How Is Music Incorporated Into Installations?

In "Because My Father Always Said He Was The Only Indian Who Saw Jimi Hendrix Play 'The Star-Spangled Banner' At Woodstock", Sherman Alexie uses music as a motif to demonstrate that it is a "powerful medicine" that has both "form and function" (28-29).  Music is a compelling art medium that can mend "broken hearts" and can inspire others (30).  Recently, artists began to incorporate music into mesmerizing installations, in particular Janet Cardiff's The Forty Part Motet.  

In the fall of 2013, the Metropolitan Museum of Art (MOMA) exhibited The Forty Part Motet as its first sound installation.  According to ARTNews, The Forty Part Motet is a "14-minute work [that] ... continuously [plays] a composition by 16th-century Tudor composer Thomas Tallis with individual voices coming from each of 40 loudspeakers" (Pollack).  In his composition, Tallis wrote lines for each of these 40 voices, or singers.  Hence, individuals can listen to a single singer, several singers in unison, or the harmony of all of the singers.  The most effective component of this installation is that there is a pause at the end of "each 'performance', during which you can hear the sounds of the people around you" (Schaefer).  This pause allows the audience to comprehend how each individual voice conduces to a captivating "choral effect" (Pollack).  

The Forty Part Motet 
Fuentidueña Chapel, MOMA