Janet Cardiff’s “The Forty Part Motet” features beautiful music at MoMA PS1 (photo by twi-ny/mdr)
MoMA PS1
22-25 Jackson Ave. at 46th Ave.
Thursday – Monday through September 4, suggested admission $10
718-784-2084
www.momaps1.org
www.cardiffmiller.com
It might not quite be Carnegie Hall, but beautiful music is continuously emanating from a rather sparse white room at MoMA PS1 in Queens. For “The Forty Part Motet,” Canadian-born sound artist Janet Cardiff individually recorded forty members of the Salisbury Cathedral Choir performing Thomas Tallis’s sixteenth-century choral composition “Spem in Alium Nunquam habui” (“In no other is my hope”). Then, working with her husband and partner, George Bures Miller, who served as editor, Cardiff created an installation of forty speakers on stands, eight groups of five apiece organized in an enveloping circle, with each singer’s voice coming out of a different speaker. Beginning with coughs and whispers that kick off the fourteen-minute piece, “The Forty Part Motet” is a thrilling experience, even for those who might not generally have an ear for classical music. As visitors walk around the large room, which has natural light pouring in on two sides, they can sit in the center and let the glorious sounds wash over them, then approach each speaker to hear that singer’s unique contribution to the overall piece, resulting in a very personal, intimate connection. Cardiff, whose “Her Long Black Hair” led people on a mysterious journey through Central Park in the summer of 2004, is a master at using sound as her primary element in telling unusual and complex stories; her magnificent 2008 collaboration with Miller, “The Murder of Crows,” is currently wowing audiences through September 9 at the Park Ave. Armory. “The Forty Part Motet” is on view through September 4 at MoMA PS1, which is also showing “Lara Favaretto: Just Knocked Out,” “Jack Smith: Normal Love,” “Zackary Drucker: At Least You Know You Exist,” “Esther Kläs – Better Energy,” “Max Brand: no solid footing – (trained) duck fighting a crow,” “Wendy” by HWKN, and solo projects by Rey Akdogan, Edgardo Aragón, Ilja Karilampi, and Caitlin Keogh.