http://www.0300tv.com/2010/10/janet-cardiff-the-forty-part-motet/
"Responses to the work The Forty-Part Motet by Canadian artist Janet Cardiff frequently include chills down the spine, goose bumps or even welling up with tears. Visceral, tangible reactions result from the way Cardiff constructs and positions recorded sound to create a spatial, sculptural experience, often within a designed architecture, and sometimes in the public realm (such as her series of ‘walks’ of the early 1990s). Her works create scenarios for orchestrating intense encounters.
The Forty-Part Motet comprises a cyclic virtual performance of Thomas Tallis’s Spem in alium nunquam habui, a complex composition dating from the mid 1570s featuring forty voices singing separate parts in unison. Tallis was the leading English composer of his generation, and it has been suggested that this motet was written in 1573 for Queen Elizabeth I’s fortieth birthday. In her usage Cardiff has chosen to emphasise the intricate construction of the score by presenting each voice through an individual speaker — resulting in forty channels of sound playing simultaneously.
On approach to the gallery traces of music can be heard. A temporary wall prevents the viewer from seeing the installation before entering the exhibition space, making the initial experience aural rather than visual, and suggesting for a moment that a choir has taken up residence in the white cube. On turning the corner a stark configuration appears; forty black rectangular speakers on individual stands are set out in clusters forming an oval perimeter. The speakers are mounted at upper torso or head height, creating a curious body/technology affinity as they emit sound from where a mouth would be.
The fourteen minute, seven second work plays on a repeating loop, beginning with silence followed by some quiet chatter amongst the singers — choristers from Salisbury Cathedral Choir — as they get into position and ready themselves to commence singing. The forty men, boys and girls wear individual microphones capturing their voice. When played back these sounds merge with the ‘real’ ambient noise of the gallery, blurring the boundaries between ‘performed’ and everyday sound. The short fragments of conversation are intimate, informal and contrast distinctly with the disciplined recital of the 16th century polyphonic choral composition that follows."
Taken from - http://www.cardiffmiller.com/press/texts/Curatorial%20Notes_JCardiff_Web.pdf
