From My Fantasy Writing Desk
I’m in the trimming and tightening stage of editing this manuscript (not my body). Cutting unnecessary paragraphs, collapsing two scenes into one and snipping out the extra words. Also, I’m fixing places where I allowed myself some fudging on plot, and I need to discipline myself into less convenient choices, ones that arise more fully from the characters. At this point those spots are fairly minor moments within particular scenes, not the “big” arc level actions. I’m chugging along, but I am very busy.
Archaeology I Enjoyed
Heavenly Music
Erdogan has turned Hagia Sophia from a museum back into the mosque that it was under Ottoman rule. That means much of this extraordinary building is covered over again—the mosaics and other artwork of its Christian origin. I’m glad I visited this place of historical wonder before this masking.
Not only do the drapes etc. create a visual loss but also an audible one. Bissera Pentcheva, an art historian at Stanford University and an expert in the burgeoning field of acoustic archaeology, has spent the past decade studying the building’s extravagantly reverberant acoustics to reconstruct the sonic world of Byzantine cathedral music. She has recreated a digital Hagia Sophia using live acoustic software.
However, to collect the data of the monumental building’s acoustics, she had to work around the outlawing of singing in Hagia Sophia, a prohibition predating the mosque change-back. It’s a great story how she did that, and the recordings she made in a studio sound as if they soar within the domed building itself. The music is only a click away in the article.
The piece ends with this evocative description:
“In Greek Orthodox rites, Pentcheva argued, acoustics and chant interact in a way that ‘is not about sound carrying information, but sound precipitating experience. It is a fully corporeal investment.’
The recording provides a glimpse of that experience. Phrases chanted in unison leave a ghostly imprint. Rhythmic shudders and grace notes set off blurry squiggles of overlapping echoes. Chords unfurl in reverberant bloom.
The acoustic drama of Hagia Sophia would have unfolded alongside the changing light and curling smoke of burning incense, enveloping the senses. The effect is described in a 6th-century description of the building by Paul the Silentiary, an aristocrat and poet at the court of Justinian.”
I’ve been thinking about this building lately as I reread Guy Gavriel Kay’s two books that are so focused on his fantasy version of HS, Sailing to Sarantium and Lord of Emperors. Two incredibly good books to read, especially if you like to think about art. Any of you read these books? Have a special place in your heart for this building? Click here for Archaeology News Network “How A Historian Stuffed Hagia Sophia’s Sound Into A Studio”
A Diadem in a Sarcophagus
Underneath a construction site in Izmir, Turkey (ancient Smyrna), a rescue excavation has uncovered a Roman era, 2nd century AD, sarcophagus with a golden diadem in it. The diadem is in fragmentary condition, but clearly someone wealthy and important was buried there. There is a thrill to finding gold, although it’s often the humble objects that teach us the most about the past. They’ll dig exploratory trenches in the area to figure out the extent of the necropolis and locate any other burials. Click here for Archaeology News Network “Gold Diadem Found In Roman-Era Sarcophagus In Izmir”