Forty Part Motet is an award-winning sound installation based on the choral composition Spem in Alium by the English composer Thomas Tallis.
Created by world-renowned sound artist Janet Cardiff, The Forty Part Motet is an award-winning sound installation based on the choral composition Spem in Alium by the English composer Thomas Tallis. Written in 1573 for a forty-voice choir, Spem in Alium is widely regarded as one of the most intricate and beautiful compositions of the English Renaissance. The Forty Part Motet recreates a performance of Tallis’s complex choral work that requires eight choirs of five voices (soprano, alto, tenor, baritone, and bass). Eight groups of five speakers arranged in a large oval allow visitors to experience the choral composition from the vantage point of the individual performers. Based in British Columbia and Berlin, Janet Cardiff works with sound, movement, film, video, and photography. In collaboration with her partner, George Bures Miller, she represented Canada at the Venice Biennale in 2001 and has had two internationally traveling exhibitions. This rare presentation of The Forty Part Motet was organized by Tacoma Art Museum.
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