Sounds of the Sacred

Here you will find a cache of sounds recorded in sacred spaces around Jerusalem's Old City, I've relished listening to these fragments of audio since returning from the Holy Land. Each on their own summon vivid and precious memories: immersed in darkness before dawn at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre with the chants of Armenian monks reverberating off the rotunda's ceiling, underneath the Wilson Ark adjacent to the Western Wall where Jewish men swayed in prayer before ornate chests filled Torah scrolls, alone inside the Garden Tomb meters beyond the Damascus Gate, in the company of a no-nonsense monk-sentinel singing and expelling noisy visitors at St. Anne's Church in Bethesda, or at the Children's Memorial at Yad Vashem floating in the middle of a galaxy of flames, each representing a children's soul lost in the Holocaust. Taken together these sounds awaken a swirl of awe and wonder, solace and spiritual fervor, pathos and joy. They have taught me that the sacred in these holy spaces is not only found in its grand architecture, dramatic rituals, or poignant settings, but also in the sounds they sing.

    

                                                                                                                              Mr. Russell Fiorella

 

 

**These sounds were used for a presentation for students in Spring 2019.