The sound of a 40 part choir singing in harmony through 40 individual speakers is one of the major works which will feature in an upcoming exhbition at York Art Gallery this winter.
Janet Cardiff’s evocative The Forty Part Motet allows people to walk through an oval of speakers to hear a reworking of Thomas Tallis’ Spem in Alium Nunquam Habui (Hope in Any Other Have I None) from the singers’ point of view.
Spem in alium was composed in 1570 for eight choirs of five voices and is considered to be one of the finest pieces of early English music.
The exhibition is one of the highlights of When All Is Quiet: Kaiser Chiefs in Conversation with York Art Gallery, which opens on 14th December 2018.