ART: THE FORTY PART MOTET BY JANET CARDIFF AT THE CLOISTERS: BEST OF NYC ART EXHIBITIONS 2013 by ALEXANDRA THOM

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ART: THE FORTY PART MOTET BY JANET CARDIFF AT THE ...

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In the case of Janet Cardiff’s The Forty Part Motet at The Cloisters, sound, not light, was the revelation. In the intimate space of the museum’s Fuentidueña Chapel, a sacred composition by Thomas Tallis was played through 40 speakers — one for each voice in the Salisbury Cathedral Choir, which performed the piece in 2000. The black high-fidelity speakers were arrayed in an oval, organized into eight groupings of soprano, alto, tenor, baritone and bass. The sound was pervasive and all encompassing and felt, in the words of Jim Dwyer of The New York Times, “like charged, living sculpture.”

December 2013