The Motets of Lassus

In the Adventure of the Bruce-Partington Plans, Watson writes "I remember that during the whole of that memorable day {Sherlock} lost himself in a monograph which he had undertaken upon the Polyphonic Motets of Lassus." At the conclusion of the case, Watson says that "As to Holmes, he returned refreshed to his monograph upon the Polyphonic Motets of Lassus, which has since been printed for private circulation, and is said by experts to be the last word upon the subject."

What is a motet? A motet is an unaccompanied vocal composition that evolved from and used sacred Latin text in some form. Renaissance motets were sung entirely in Latin. There's a great Trifles podcast that discusses the motets of lassus: https://www.ihearofsherlock.com/2019/12/episode-182-polyphonic-motets-of-lassus.html

But how did these motets sound? 

Well after my visit to Toronto we headed to Ottawa for two days, and visited the National Gallery of Canada. There we found the Rideau Chapel, transported from a nineteenth century convent slated for demolition. The Chapel itself was beautiful, but permeating the entire gallery was a sound sculpture hosted in the Rideau Chapel - a forty part motet. This motet involves forty voices, each recorded as individual tracks and played on forty speakers arrayed around the chapel. It was created by artist Janet Cardiff, adapted from "Spem in Alium" (Latin for 'Hope in any other') composed by Thomas Tallis, 'composed in c. 1570 for eight choirs of five voices each' (for more information see the Wiki page on the original work: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spem_in_alium ). The original motet was composed around the time that Lassus was active.

Through my two videos below, you can hear why Sherlock enjoyed their overpowering majesty, and would have been moved to write a monograph on the topic.