Of Angels and Stuff

There's a scene in Shawshank Redemption when one of the prisoners locks himself in a room with a record player connected to the prisons speaker system and plays a piece of music (Mozart's "Le Nozze de Figaro.") with certain punishment - he's gets thrown in solitary as a result. The whole feel and soul of the prison changes whilst it plays. He narrates over the film towards the end of the scene "I have no idea to this day what those two Italian ladies were singing about. Truth is, I don't want to know. Some things are best left unsaid. I'd like to think they were singing about something so beautiful, it can't be expressed in words, and makes your heart ache because of it. I tell you, those voices soared higher and farther than anybody in a gray place dares to dream. It was like some beautiful bird flapped into our drab little cage and made those walls dissolve away, and for the briefest of moments, every last man in Shawshank felt free. . I watch this film sometimes just to hear that music and hear those words.

Today I took mum back to Durham and Beth and boyfriend back to Newcastle to start term tomorrow. I didn't hang around but took myself down to the Quayside for an hour before making the trip back Yorkshire. Having taken a few photos of the bridges and the armadilo I slipped into the Baltic to try a few shots from the top. I wasn't really intending to look in on the installations but I heard a sound on the 4th Floor and followed it and was transported to another place by Janet Cardiff's installation Forty Part Motet. I'm familiar with the music but to experience it like this was something else. The room was laid out pretty bare, with 40 speakers in a circle about 30-40ft across. The eponymous motet is Tallis's Spem in alium written if I recall for Elizebeth I. It is written in 40 parts for 40 voices. I first discovered it as it plays in part of the film Touching the Void and have occasionally listened to it, and been told by those who have heard it live - that you have to be there to appreciate it's beauty. If you can possibly get to Newcastle to hear/see this before it moves on in October, just go. Each speaker was the recording of a single voice, positioning yourself in different parts of the space, or next to a speaker gave a visceral difference. The combination of the sounds left me feeling that I'd been in a holy place physically and spiritually. The art installation itself looked to explore how music can transform space and time. It was interesting (on my third listening of the piece) watching others as they entered the space. One young guy all fidgety and with his hoody up, was stilled and bowed for the whole 12minutes. A mum and grandma brought in a 2 year old, who was just winding up a wee bit of a tantrum, she got out of her buggy and stood and walked slowly around the space awed and calmed by the experience.

The pictures of the Tyne Bridge and The Sage will have to wait to be blipped another day. I knew before I left the room what my blip would be and stopped on the way home to spend some time with The Angel.

Spem in alium


PS Thank you all for your kindness for my blipday and other celebrations yesterday, you are so kind