The 99th Meeting of the Medieval Academy of America
Welcome and Opening Plenary, Presentation of Student Bursaries
Welcome to the University of Notre Dame: Margaret Meserve, Associate Provost and Co-Chair of the Medieval Academy of America 2024 Annual Meeting Committee
Opening Remarks and Presentation of Bursaries: Robin Fleming, President of the Medieval Academy of America; Professor of History, Boston College
Plenary Speaker Introduction: Nina Glibetic, University of Notre Dame
Plenary Speaker: Bissera V. Pentcheva, Professor of Art & Art History, Stanford University
Talk: “AudioVision in the Arts of the Liturgy at Conques”
PRODUCTION
Videography by ND Studios.
Captions are auto-generated.
That was everybody Thank you very much [Applause] Again We are you know [Applause] [Applause] that’s [Applause] Hest [Applause] yeah [Applause] I we had yeah [Applause] already This is a this is a matter of a having a really good staff and B having a really good confence full Adry Full I think about 350 how are you I’m doing well thepit oh know I’m sorry to hear that well good afternoon good afternoon can I have your attention thank you so much good afternoon my name is Margaret meserve I’m a professor of History here at Notre
Dame but I’m speaking to you right now in my role as Co co-chair of the organizing committee and as Notre Dame’s vice president and Associate Provost for academic space and support so on behalf of the University’s leadership let me uh welcome you all to Notre Dame for the
99th annual meeting of the medieval Academy of America I say just a few things about Notre Dame and the Middle Ages the University’s commitment to Medieval studies is longstanding our program in medieval studies was founded almost a 100 years ago in 1933 and our medieval Institute the University’s first Research Institute
Was founded 13 years 13 years later in 1946 and since its foundation the medieval Institute has been located within in fact really at the very heart of the University Library so although we’re here in the campus hotel we encourage you to visit the institute’s headquarters on the seventh floor of
Hburg library at some point during your visit today with 50 faculty fellows from 13 different departments in an unparalleled library and a growing manuscript collection we are the nation’s largest Center for understanding the Middle Ages and from our early emphasis on medieval Theology and philosophy we have grown to
Encompass much broader interests and many more forms of scholarship many of which are reflected in The Eclectic and interdisciplinary and truly Global program that we are pleased to present to you this weekend so a veritable failan of people have worked to make this event possible
And I’d like to take a moment just to offer some thanks I want to start by thanking my fellow organizing committee chairs so from notor Dame Tom Burman professor of history and director of the medieval Institute and CJ Jones associate professor of German and representing the medieval Academy
President of the academy Robin Fleming from Boston College and Julia AR Lev from the University of Pennsylvania in assembling the program for this event we were helped by a further 22 colleagues including faculty graduate students Librarians curators and staff from across the Southbend region from Notre Dame from St Mary’s
College and from Indiana University Southbend those committee members are too many to name but they are listed in your program and we are very grateful to them all and we also want to thank executive director Lisa Fagan Davis from the medieval Academy for her help in getting the planning for this event
Started some 18 months ago I can’t believe we’ve made it to this day and for her advice and counsel ever since and thanks to Cheryl Main corvy and Christopher Cole at the medieval Academy as well and we also want to thank our local Arrangements committee including Megan Hall Thompson Guster Emily Mahan
And Amber Kirk and we are Beyond grateful to our army of student ambassadors uh who you’ll see wearing bright green armbands uh throughout the conference and they are here to help with problems large or small so please don’t hesitate to flag one down if you need anything at all
Yes I also have a list of generous sponsors to thank uh who have helped to make this event possible from Notre Dame the medieval Institute the office of the Provost the College of Arts and letters and its Institute for scholarship in the liberal arts and are many departments
Who contribute to Medieval studies here including Classics English History music philosophy romance languages theology the center for Italian Studies and the program in Sacred Music as well as St Mary’s College Indiana Indiana University South Bend and the medieval Academy of America so at this point I’m expecting the Oscar music to
Swell as I run out of people to thank um let me conclude by reminding you of the three themes that we chose for this year’s conference actually before I do that I want to give you two little pieces of business I was called to my attention um You probably have a paper
Program in your bag or in your hand uh and that does reflect the program for this conference at a certain moment in time as it was conceived um but we encourage you to check the online program which is really more of a live document and reflection the latest in last minute can
Cancellations any a few room changes so probably most of the sessions are happening all on the same hallway in our classroom building across the quad um if something has moved you won’t have to go far to find it but we do suggest that you check the online program as you go
Okay let me conclude by reminding you of the three themes we chose for this year’s conference communities of knowledge bodies and motion and mapping the Middle Ages we have a rich and and varied program of papers exploring these themes but I also want to thank you all
The over 350 of you who registered for the event for participating in these themes yourselves thank you for putting your Bodies in Motion and making the pilgrimage to Southbend thank you for joining us to constitute this ephemeral but meaningful community of knowledge and thank you for sharing your hard one
Research as we attempt to map The Marvelous ever expanding world of the Middle Ages we are so delighted that you’re here now I’m going to turn the podium over to Professor Robin Fleming president of the medieval Academy of America for her opening remarks Rob over toat well welcome everyone we’re very
Happy to see all of you here uh we’re happy to see that the thunderstorms didn’t keep half of you um in South bander Chicago and we’re all delighted to be here we’ve been working on this um program for a long time and it looks like it’s going
To be really great um I know um Margaret thanked a bunch of people but I want to underscore once again that the organizing committee particularly Tom Burman CJ Jones and Margaret meser but she didn’t thank herself have been absolutely fantastic and have worked tirelessly for this so I would like to
Give them a hand and I also want to thank the local Arrangements committee particularly Megan Hall who can bring everybody’s blood pressure down um when things seem to be um unwinding and of course the conference volunteers um so it is my great pleasure besides welcoming you to
Actually um talk about the awards that we’re making to students um and so here we have um our commendations and I’m going to call um the people who are getting our commendations up one at a time um to acknowledge you can see um the work that they’re they’re doing and
I want to acknowledge um I want to acknowledge what they’re doing so um Emily Lucia um bman sorry I have glasses that don’t work very well um if you could come up to the podium please CH Gillan Joshua Lee [Applause] skull um and Jane masui and for the best student paper Anna Gil
Um if you can come up and finally our inclusive inclusivity and diversity travel Grant to Alexandra Montero Peters so I know that we’re all here for the main event which is one of our plenary talks and so I’m going to leave the stage and Marius is going to come and introduce our
Speaker thank you and welcome to Notre Dame and to the uh opening Salvo of this year’s meeting of the medieval Academy my name is Marius hnes um and I’m a professor of medieval art in the department of art art history and design here at Notre Dame and it is my distinct
Honor and pleasure to introduce our first plenary Speaker Dr bisera Pena who is Professor of Byzantine and medieval art in the department of Art and art history at Stanford University since receiving her PhD from Harvard University in in 2001 Professor Pena has published three groundbreaking books that probe the many intersections
Between art architecture Acoustics liturgy and political ideology in banum these books which are complemented by a series of pioneering articles published in the art bulletin guesta bre speculum and other venues have created entirely new fields of study within Byzantine and medieval art history the first book
Icons and power the mother of God banum published in 2006 with Penn State University press traced the development of the cult of the virgin in banum and showed how icons of the Virgin Mary helped to shape Byzantine Imperial ideologies her 2012 book the central icon space ritual and the census in
Banum offered a complete reconceptualization of the sacred icon by focusing on how sensory phenomena like light Shadow the smell of incense and the movement of air generated a sense of an at presence in the mixed in mixed media relief icons the 2017 book hagya Sophia sound space and spirit in
Banum was an interdisciplinary tour to Fours that combined art historical analysis with Arch acoustical and anthropological methodologies to reconstruct the lurgical sandscape of haa Sophia Professor peneva is the recipient of numerous prestigious fellowships and awards which include a gugenheim fellowship a Rome prize from the American Academy in Rome
Melan new directions fellowship and many more her book icons and power was awarded the Nicholas Brown prize of the medieval Academy of America in 2010 while her book Ona sopia was awarded the American Academy of religion award for excellence in historical studies in 2018 as a student of Western medieval
Art I am personally very excited that Professor peneva is now deploying her Innovative methodologies to help us understand objects and monuments produced in the Latin speaking part of the Mediterranean her new research project titled Enchanted images explores how the visions of St Foy Aon developed in the interactions between art music poetry
And dance her lecture this afternoon draws on this exciting new scholarship and is titled audio Vision in the Arts of the Liturgy At Con and so without further Ado please join me in welcoming Professor V peneva thank you Marius and also I would like to thank Lisa Fagan Davis um Robin fing
And Tom Burman and Margaret Mercer for the invitation to speak here it is my honor and I’m also taking it with humility and I’m looking forward to the possibility for a discussion afterwards for the Q&A afterwards it’s a new research that I have been developing in the past five years of course everything
With time um five years for somewhat be a long period or a short so without Much Ado I will move to the talk and do you hear me well St F at con elicits two memories in modern viewers the serenity of her Romanesque Church evocative of a bygone
Age and the golden statue of Santa fidas covered in gems and ancient camels even though the saint was a 13-year-old virgin who was tortured and martyred for her faith her late 9th century golden statue refuses for similitude and presents instead a figure of mature and Powerful presence seated in Majesty like a ruler
And a judge the gender ambiguity of the image and the in congruity between the fragility of the girl and the imposing even threatening appearance of her varial image as sale and unsettle the modern viewer yet what is even less well understood is how the art and liturgy
And nature at K stimulate the appearance of sa F in the temporal and the sensorial which goes beyond the materiality of the architecture and the sculpted image St paradoxically sustains two manifestations at conk a figuro and a non-figural one she is present both in her golden statue and in the Wisps of
Fog gently drifting through the air it is the sharp contrast between the glittering materiality of the golden Imago and the opalescent immateriality of the Broom the French for light fog that shapes the visitor’s sensorial encounter with the metaphysical go at con numerous other Monumental reliefs in the
Interior as well as on the facade of the 11th century Romanesque Church illustrate how the patron saint bravely faces martyrdom and as a result effectively protects her faithful and ensures their salvation art history has always gravitated to the material images and spaces by contrast the structuring of the medieval Sacred Space exacts equal
Attention to the paradoxical combination of the ephemeral the immaterial and the embodied such as s scent Broom light medieval chant feeling the architectural interior envelops an animates the golden statue and the relief images At Con music gives a temporal diens to these visual programs and could either train the viewers
Attention on them or divert it from them today medieval art is silent mostly silent often displayed in ster Museum galleries it is presented without any analysis of the intended envelope of sound chant prayer and recitation stripped of this Oro atmosphere these objects have lost their power to signify and to El
Affect my research project the enchanted images which has produced many public fa facing results includes an exhibition a catalog a concert and a documentary film all viewable at the um Enchanted images website at Stanford I’m currently in the process of writing the scholarly monograph entitled Cosmic foros chant
Poetry and image in the art and Liturgy of sta at K in it I restore music back to the art and architecture revealing how we cannot fully grasp the row of images unless we consider the songs in which they were meant to be experienced my talk is sourced from this
Research the concept of audio vision is Central to my work the French film theor and composer Michelle Shion introduced this term in film studies in 1994 audio Vision defines the relationship between the moving image media and the viewer where seeing is transformed by hearing and vice versa the interaction between sound and image
Is subtle it dupes the Mind into thinking that the audio replicates the visual the so-called Audi visual illusion while in fact it focuses attention a new and shifts the perception of the image simultaneously the image changes the apprehension of the sound sh calls this process added value as the two mods of perception
Interact with each other he states that this adds elasticity to both the sound temporalized the image while the image often spatializes the sound shion’s work revolutionized the field of film studies 30 years ago introducing sound as an analytical tool and his focus is specifically on the non-m musicological
Aspects not the analysis of the musical scores but the phenomenon of sound as noise shion’s audio logo visual analysis contributes in deepening the aesthetic pleasure as well as the the understanding of the rhetorical power of film nowadays it will be Unthinkable to do just visual analysis of film without engagement with the
Sound but when we turn to Medieval culture where the images were embedded in a continuous flow of chant we are surprised to discover that audio logo visual analysis is not practice with few exceptions one among which is the musicologist Marco fussler fuster’s insightful analysis of melodic form has been very influential
For my project unlike Shion whose focus is on noise fastor engages with the loic structures her most recent book on the Liturgy soteriology and art of Hildegard from bingan uncovers word painting which shows how the meaning of religious poetry is expressed through the melodic form of the chant fers analysis focuses
For instance on how Apex and nadir of the compositions align with specific words amplifying nuances of meaning the melodic setting of Anima is one such example in the lgic play Orum that I’ll illustrate here with fer analysis anima the human soul starts unencumbered able to take a leap of an
Octave from D through a into D um upper D and this is marked in the first line at the top reaching the heights where the virtues sing as the play progresses an anima becomes weighed down by sin it cannot any longer make this leap and you
Can see that um um in the bottom line it as far as it the so could get is to this be eventually through repentance the soul seeks humility and is taught by the virtues in the song viven Fon where she relearns and recuperates her ability to
LEAP to a high D and defeat the Devil fer has uncovered the harmonious relationship between the two media visual art and music where poetry melodic form and physical image all Express one idea one histor yet chance can do many other things redirect attention to overlooked elements in the
Visual amplify the visual or be a dissonance with the material images my work uncovers some of these dissonances between the Sonic and the visual in exploring dissonance Shan’s methodology of audio Vision becomes even more relevant because it clears the misconception that the sound repeats what the image does in my paper today I
Will explore what shiang called Cod listening or listening from meeting Cod listening assumes the positionality of the Performing monks who are experts in both the poetry and the music here I focus on word painting more specifically The Melodies that uh on the words for mind mens utao and
Corona these words are important because they draw attention to the martyrdom decapitation and glorification of the saint all concept celebrated by the office and all performed in front of the golden statue as an imperial and royal power waned in oxitan in the late 9th and 10th centuries many of the Imperial monastic
Foundation scrambled to protect their possessions in the ensuring political vacuum one way of achieving this goal was through soft power at con at conk this process started with the promotion of the miracle of GI in 983 which sparked new local pilgrimage to the site and was supported by the consolidation of land
Donations as recorded in the cartillar of the monastery a new church was built in the second half of the 10th Century replacing the modest Carolinian one the reputation of the site was also enhanced by the collection of the Miracles in the Liber mirum the first two books produced
In the period 10:13 to 1020 and books three and four in the Years 10:30 to 10 uh 10:30 to 10:40 right in this same period the new office of St bua transmitted by two manuscripts both in the bibl National nowadays Laten 1240 which you see on your right that comes
From Andis lat 443 which came from St Ben the introduction of this new office coincides with the beginning of the construction of the new Romanesque church at the site today and this is the church we see today so there is a combined effort of the music and the architecture the intense artistic
Activity at K is comparable to other contemporary monastic sites which mobilize the Charisma of their patron saint to secure their possessions and Authority the transformation of the cult of s marcial in Theos in the early 11th century offers a good comparison allowing us to contextualize what K does
With its music and art the status of St marcial was increased in that period from a bishop to one of the 72 Apostles Adar of Shaban a composer and writer presented his services to lios in 1027 and transformed the text and music of the fesal office mass and office to
Reflect the New Apostolic status of St marcial and this is the beginning in one of the early manuscripts and you can see here some of the examples where he um erased words uh from pres he became apostol and so on and so forth it was a
Very careful work that was done both in the poetry and uh in the music and he created new compositions carefully balancing them with the old ader’s inaugural liturgy on August 3rd 1029 was almost a success yet in the last stage an asaya brought in by the Cannons of the Cathedral of imos exposed
The apostolicity of St marcial as a fraud the new repor was shelf for more than two decades once all parties died out the new chance avowing the pocity of St marcial were successfully reintroduced and integrated in the CSUS James Greer’s expensive study and insightful analysis of adar’s music and
Poetry offers an important refer reference point for my work on the office of s at con ader’s lurgical experiment in liage is characteristic of a general Trend in the turn of the 11th century from monasteries in Western Christendom to Branch out of the received carolingian music tradition and to create new music
To elevate the status of the local painon and in the process offer more immunity to the foundation the creation of written record becomes a tool securing authenticity in a way similar to liage Kong composed new music and texts to enhance the status of its patron saint
In the course of the 11th century the Monastery likely had the kingan Liturgy and one example of it actually two manuscript survived um in um s Galen in the stiffs biblo and one of them is the famous Healthcare manuscript 391 from the 10th Century both the music
And the text is different from what we see in the 11th century so it’s clearly a different tradition con replaced this carolingian office by the middle of the 11th century the new texts and music created locally were tailored to the needs and politics of conk this new chance cleave closely
To the passion to the pasio sanis to build the Historia of the Saint the two two music manuscripts with the passion of the saint preserve a recension of this text that is adopted in the new office of sainta at K but is not cataloged in the
Bibl Latina or properly edit it so one is the 1240 manuscript that survived in s marcial on your left and the other one is the cat manuscript of this pum the text is a 10th Century text and it is not created At Con but it is used at con
And it is read at the festo celebration but this specific recension is important because it appears as you could see it finishes and immediately after is the new music uh from the 11th century in the 1240 manuscript the close Rel reltionship between these two texts I’m showing some
Of my preliminary studies shows that quotations from the uh pasio I use almost verba in the 11th century office and you can see some of the example in Bol are the repeated passages between the two I’m not showing you the entire um the passus is in the big segment on
The left and the um office is on the right but you can see that there are many many segments that are repeated the importance of this copying from the P you is uh further um attested in the fact that the 11 the 17th century collectorium uh uh still preserved in the monastery
Of K has the same text there is no music in the collectorium but the Poetry is the same as the 11th century office so it had a lasting power now in terms of musicology musicology only one person looked at the office and this was um Micha um Ugo and um it was considered
Unimportant Visa the office of uh what Adar created at Lage so as an art historian in a sense I’m coming to A material that has been mostly overlooked um by musicologist so I here I want to move to C listening the text painting happening on the word for mind mens in the
Composition men’s mind manifests same for as Devotion to Christ this word appears consistently with the expressionist in Christ fattis or its variation Dev it shows up with the first chance the first anteon for Vespers written in mode one final D at the very top of the image here not only
So men is coincides here with the Apex when the melody reaches the highest note upper D which is the final for this mode one um the upper limit of this mode one not only that but the travel to this height is achieved with a leap of a forth making it even more
Dramatic here is an example of a dissonance between the music and the image the Sonic brightness created by this rise of the melody to D on menes contrast with the reticence of the image to reveal its true power the relics of the cranium hidden inside the Statue they hidden at
The cavity at the back of this Relic is the source of the virtus and veritas yet the physical eyes only see the glittering golden mask which simulates the vibrancy of the Hidden virtu of The Relic and thus distracts from what actually is the container of this energy while the golden IMU
Deflects from the source of true power the music targets the attention on it by creating the Sonic brightness pushing the participants to imagine the immaterial Mind resolve of SAA whose energy now in The Relic has the capacity to vivify heal and protect moreover the fact that this first anteon is entangled with the
Recitation of PM9 further contributes to the song making present The Relic Psalm 109 Psalm 109 repeated repeatedly uses the word caput head God’s wroth crushes the skulls of the enemies and God’s Triumph and judgment is envisioned in him raising his head in power the Lord exalts his Saints and imuse them with power an action symbolized by handling down the scepter
Placing the Saints on the right side of God making them the medium through which Divine Mercy flows the fact that the anti on would frame Psalm 109 and extol say foras mens clearly drives in the understanding that she has become the rod of power which produces Miracles and that is The Relic hidden
Inside the Statue because the office of SAA uses Progressive application of modes each of the first eight anti of M Mountain go through the rotation from mold one to mold 8 using this cycling through the molds we can predict and the monks could predict and expect when the music will
Rise to the next Apex to e we have mold one with the final D in the vper anteon Hees viru the next rise will be mode three final e this will be the third anteon of the first nocturn which starts by repeating the very same phrase in Christo fundata Mentis with which the
Apex was first introduced in VAP Vespers mens now Rises A Step Above to the next height to e the repetition of the Latin and the targeting of progressive stepwise rise in the ambitus seals the message the music intends to convey that metaphysical power issues from what we
Cannot see with physical eyes this is the resolution of fetus’s Mind firmly Anchored In Christ and you can see it here here I have stacked them one after the other this Rise um in the third anteon the next two times men appears the melody on this word only Rises to D
And this is the second uh responsory in the verse of the first nocturn and in the first anteon of second nocturn and so it is here and here it is this anteon in the second nocturn the first anteon in second nocturn that is significant otherwise the anteon in
The SEC the first anti in the second nocturn features the for the first time the direct speech of SAA and it coincides with Mod seven with the highest brightest pitches that can be reached so far in the office reaching to Upper G with the words nativitatis at
And at Domino but as you can see the phrase devot stays on D even though the rise to that pitch is the same leap of a fourth we encountered with Vespers a to d the next and last encounter of men’s is in the second responsory of the second nocturn composed in mode two
Final D here the melody dramatically dips to the lowest limits of what is actually also the lowest tone uh low a and this is the mode in which the this lower limit could be reached this is the moment in which Santa speaks again in her own voice addressing the
Tianos and pronouncing that she would always and only serve Christ fidus has regrouped mobilized all her powers stake her ground finding strength in her depth in her resolution to remain loyal to Christ the music communicates this plunge down to depths which paradoxically will lead the Saints to
The glorification and ascent and so this is the element that we were looking at this de to lower a the reverse magnitude of descending to sacrifice and death is in order to ascend to glorification is invested in the music of mens not surprisingly we next hear about stas martyrdom and
Glorification again the music prefigures what has not yet transpired to the phys IAL eyes the absolute apex of the composition High a coincides with the phrase amput capitis and thus makes us return to the Sonic brightness associated with F’s mind this penultimate chant of Martins is written in the highest mode mold 7
Final g not only does the melody reached this High A A step above the final but right after this it abruptly dropped a fif down to be visually and sonically performing a cut and a fall like a chopped off head toppling to the ground the Sonic brightness is also
Excruciating for The Voice which struggles to sustain this height and although I had prepared several music passages I’ll play very few and here I’ll only play a segment of the chant In a way later image clar would express the same Paradox of buying salvation through death so too the music here at the UT plays with this notion of inversed magnitudes height and dropping falling in order to express an Ascent so here I’ll start with a visual example
That is the 12th century requery of candido ofon it’s an eloquent example his head chopped off is now deposited inside the Imago the antip narrates how the violence done to the body ultimately exalts the soul the inscription reads candidus is released from Earthly life as he suffers under the sword thus his
Soul now seeks the Stars through through death he receives life inverted magnitudes Define sanctity through humility suffering and passion the same Saints are beautified and magnified lifted to Heaven given a crown and accepted in the horos of the Blessed B ification describes this journey of inversions as the choed head falls to
The ground what is expressed here as well in the images that you see so to musically the same journey is performed in the office of sa in this third responsory of the second noct of the third nocturn the statue of um candidus has Sports a crown that is very similar to
The crown worn by Santa fidus it’s a circle with a cross two entwining bands Kong’s patron saint is entangled with another fetus this is the virtue in prudentius Pia and the reason I’m showing you here is because the crown that Fus wears in the golden statue
Plays on this notion of a circle horos and a cross of kaym as the Victorious Fus of the pentius tramples over the um idolatry she tramples her in a chastic step and she also holds a wreath of Victory the combination of the kostic St and the wreath becomes the crown of the
Golden statue of St puan a similar kaym is INF figured in the crossing bands of her crown and this will lead me to the exploration of the music on the word Corona the ambitus range in which this word is set begins at F and Rises to C
Within the first three chants of the office in the anteon of the magnificant at Vespers the invitat and the first responsory of the first nocturn all composed in mold four centered around the pitch e reaching the aex of the mold for to see in the first responsory of the first
Nocturn so you could see this very quick progression that takes place um in the rise of um on the word Corona then in the same melody in the same first nocturn The Melody of coron descends with a step to B in the third responsory written in mod 3 and it is
Here the melodic material then climbs in the second responsory of the third nocturn written in mod one it ascends to the aex to high D this happens at the height of F’s suffering she is tortured on the grill over the fire and that is when the Celestial radiant crown and
Gown appear in heaven and they appear at the height of mod one at D but then we see a great Plunge in the first light of Ls in the third anti the melodian corona lingers at the lower range of this mold it’s mold six and this is where we have the passage on
Corona the melodic fragment descends from F to D this experience is is like a new beginning similar to the melodic material of the vasper anteon the vasper anteon is to the magnificant so in other words it plays around the same range the same melodic space harmonic space this is not a
Chance occurrence but is consistent with the concept of reset by introducing a new character caprus the story of SAA is now repeated but witnessed martyred by caprus in fact a similar doubling occurs visually in the space at con St f is captured on the ground floor
And led before a tribunal it is the image that is in the historiated capital here this is where the histor Ed capital is and it looks directly it faces directly the choir enclosure that used to have a tall choir wall that has been destroyed since and this is the image of sa the
Rest of s Pua she is at the corner space as she is dragged in front of the tianos then in the pier in the historiated capital is the image of another arrest which for many years had been interpreted as that of s Pua a repeated image that is uh in congruous because
The ruler the tanos holds uh Palm Branch I would like to revisit in a sense the interpretation and argue that the figure that is represented here is actually caprus it is a mock mockery and taunting of um of his martyrdom he’s being challenged but there are angels that
Bring an angel that brings a crown and it’s ready to put it on his head his headgear which is very different from that of s fua who wears aoran and his beard light beard identify this figure as male and then it becomes a process a theater of
Caprus watching over the arrest of St Juan and the reason this is important is because it places emphasis on the role of seeing and how seeing relates to martyrdom from his Higher Ground caprus Witnesses st’s passion and becomes inspired to face his own faith the pairing of the two arrests reiterates
The structure of the past you perform both um in that specific fesal liturgy and repeated in the office with the Martyr D aidis at matins and then retold Through The Eyes of caus in Lots coming back to the chant at Lots elevati ulis the lyrics read with his eyes lifted the
Athlete of God saw a dove descending from the crowds above clouds above the holy martyr and placing on her head the crown decorated with Celestial pearls Corona come com at The Descent but almost immediately it lifts up to the aex with margaritas and so here it is line three
Corona and as it lifts up at Margaritas the melodic descent at Corona makes the crown a vehicle of V F’s glorification the dadam is brought in the beak of the Holy Spirit Dove and placed on the head of SAA the gentle ascent and Descent of of this composition rayi the cruising of wings
Of bird borne by the winds the dove lightly descends to place the crown and then lightly ascends back to heaven and as we listen I would like to tell you the singer is arenta Walter um and we have been working with her the music has been transcribed by a
Collaborator of mine um who works for enchanted images her name is Laur steber she’s a composer of coral music and we had worked with arenta alter AMU soprano to record this music it is recorded in the acoustic signature of con so what you hear is one voice in that space as
Opposed to a choir and the choir at con probably had 40 monks singing uh so something to keep in mind so there’s some elements um that bring you closer to the space and others St don’t GL For So I’ll not go into deep analysis of these passages but you could see that there is a very simple Melody very beautiful in which it has this constant ascents and descents and it also it’s a Melody that is very thoughtful of its transitions this anti is meant to be
Sent together with Psalm 62 so the first transition will happen here as it descends to F the intonation for this um mode six anteon will be FG um will be fga so basically the intonation will start at the same tone it will be a perfect in a sense alignment in this
Transition and then as the recitation of the psalm 62 continues the every sentence in a sense will finish with this Cadence this is the Cadence theum amen which finishes on F so the next line which will start with fga will be again aligned and when the doxology sing
The Gloria patri sing it finishes with the Amen on F and the anteon will start on F as well so what you see is a Body Crown that is created it’s a ring structure where all the transitions are seamless it happens on few occasions through the office and this is one of
Them and it’s significant and becomes a melodic crown that is formed for San the last time and here um and what there’s one other element that I want to bring to your attention in this singing line seven is significant here because it has a ver a line that speaks about
Divine protection which are open wings so this cruising that happens in the music with the ascents and the descents is also picked up in some of the motifs in the song that is sung together with the anteon which shows this really attention to detail which is magnificent
In the coordination of all the Arts poetry music and image at conk and um I would like to discuss a possibility of like why mod six um that is chosen here for this anteon the Third of um LS um there’s little to go on but there is still the uh decorated uh St
Historiated sculpture in K at clun that has the um relief images that show conceptualization of the eight modes mode six there are only two chants in the whole office of conk one is the regor it has to happen with the sixth anteon of the first nocturn because
There is a gradual Ascent so there will be one mode six chant the second one is this so there are only two chants as opposed to other modes like mode one that has many six or seven chance I don’t remember the exact number of those so um what the Clinique Capital tells us
Or the image tells it comes with an inscription and the inscription says AUM SE sex if you desire love of pety look at the six Mount affect PTI love for pety is what caprus performs His Eyes Are Fixed to the martyrdom ofus and he sees more than anyone else he discerns the metaphysical
An invisible Dove that no one else senses descending to place the crown of Radiance on S caprus becomes a model inviting all participants in the Liturgy to begin this process of seeing by channeling the spirit through their body and engage enging in christto my misses anchored in Santa fidas as the Liber
Mirum States what is seen with physical eyes is nothing what is not seen is the truth end of quote in a similar way the dove descending with the crown through the music is a revelation accessible only to spiritual eyes caprus possesses them and he teaches his audience to do
The same the music for the office of SAA is a manifestation of this teaching in the Spirit after all all its images are ineffable images of the Mind created through the music and through the Poetry produce by breath the exhalation of spirit as Melody and poetry the music
And words make us see what is otherwise not present in the physical image at first as first light enters the interior at LS the statue will be conture with an aura of Radiance as Contour englobing the dark umbrella interior I’m still working on this image so it is a last
Minute uh uh mockup to show you how this tall wall would have looked because access to the altar would have been obstructed and it’s very different from the modern experience caprus witnessing her passion engenders his own passion and thus he offers a model for what vidit means an internalized site
Communicated by means of voice and Imagination that compels the body to succumb willingly to torture and death at Santiago de compostella two historied capitals framed the Chapel to St F inaugurated by the bishop gilir and Pier Dand the bishop of Pamplona and former monk of con in
1104 the two capitals at Santiago show the same nesting of Maron caprius watches the arrest of St Pua so here is the column of caprus and here is the arrest of Sena he speak speaks to his brothers and here he is again pointing to the arrest of s Pua
So the arrest of s Pua is framed by watching the watching of caprius given the importance of dble witnessing I would like to Circle back to another relief of K which I believe has been also Mis identified or at least has the potential to say so much more
The so-called funerary St of abot pon asier ilet has stated the serpentine kiss which has the inscription that you see on the sides so here and here that is the ferary incription of the abot beon was likely not part of the same installation with the relief in lunel
Stone at the center that were probably the result of repairs that produced this brick collage later on in time the reason scorers were so drawn to this connection is because it gave them a safe date of 11:07 that helped them date the architecture and the relief sculpture inside but actually the two
Are not related and instead what I would like to show you is that if we distance the inscription from the relief then we can read the figure of composition together with the lurgical evidence both the passio and the office create this double glorification ofus through caprus
It is we have the marom it once in the pasu and then repeat it through the words of caprus and we have the same thing done in the office of sta so I suggest that we read the male figure not only as beon if we cannot completely disregard the
Previous interpretation but I’ll also as caprus fedus receives her crown an angel gently lowers it on her head caprus while without the crown receives the Angelic touch as well the dasis of this composition extols the patron saint and her power to intercede before God it is the same power frequently beseeched in
The office the council and the Liber Miracle the third anteon of Ls elevati ulis has lyricism and serenity that can be better appreciated when contrasted with the drama that came before it the utao capitis the melodic apex of the entire composition in the third responsory of the the third nocturn we
Discussed and I played you the music expresses this extreme violence and suffering here the voice of the singer strains to ascend to a high a the singer’s vocal struggle makes audable the violence done to the child fedus as her head is cut off after this intense drama expressed in the highest range of
The office we have been asked to relieve the martyrdom at first light with the beginning of the new day and experience it in mediated spiritually through the eyes and voice of caprus this Redux seeing a second time is cathartic no longer filled with the anxiety of struggle but instead with a voice light
As the caressing soft Breeze that descends lingers and uplifts the same Motif is echoed as I told you in the psalm with which this anteon is associated with verse seven the Open Wings of God’s protection caprus is vidit sense is more than the material eyes and matter rather than just
Violence H to its Splendor celebration and beatification as the office nears the end we hear Corona one last time in the anteon for Prime when Dawn Paints the world in warm Golden Tones fetus is glorified the melody reaches a second Apex in ambitus it reaches upper a at
Chamin and struggle which is the equivalent in sense of this High Apex that was reached with utao capitis and then we hear Corona Su to high e which is the highest note pitch that Corona reaches in this office this anti recalls many words that were sung in previous chants before and
I’ve listed them below and I’m not going to go in detail on that what is significant is by these repetitions that are in the Poetry a second in a sense create horos is created repetition through the words you fall in a sense in this m Aima
Words the anteon Bim virgin Fus in the in Prime reaches High e at Corona and this is the highest pitch used for this to set this word in the office this travel up the scale in the duration of the Liturgy suggests oral glorification the rise comes on the hill of a previous
Melodic Ascent on chamina to the absolute way it ascents to the absolute climax of the composition chamina itself forms the second Apex these two Rises to high a on chamina and utum articulate the inverted magnitude of martydom PR v through death one gets eternal life thus ultimately human suffering is sublimated in vertification
After sasis T Christ sends her the crown from the Stars misus Christus a AIS the melody on coronam becomes a vehicle of ascent raising Fus to heaven the ripples from E to F and very briefly in my last segment of the paper today I want to go
Through um the crown and its connection to the star and its connection to kaym I already discussed chastic step in terms of prudentius the image in the 9th century manuscript of prudentius and I’m showing you kaym the way it’s known in literature Homer uses caym it’s in the
Gospel of John the Evangelist and caym is also in Psalm 8 it’s the best place to illustrate it basically it’s a frame it’s a where the first and the last line form the uh the frame and they uh and there is a line at the center which fall Falls creates the chastic center
Here kaym in Psalm 8 is symbolic because it places Adam at the center of the world is protected by the Divine on both sides so it’s very significant the prelapsarian Adam is a chastic figure at the center kaym appears in the crown of s Pua as I discussed and kaym is
Represented in this image here which comes um from um music manuscript trar Umar from from uh ali uh and this manuscript has four poems I’m not going to discuss these four Pro poems but basically it speaks about the entwining between the celestial sound produced by the celestial bodies and human prayer the
Celestial sound is in the circumference of the wheel as well as in the spokes of the wheel and then the human prayer is in the two rotated squares and last but not least this image uh is this figura or diagram is at the core of the belus manuscript you see on your far
Left and this image basically has the lamb which is the new Adam at the center and crosswise are the four symbols of the Evangelist and then in between are the um Elders some of which make music each pair one person makes music and the other Elder uh has a chalice with a
Perfumed uh substance in it referring to the metaphor that the prayers of the Saints is an order onto God it’s a fragrance onto God and this image is um very significant because within the paew of SAA SAA is marted in a chastic shape in the P only in the
Version that is not in the bibla geograph Latina but it is in the two music manuscripts At Con there is an extensive passage that says that at the moment when she is tied to the rack so the most holy virgin willingly allowed to be stretched on the sacrificial rack
With her limbs spread out in four directions and restrained with metal cuffs she was rolled over the fire the impious henchmen put burning calls with iron shovels after throwing fat in the Flames from the sides they intensified the scorching fires to rise so in the minds of the people listening to the
Office and again from the positionality of the monks who understood the poetry and the music there is this image in the pasio that is chastic of St Pua and it relates architecturally to the space under the dome which is another kaasm where this figure this diagram appears
And this is the very space where the monks perform the axis around which the entire liturgy revolves and it is chastic and kaym within the Christian medieval tradition is about the capacity of saints to embody christto my misses and perform The Passion of Christ in their body as opposed to the Leonardo
Image which has been interpreted is really Humanity for Humanity sake I want to say that this image of the diagram that is at the core of the beatos manuscript is related to The Cosmic images in some of the most popular text that many Benedictine monasteries would read and this is
Macrobius the commentary to the dream of CPU and in that Cosmic Vision there is Earth at the center immovable then the seven planets and after the seven planets the last ninth orbit which is the orbit of the fixed stars that you see here the orbit of the fixed stars and
They’re here as well in the belus manuscript in the outer rim and this alignment of elements is very significant um macrobius writes that Earth that Terra Mundus has the stocking of the four elements earth water air fire then it comes Moon connected to ethereum Earth Mercury to water Venus to
Air and Sal to Fire and then in the last segment in the third segment the order is reversed Mars is Fire Jupiter air Saturn water and the fixed stars are Earth the reason I’m giving you this is a chastic structure the frame is formed by Earth Earthly Earth as human beings
And ethereal Earth as fixed Stars so there is Elemental connection between the human body and the stars and what the Saints are doing is rise ring back to this outer rim to the outer rim of the stars and last but not least um I’m not I don’t have the time to discuss
That in the music we have very elaborate chants they’re called Pro and they come with un texted MMA and then the pro the unex MMA gives the music and the pra has this very beautiful lyrical aspect the very first pra at Vespers speaks about
The ascent of St fat to heaven and it is glorious she is whiter than the Lily she is a star with the word Titania she rides the Eastern waves it’s very significant uh which relates to in a sense the production of stars from the reflected light of the Sun in the moon
And it finishes with the Angelic choir that welcomes SAA and sings Allelujah in concordant voice the very last pra in the uh third nocturn is this one super Tian super Tian which picks up this image of the stars that are rotating so Titania relates to the moon to the
Golden Light of the Moon which produces the stars and this orbiting through which the Machina the cosmic body goes is really manifesting the celestial sound and then it finishes with the address of people to sta to come to their help and as the music progresses
In a sense what I want to show is that um there is very little time and I’m not going to go in detail but we have this uh leap down that happens in the second to last melodic segment here on Opia sancta and then canor these are the two
They sing to two melodic um exact same melodic passages they’re called double CSUS that kind of internal repetition within the aquitanian chant and they are sung to the two entities that are significant SAA who is very high up she is in heaven and is asked now to descend
And the human voice so it connects the two entities basically beseeching this saint who is now in the ninth orbit to come down to earth and help Humanity s Pua has two manifestation fedus within Latin texts produced at K is in a constant Latin confusion that had exasperated philologies she appears in
The fifth declension and in the third declension uh and the depending on the declension uh the meaning is different uh one is um liar in the third declension fedis fedis and the other faith is fides FID in the fifth declension and it has been interpreted as these mons didn’t know
What to do they actually knew what they were doing and I want to say that these two manifestations of Fus as a star is on the facade with the stone stars that still survive on the facade and it’s there as fetus as in her human embodiment praying which is also there
In the pra that I discussed to you praying in front of and obtaining blessing and so there is a fetus as the constellation it appears in medieval manuscripts I’m not going to go in detail but the essence is that there is a constant transition between figuro and
Non figuro at K and the saint oscillates between her human embodiment in the Statue and in The Invisible Relic and the stars above and the fact that most of this music uh the great chunk of songs are sung at night at Martins means that this interconnection of exterior
And interior is so prominent at conk and this capacity of the human being through virtue in a sense to ascend to the celestial ninth orbit is at the core so today I spoke about many things it’s kind of an ambitious project and part of a result of being sequestered to write
One loses sense of time so um I spoke today about melodic um text painting with both men’s and Corona and then I wrap this all up with the chastic figure the shape of the star which is the core of the architectural space where the mons perform and relates to this duality of
Fidus to be liar orus is liar as well as the embodied Saint on Earth thank you I’ll be very happy to entertain questions and uh as a post factum um I would like also to express my thanks to Margo fer who was at Stanford two or
Three weeks ago and she called me from the airport with a question very urgent question where are your tables so as an art historian I didn’t think that tables were important but Margo I followed your advice I put the tables in so yes thank you very much
Com all at the same time uh as a student of late Antiquity I’m kind of an interloper here uh two relevant questions first of all the diagram that you showed with that that uh geograph gra geometrical diagram at the end was very similar there’s a very similar geometrical pattern in the
Uh in the portrait of Julia aniana uh in the 6th Century diores manuscript on the fren pce it’s very striking the other thing I was wondering about where caprus came from and wonder if there’s any connection to The caprus Who was one of the founders of the monastery of
Clan so um do you hear me with this microphone um the chastic diagram would appear everywhere so in other words this is taking Caroline Bam’s idea of um the similar similitudes it’s an under uh a structure that underg guards creation and it’s very important appears in many different guises it could be in
A sense expressed as a circle in a cross it could be the christogram of Christ it speaks about um and mattered vibrancy inspired matter and that’s why it marks the Eucharist that’s my it’s the um clay um vessels in which the Eucharist bread is placed in order to be baked
Have this shape as well so um in other words I’m not surprised it’s also in the architect architectural space and I think very frequently in the analysis the scholarship had gone more on the quaternity rather than the horos as a byzantin is I am very drawn to the horos
That’s where it starts all these energies are actually introduced in the circling in actually uh circling the square rather than just seeing the square so um that’s the brief um answer I could give right now hello thank you thank you for that absolutely fantastic talk and Reflections um I I was wondering about
The performers of the music so I think I caught that very briefly a mention of 40 monks singing at conk probably but I was wondering were there any young young boys was there a monastic school at conk with young boys who would have perhaps sung St fla’s voice prepubescent boys for example
This is an excellent question uh and um there are many ways in which one could answer it I don’t have specific texts that tell me how they use the oets in in the monastery so I’m using general knowledge that we know about Benedictine monastic culture and I see within the
Car many oblets that are given to the Monas and the lands with which this giving has been Associated so I know they’re there but I don’t know how they’re train given the high level of artistic production At Con in terms of the Liber mirum the C of Santa fedas the
Office for SAA it means that the training in Latin and the training in the music probably was incredible at the side given the fact that con monks were sent to the Reconquista so they inhabit through their uh in circle in other words there is Pier banduk who was a
Monk at conk in the 50 50s and 60s and he eventually became part of the papal network of Fidelis and he was sent to be the bishop he is elected as the bishop of Pana he brought many con monks with him and we could see them in the carer
For the Cannons of um pmono which means that the this um transpan monasteries monasteries to the north of the Pyrenees were considered places where the Gregorian liturgy celebrated and then it could be taken and brought into the mozarabic areas for the extinguishing in the sense of the mozarabic right and so
Conk is a participant in that and they had lands and they also had control over the ronal they had monasteries around ronal so this is the long answer to say we know they trained their Ms very well and we also know that there were approximately 40 and this is based on
The cartillar who live in the monasteries they’re around 100 hundred because there are a lot of daughter institutions around so 40 months 40 months here now this opens another question which is um this is where in a sense I would like my work to inspire future Generations is that this office
Once we publish it and I hope that this could happen within the next two years it can be performed and experimenting this to me is the musicologist task and the performer task I’m not trained in that uh and there are vast opportunities for even for me as directing this
Project hearing the performance of this chance from one voice arenta Walter singing and then hearing it with Ensemble organum singing as a choir of six male voices wellt trained voices it’s transformational it’s very different and we know this is a male Monastery and all of that so in other
Words the potential to experiment with this music is incredible and that’s what I want to say that we have looked at this material as archive and I would like to invite more people to consider it as repertoire and the body the singer are in a sense the recording device and
These oades are the recording device they could go and perform it anywhere last thing this was a very long answer the music manuscripts in which this office exists they the B they’re really small and when I started working on this material during Co I did look at the
Centimeters and how small they were but I still was in a shock at the tech Nar finally holding it was so small so freaking small anyways and I’m saying this is because this special uh theb in which the man the music is transmitted are enticing they were sent to other
Monasteries that’s why s benoa got it and that’s why Li got it to entice monks that already know the repertoire very well if they’re going to adopt one more thing which is slightly different but still works with the same melodic in a sense structure so that’s in other words
It’s now out there in a sense for other people to take on this office and perform it thank you so much for this really interesting talk I I have a question maybe also an audio visual question but maybe expanding out beyond the the litery and and Beyond the chant and even
Beyond the architecture to the Libra miraculum so my students really always enjoy reading that but the main thing they get out of it is that a lot of people in the 11th century seem to lose their eyeballs and I’m wondering if there’s any connection between the sorts
Of remarks you were making about seeing and not seeing with the eyes and and and seeing that truth inside and the this seeming Obsession to collect Miracles where people get their eyes poked out oh great question and some of the best answer to this question was given
By V who in her analysis also include uh um the passage from the letter of Paul to the Hebrews where it says that faith is um uh belief in things unseen and she connected this in a sense with all these miracles of blindness and spiritual
Seeing that is at con so um I would I would leave it at that for now but what I want to say is that the Liber miraculum also has a very important um political trajectory that unfolds uh and which is the trans formation of um oxitan as a society in which uh Knights
Become really one of the driving forces and what we see in this Liber mirum because there is the standard version that uh has been published and this is the version using one manuscript and that’s the seat manuscript and there are other uh passages of Miracles that exist
Some in in a manuscript at conk that have not all of them been translated and they even more um violent and the reason I’m saying all this is because this book is a way conk reckoned with this transformation this transformation into the culture of Fidelity in which the
Lawlessness was kind of similar to the lawlessness now okay I don’t need to go in modern political terms but um it shows to me this incredible use of soft power that takes place at K where each one of these segments really shows how K basically reconciles itself with
The new senores and becomes one among those senores in which many of this uh Judgment of uh meeting out judgment in terms of blinding takes place I think we have time for maybe one more question ready up thank you so much um given the popularity of conk as a pilgrimage
Destination can you say something about how some of these IDE ideas maybe get manifested in popular religion and turn into vernacular culture or should we think of this as a more theological level of representation this is another great question so we have the council the Santa fedas which is basically uh the
Retelling of the P you story in the vernacular which is the earliest surviving vernacular poem in oxitan and it has been taken by colleagues of mine uh who work at melier and I right now I’m blank on the name and there was a performance done in
2019 uh where because we don’t have the music for that conso the Santa fedas where it was performed with kind of a more um trying to reconstruct trobador poetry through other examples and uh the first I think um the first onethird of that poem has been performed the reason I’m
Saying it is because the poem itself the council the the fedus says in its I think it was the third um lay it says that it is composed he once he read uh the text in Latin and now it is in this Le Francesca that he that he performs
And the reason I say this is because the office of SAA is the fundamental structure on which this other music and this other poems are created and it is possible that the council the santus was actually composed by Pierre dunduk who was the bishop of pona because he had
Actually his pen is suggested in other works as well and it’s right at the same time in which he is at conk as a young adult he was given by one of the local aristocracy and the reason I’m saying that is because that text is actually
The full victory of the monastery in the culture of Fidelity in which they arrive on the political agage as a seor in their own right and the poem is about that that it tells the story first through the martydom of St fan then he tells It Through The Eyes of caprus and
It finishes with the trador poet who takes on the role of caprius and now recognizes her as a Don and it is her whole transformation from being a c a servant of and a lover of Christ to becoming Adon in her own right so in
Other words this is a place con is a place where by just sheer luck we have a series of artistic Farms that survive and other monasteries play with the same media as well we just don’t have that Serendipity of the material to bring so here is an
Example we have the Latin liturgy we have the music we have the trador Poetry we have the liver mirum and we have the carer it’s incredible level of refined detail and last but not least this also explains why I’m working on con right now because I actually want to work more
On Byzantine music but because Byzantine music is so much harder to study because he doesn’t have the develop tools I started with a project to learn the tools and so I’m doing con because there is cus and I could look at the database and I could see The Melodies if I work
Right now with bus in chant I need to call Alex Lingus and say have you seen this melodic fragment and so it makes it a little bit more complicated but I would say there are many other sites in the sense that performed their soft power thank you can everyone please join me thanking Dr uh as a really beautiful and thoughtful kickoff to the conference it’s not often that we get some like hardcore musicology so thank you for that there was one piece of housekeeping that we forgot about at the beginning which is all of you were asked uh and
And did agree to abide by our professional Behavior policy when you registered I hope you all read it before you agreed to abide by it um but one thing that’s really important to know is should you wish to report a clear violation of that policy go to the front
Desk the registration desk and they will contact me immediately they have my cell phone and I will reach out to my fellow uh Ombudsman advocates for uh this conference who are Bill Monroe who is an outgoing counselor and will batty who I think is here somewhere over there representing the graduate student
Committee and the three of us will convene as quickly as we possibly can to address the situation if it is a matter of health and safety then we will work with Tom conference authorities the Notre Dame security or even the local law enforcement as necessary so step one
Go to the registration desk and they will contact me immediately thank you and I I’m here just to give a little bit of traffic direction so for those of you who aren’t familiar with our campus um as you leave you’re going to go out the
Doors of the front of the hotel you will see across the road the McKenna Conference Center and that is where if you haven’t registered already you can register it’s also where the book exhibit is um if you either walk around that conference center or through it
You’ll come to a quad and on the other side of the Quad is the DeBartolo classroom building where our first session will begin at 3:30 so everything is that way you leave the building that way cross the road registration would be your first stop one quad further and
You’ll have the conference itself thank you again for coming and we’re looking forward to hearing from you all in the coming days