The Forty Part Motet (A reworking of “Spem in Alium,” by Thomas Tallis 1556)
Janet Cardiff
Canadian, born 1957
2001
Janet Cardiff’s The Forty Part Motet is a forty-track sound installation played through forty speakers that re-presents Thomas Tallis’s 1556 forty-part motet so each voice becomes an isolated, spatialized presence.
In a spare white gallery forty small black speakers on stands form a loose ring around two low black benches, making the room feel like an invisible choir whose voices arise from distinct points in space.
By unbundling a Renaissance polyphony into individual channels, the work changed how historical music can be heard and helped establish immersive, site-specific sound installations as a central practice in contemporary art.
Medium
Forty-track sound recording, forty speakers
Dimensions
14 min.
Classification
Department
Credit
Gift of Jo Carole and Ronald S. Lauder in memory of Rolf Hoffmann
Accession
424.2002.a-k
Palette
Art Terms
Exhibitions
