Acoustic vessels as an expression of medieval music tradition in Serbian sacred architecture

Abstract

Archaeoacoustics is a multidisciplinary field of research focused on the history of the relatedness of the field of sound and architecture. The architectural history of Europe, from Antiquity to the modern period, is abundant in the findings of vessels, which are considered to have an acoustic purpose. This paper addresses these acoustic vessels embedded in the massive walls of sacred architecture in medieval Serbia (15 churches). We considered the wide context of current archaeoacoustic research, in order to argue that this practice can be regarded as an expression of a certain medieval musical tradition.