Looking back in history the Cloisters and its gardens use to be the only place, within the monastery at the time and now as a Cathedral, where the silent monks could talk and have a conversation.
The work I am developing is based on Thomas Tallis’s (ca. 1505 – 1585) remarkable 40-voice Spem in alium, which work challenged the Striggio's 40-part Ecce beatum lautam.
The installation will consist of 40 individual sounds, played by 40 speakers.
The idea is to have 24 speakers that will play recorded sound, 12 speakers that will transmit live sound from the Garden of the Cloisters into the Cloisters and 4 speakers that will broadcast live sound from a nearby woods (2km air distance), again into the Cloisters.
The 24 single pre-recorded sounds are collections of human voices and bird songs. I would like to use the natural layout of the cloister and the idea is for each of the four sides of the cloisters to represent the four main natural areas of the Gloucestershire county: Forest of Dean; Severn Estuary and Vale; Cotswold Hills; and Cotswold Water Park, with sounds of typical birds from each area.
At present I am working with the Gloucester Cathedral Music Director Adrian Partington and recording the boy’s and men’s choir singing Gregorian chants used by the Monks back in time, in groups and as individual voices.
Once the sounds of the birds are collected then this will be matched with the human voices and developed into Gregorian chants.
