Co-commissioned by BALTIC as part of our pre-opening programme, we are delighted to present Janet Cardiff’s The Forty Part Motet which has delighted and moved audiences around the world over the last decade. It returns to the North East for the first time since its original showing at Newcastle Castle Keep and for the fist time ever at BALTIC.  

A reworking of the renaissance choral work for forty voices Spem in Alium Nunquam Habui 1573 by Thomas Tallis, The Forty Part Motet consists of forty separately recorded voices played back through forty individual speakers grouped in eight choirs of five singers. The work allows the audience to get inside the music and experience it almost tangibly as the voices weave in and out of each other.