Medieval Meets Contemporary at the Cloisters
Walking into a room filled with forty speakers, set in an oval, playing forty different voices in Latin would seem peculiar to a regular visitor of the Cloisters museum in New York City, or anybody at all for that matter. One might cautiously look around the Cloisters’ Fuentidueña Chapel observing how other visitors are reacting to the music and follow their lead by closing his eyes or walking around to hear the sound in each speaker. After being completely transfixed by the beautiful eleven-minute piece, the visitor will have naturally expressed his own unique reaction and wonder who it is that could be responsible for something so moving.
Canadian native Janet Cardiff created an adaptation of a sixteenth-century, sacred motet by recording each member of a choir individually and piping each voice into its own speaker. Visitors are invited to walk within the oval of loudspeakers and hear the individual unaccompanied singers—bass, baritone, alto, tenor, and child soprano, one part per speaker—as well as to experience the immersive effect of the combined voices.
When speaking on her work Cardiff said, “It poses the question of how sound may physically construct a space in a sculptural way and explores how a viewer may choose a path through this simultaneously physical and virtual environment…It’s about the personal, the individual, and how people come together for the singing, and then it becomes ethereal, spiritual.”
The name of the sacred motet in Latin is Spem in alium, which translates as “In No Other Is My Hope,” by the famous the Tudor composer Thomas Tallis in the 16th century. What is now known as The Forty-Part Motet, has been on display in over twenty-five different locations around the world since Cardiff’s recreation in 2001.
The Forty-Part Motet is actually the first contemporary piece to visit the Cloisters in honor of the museum’s 75th anniversary celebration. When choosing which piece would represent the anniversary, Anne Strauss, Associate Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art said “Discussion of bringing The Forty Part Motet to the Museum – the first example of sound art to be presented at the Met – began several years ago, and we timed its arrival to fall within The Cloisters’ 75th Anniversary year, with the idea that its presence would animate the 75th Anniversary programs with the remarkable immersive experience that the piece offers.”
The Cloisters museum and gardens opened in 1938 and is located in Fort Tryon Park in Manhattan’s Washington Heights neighborhood. It assembled from architectural elements that largely date from the 12th through the 15th century. The focal elements of the museum are devoted to the art and architecture of medieval Europe. Although the motet dates back to the 16th century, Cardiff’s remake features a technology called binaural sound, such that the visitor senses voices coming from very specific directions, creating a highly physical experience.
Strauss said ““The opportunity for two Metropolitan Museum departments – the Department of Modern and Contemporary Art and the Department of Medieval Art and The Cloisters – centuries apart on the art historical timeline, to, in a first-time collaboration, present a contemporary masterwork in an ideal architectural and acoustical setting uniquely offered at The Cloisters. It was our intention, with the piece, to transform the Fuentidueña Chapel into a unique setting and experience for several months.” This choice of exhibit is a perfect mix of the Cloister tradition, and the opening of a contemporary work at the museum.
The Forty-Part Motet has been a popular attraction for visitors and entices younger, less frequent museumgoers to experience beauty, history, and technology combined to make a masterpiece. C. Griffith Mann, the Michel David-Weill Curator in Charge of the Department of Medieval Art and The Cloisters says “The museum is seeing not only an increase in visitors overall for The Forty-Part Motet, but also new visitors to the museum, as well as an increase in the conversion of visitors to members. The museum staff have been both excited and challenged, especially on the some of the busiest weekend days, by the steady flow of visitors. Many people are coming to see The Forty-Part Motet, and our work is to ensure that they also discover (and come back to) The Cloisters Museums and Gardens along the way.” Enticing visitors to come back to the museum because of interesting, contemporary works is a clever tactic shed light on the beauty of the museum and garden itself.
Presenting a newfound contemporary attraction for the museum is an incredible idea for The Cloisters to attract new visitors. Strauss promised “The Cloisters will certainly evaluate its programming more broadly to ensure that it can take advantage of its nested position within the Met’s broader encyclopedic collections. Developing relationships with living artists is likely to become a more predictable part of our programming, though the forms that this will take will vary, rather than remain limited to ‘presenting’ contemporary art in the context of The Cloisters historic collections.”
The Forty-Part Motet has such emotional resonance for each individual that upon leaving the chapel people could not find words to describe it. There are so many ways to listen to the piece; whether it is walking to individual speakers to hear one person’s part, or sitting in the middle to hear them all together, Cardiff says, “every installation changes it.”
One woman, 24-year-old Margaret Cardenas found one word to describe it- “transcendent.” Many people could not even be approached after listening to it because they claimed that it was “too soon” or the sound was “too raw” to speak on it just yet. The Forty-Part Motet has brought people together over the past 13 years in many ways. Cardiff actually said that the man who sets up the speakers for the exhibit, met his wife in Sweden while listening, and now they have three kids. This exhibit has been featured in many different locations throughout the world but has not failed to have a lasting impact on the listeners and also on the location that which the song is featured.
Works Cited
Cardiff, Janet. Interview by Brian Boucher. “Janet Cardiff Gets Medieval at the Cloisters.” Art In America. 09 Sept 2013. Sept . Web.
Dwyer, Jim. “Moved to Tears at the Cloisters by a Ghostly Tapestry of Music.” New York Times 19 Sept 2013, n. pag. Web. <http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/20/nyregion/moved-to-tears-at-the-cloisters-by-a-ghostly-tapestry-of-music.html?_r=0>.
Friswell, Richard. “The Cloisters’ “Forty Part Motet” a Must-experience Installation.” Artes Magazine. 07 Nov 2013: n. page. Web. 19 Nov. 2013. <http://www.artesmagazine.com/2013/11/the-cloisters-forty-part-motet-a-must-do-experience/>.
“Janet Cardiff.” The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Web. 19 Nov 2013. <http://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2013/janet-cardiff>.
“Visit The Cloisters.” The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Web. 19 Nov 2013. <http://www.metmuseum.org/visit/visit-the-cloisters>.
Tortora, Jaclyn. “School Assignment: Inquiry on The Forty-Part Motet.” Message to Egle Zygas Senior Press Officer The Metropolitan Museum of Art. 18 Nov 2013. E-mail.
