Bissera V. Pentcheva (Stanford University) presents: "The Pursuit of Heights: Romanesque Architecture, Aquitanian Notation, and the Office of Sainte-Foy at Conques"

With a response from Ana Nuñez. See the abstract below: 

"With rare exceptions medieval art is predominantly studied through the visual and textual, even though it was originally designed to be experienced in the temporal medium of sound: chant, recitation, prayer. In character, medieval art resembles other more recent multi-media art forms such as opera and film. I draw inspiration from the latter, especially in the concept of AudioVision introduced by the composer and film scholar Michel Chion. My work on Hagia Sophia and the interaction of architecture, acoustics, and chant, has helped articulate this new direction of studies in the audiovisuality of premodern art. 

A few sites offer unique richness of artistic media–architecture, sculpture, music, poetry – that have survived by serendipity but were originally designed to be experienced simultaneously. This medieval archive was meant to double as a repertoire. The monastery of Sainte-Foy at Conques offers one such example: it boasts the ninth-century golden statue of its eponymous saint, which is considered the earliest extant three-dimensional sculpture in the post-Classical Latin West. Its Romanesque church harkens back to the 1040s and together with the relief sculpture of the 1060s-1115 offers the stage for the liturgical performance. Finally and most importantly for this study, the monastery preserves a medieval Office (festal liturgy) designed in the eleventh century at Conques for the patron Sainte-Foy and intended to be performed across a long duration (from vespers on the eve of the feast, throughout the night and then the day of the feast finishing at compline). The Office is transmitted in two medieval MSS (Paris, BnF, MS Lat 1240 and NAL 443) dated to fourth quarter of the eleventh century. Musicologist have largely ignored this medieval repertoire. The project “EnChanted Images” I direct at Stanford University (http: enchantedimages.stanford.edu) has brought this medieval repertoire to the attention of both scholars and performers. Laura Steenberge, a composer and member of the team, has transcribed the Office from the medieval MSS. I had translated the Latin lyrics and have engaged in audiovisual analysis, exploring how the chants and the acoustics of Conques shaped the perception of the saint at Conques.  

The focus of my talk is on the phenomenon of the pursuit of height. I will trace it in the architecture at Conques that expands the interior volume by building in height; in the hearing of harmonics during the singing of the psalmody; in the development of the Aquitanian music notation (in which the Conques Office is written) that records pitch as height; in the stacking of the sculptural program; and in the melodic design of the chants. I will argue that audiovision activates a series of images in the imagination of the participants which layer over the architectural space and the material objects. These “icons of sound” lack material density and invite us to consider the role of sound in shaping the experience of the metaphysical. In turn, the principle of en-figuring the divine aniconicly through the voice and in the imagination of the participants reveals parallels with Islamic art and invites a dialogue in the study of the two traditions."