on 24 July.

"Like all our mosques, the doors of Hagia Sophia will be wide open to locals and foreigners, Muslims and non-Muslims," he said.

Today Turkey had "435 churches and synagogues open for worship", while "few buildings our ancestors built in Eastern Europe and Balkans stand today".
...

Erdogan, whom I despise, is playing to his ultra-religious base. Frankly, I hope that it backfires. He's taking a LOT of global heat for it.

Even he is smart enough NOT to destroy the appeal of one of the architectural wonders of the world to global tourism.

If the Turks did not destroy it before -which they didn't - I seriously doubt that there will be any looting, etc. beyond that which took place centuries ago. Even then, it was left in much better shape than Calvinists left Saint-Peter's Cathedral. And certainly it is in much better shape than our "Christian" ancestors left mosques built in Europe by Turks.

[CTyankee]

26. As an art historian, I have to agree with you on this. I have studied the predations visited upon

the Ghent Altarpiece and feel happy that it is now safe and I would like to feel the same about the Hagia Sophia.

Because of the doings of the Trump administration, Turkey has joined with the EU to deny me and any other Americans entrance to the country. So whatever Turkey did then or now is moot for us, if we would want to visit there.

[BlueMTexpat]

28. I truly hope that the policy will change.

I also have the slight advantage of a residence permit in the Schengen Zone, so I may fit into an exception to the policy. Fingers crossed!

The Hagia Sophia was already a mosque from 1453-1935. I firmly doubt that much will change today.

[jcmaine72]

24. Do you feel this way about Mt Rushmore as well?

"More a reflection of centuries of different cultures!"

[BlueMTexpat]

27. Mount Rushmore is NOT a building.

Nor are the defacements there representative of another religion.

********
Note: I am against Erdogan's policy wrt the Hagia Sophia. But the Hagia Sophia already functioned as a mosque from 1453-1935. There is little to no "conversion" that will take place today. Moreover, it will still be open to anyone who wishes to visit it.

What really will change other than its religious label? That could and likely will change again someday. I am agnostic myself. One man-made religion means as little to me as any other one.

People also need to check history a little more.

[jcmaine72]

31. Does it really matter if it's a building or not?

Seizing the holy site of another culture by force and defacing it, whether such a site has four walls and a ceiling over it or is a collection mountains, should be contemptible whether the symbols of that defacement represent another religion or a civic cult.

[BlueMTexpat]

32. The fact that I mentioned

"defacement" should tell you how I think about it.

Enough.

[marybourg]

10. Back into a mosque.

[BlueMTexpat]

29. Thank you!

[peggysue2]

8. The sound is amazing

You can imagine being in that space with the light and those voices reverberating around you, through you. Definitely otherworldly in nature and immensely beautiful.

[chowder66]

11. Stunning.

[Warpy]

12. A lot of music was written for specific building acoustics

"Glory of Gabrielli" is on You Tube, I think I wore out 3 vinyl albums. It was recorded with the traditional separated choirs, some pieces with period instruments and some with modern, in the Basilica Cattedrale Patriarcale di San Marco in Venice. The sleeve notes were hilarious, apparently numerous takes of everything were needed to avoid car horns, airplanes, and drunks in the street intruding into the music. There was also snark about how the church rented her body but not her heart.

The sleeve notes are missing at You Tube, but the rest of the album is there. It needs to be played loud. You won't regret the experience.

Gabrielli always sounds a little flat in regular orchestra/choral formats. Even distributing the chorus around the auditorium helps little. His music really needs the echo to be heard properly.

[denbot]

13. Umm, click bait?

I tried to forward to a section that I could listen to the singing without the voice over.

Did I miss a link?

[Lucinda]

40. It's in there

The clip is mostly the discussion, but you can gauge location of the samples by estimating from the transcript

[MineralMan]

21. While in the USAF in the late 1960s, I was stationed

at a base in Samsun, Turkey. I spent one night in Istanbul on my way there. I saw the Hagia Sofia, but did not visit it. It's an impressive building, to be sure. I did learn a bit about its history while in Turkey, and that it had been a mosque before Kemal Ataturk secularized Turkey, at least in principle.

Now, it's going to return to being a mosque, which it has been in previous times, although it was originally built as a Christian church. I am indifferent about that decision, frankly. Turkey is a majority Muslim country, and I figure it can decide for itself what to do with its historic edifices.

My 15 months in Turkey, at age 20 and 21, were my first introduction to a society that was not like the society I grew up in. I found that fascinating, not threatening.

Islam is one of the world's most prominent religions. As an atheist, I pay little attention to religious beliefs, but I don't believe that any religion is better or worse than any other. All are based on beliefs that predate science. All are irrelevant to me.

If Turkey wants the Hagia Sophia to be a mosque once again, that is Turkey's business, it seems to me.

[Mme. Defarge]

39. I, too, lived in a Muslim country when I was 21

and had a brief career as a nightclub singer at the Hotel Mamounia in Marrakech. Even rode on the Marrakech Express back in the day.

[MineralMan]

42. Love it!

[dickthegrouch]

22. How wonderful

My passion is early music and I might never have heard this without the thread.
Thank you.

[Mme. Defarge]

23. Avec plaisir!

[jcmaine72]

25. Haunting and beautiful n/t

[lunatica]

33. Oh my goodness!

And back then there was no other way to hear those sounds the way we have now. It must have been an experience so unique and amazing that they must have believed they were hearing truly celestial music.

That balloon popping is out of this world too!

[Mme. Defarge]

38. Utterly fascinating

n’est ce pas?

I f’ing love science!

[Aristus]

34. I downloaded it yesterday, and have been listening to it all day at work.

It's absolutely entrancing. Gregorian chants are serene and soothing. But this music is ethereal, otherworldly, and even a little spooky. I love it!

[Mme. Defarge]

35. I sincerely hope you will explore

the work of Dr. Alexander Lingas and the other recordings of Cappella Romana. It’s music to levitate by.

[Lucinda]

41. KNR

❤️ ~❧~✿~❧~✿~❧~✿~❧~✿~❧~✿~ ❤️

[Peacetrain]

43. Oh my God.. literally.. the difference between the studio

and the hagia sophia.. is breathtaking... the echoing of the voices back and forth... loved the balloon popping experiment.. an explosion thank you Mme. Defarge for sharing..

[Mme. Defarge]

44. I think it's something like

a 10 or 11 second decay.