The Forty Part Motet

[kernelbogey]

This is an installation by the Canadian artist Janet Cardiff and consists of forty speakers mounted at shoulder level each relaying one voice from a recording of the Tallis Spem in Alium by Salisbury Cathedral Choir. We are given the choice of listening to the performance from one or more positions - or of moving around to achieve different aural perspectives. So, we may wander among the voices, hearing individual lines of the polyphony emerging from and fading back into the background.

The music is on a continuous loop, with thirteen minutes of performance and three minutes of intermission: during the intermission the mikes were on and as we wander through the installation we can hear members of the choir chatting to each other, nose-blowing and so on.

This piece was commissioned for the Salisbury Festival where I was fortunate to stumble across it a few years ago in the cloisters at the Cathedral. I have to say I found it a complete knockout of a kinesthetic experience.

I discovered last night to my delight that the installation is in The Great Hall of Winchester until 20 March, daily 1000 - 1700.

I urge anyone within reasonable travelling distance of Winchester (Waterloo c. 60 minutes) to come and experience this wonderful installation. (And there’s an ace city attached, too.)

Further information:

https://www.hants.gov.uk/janetcardiff

BW, kb

[JimD]

Hello kernelbogey. I put up a message about this when it was in Leeds at the Howard Assembly Room and received a very dismissive response from the purists...

[Bryn]

Hello kernelbogey. I put up a message about this when it was in Leeds at the Howard Assembly Room and received a very dismissive response from the purists...

Quite right too. The electro-acoustic repertoire should not be so vitiated.

[DracoM]

Mg1

Maybe if this thread had been in 'The Choir', or 'Arts and Ideas', it would have got greater attention?

[doversoul1]

I doubt if it is the place that is the problem. I wonder if the Forum members are somewhat unsure or cautious about commenting on a project of this kind. I posted on The Early Music Show about an early music group ‘doing things’ to Tallis’s music sometime ago but had no response. Or is the subject of no interest to the members?

As for this project, I belong to the ‘purest’ or the 'blinkered' tribe and believe that Tallis’s music is about as perfect as any music can be, as it is. I am puzzled by the trend of performing early music in these new ways but I suppose it is too early to make any judgement.

[Bryn]

Another way NOT to do it.

[Pianorak]

Further information:
www.hants.gov.uk/janetcardiff

Although I changed my view when reading the above I must admit my first reaction was "Oh no, not another Turner Prize".

[nersner]

I saw this in Leeds and can thoroughly recommend it. It was great to start in the middle and walk out to one of the speakers to pick out a voice or to walk round picking out voices at random. Some lovely sounding voices as well. It is your choice of how or where to listen to it as if you were at a performance and could roam around the choir at will. On a similar vein was Re-rite covering the Rite of Spring by the Philharmonia, that is well worth seeing also.

My attitude to any similar "artworks" is that if any classical music is included it should be encouraged and attended.

[kernelbogey]

.... As for this project, I belong to the ‘purest’ or the 'blinkered' tribe and believe that Tallis’s music is about as perfect as any music can be, as it is. I am puzzled by the trend of performing early music in these new ways but I suppose it is too early to make any judgement.

I must say I'm surprised by the responses here - but thanks to nersner and pianorak for positive reactions. I suggest it's unhelpful to think of this thing - whatever one calls it - as simply a performance, in the sense of going to hear a choir perform the Motet. Much of our listening to performances is seated in one place in relative silence from our companions, hearing the music from one aural perspective. Yet if we think of, for example, Winchester Cathedral in earlier centuries, it would not have been filled with chairs as now, but its vast space offered the opportunity to wander around during a service hearing the choral music and organ from different places.

Furthermore, I suggest that our response to a live performance has to be coloured by our exposure to recordings and broadcasts. We have the opportunity, entirely denied to listeners before (say) 1900 to compare performances, musicianship, interpretation and so on and so forth.

Now, what Janet Cardiff has created is a virtual choir through which one can wander and - as nersner points out - 'walk round picking out voices at random'. The fact that her installation is based on an astonishing piece of choral polyphony makes it all the more fascinating. I dare say a piece of orchestral rep would have been equally fascinating - a Brandenburg Concerto, say.

I repeat my urging of MBers to get on a train to Winchester, walk the 15 minutes or so to the Great Hall and make up your own mind. Wander into the Cathedral Close (another 15 minutes) see the wonderful Cathedral, Winchester College, browse in the College Bookshop (P&G Wells) and saunter back for a leisurely lunch in one of the many bistros and restaurants in this Roman and mediaeval city.

Then stroll back to the station via the Great Hall and have another taste of this take on Tallis's masterpiece....

[agingjb]

Thanks kernelbogey. We will certainly go into Winchester (park and ride rather than train).

[BBMmk2]

I dont like these habits creeping in either. So, I suppose, as Doversoul said, I am part of the 'puritst', 'blinkered' brigade!!

[doversoul1]

kernelbogey

Yet if we think of, for example, Winchester Cathedral in earlier centuries, it would not have been filled with chairs as now, but its vast space offered the opportunity to wander around during a service hearing the choral music and organ from different places.

I have little knowledge of historical facts in this area but was not a congregation always seated in some way at least while the choir was performing?

[MrGongGong]

I quite like the 40 part motet installation
It worked well in Leeds but I did prefer hearing it in the Whitechapel gallery a few years earlier
what strikes me about it is that when one is right up close to one singer (or one of the groups) the sound is quite "rough" , this was the same with the Re Rite installation, which really shows how the acoustic of the space contributes to the blending of the sound.
I really like the bit before they start singing, where you get the sense of being with a large group before the performance
in terms of a "perfect" performance of Tallis it's not that BUT gives a wonderful experience of revisiting the music from a different perspective
it was also (when it was made) much discussed on several of the nerdy newsgroups that i sometimes read as to get 40 independent parts recorded all close mic simultaneously was a bit of a technical triumph at the time (though much easier nowadays)

worth the trip though I would say

[Alf-Prufrock]

I have little knowledge of historical facts in this area but was not a congregation always seated in some way at least while the choir was performing?

Not in the medieval church. There were stone benches around the walls for the weak and infirm to sit on - the origin of our expression 'going to the wall' - but otherwise the nave would be empty. With the Reformation and the need to be still and concentrate on the word of God, fixed pews became popular (some seem to have been introduced before this though, but not extensively.) So the church service changed for the parishioners from a community melee in a furniture-free nave to an organised, regimented, silent and reverent hush.

[Urlicht]

I would urge anyone within range to go and judge for themselves. Admission FREE.