THE sculptural potential of sound will be experienced in an event at Auckland Castle organised as part of £60m plans to create galleries dedicated to the history of faith in Britain.

Canadian artist Janet Cardiff’s sound installation, The Forty Part Motet, sung by Salisbury Cathedral choir, will allow visitors to hear and contemplate a contemporary reworking of Spem in Alium by the 16th Century English composer Thomas Tallis.

It will involve 40 high fidelity speakers on stands set up in a large oval playing the piece on a 14-minute loop. Visitors may move about to listen closely to individual voices or experience the parts as a whole.

The installation in the throne room at Auckland Castle, in Bishop Auckland, opens on May 27 and runs until September 11. After the exhibition closes, work will begin on conserving the state rooms and building an extension to house galleries telling the history of faith in the British Isles from prehistory to the present.

Claire Baron, curator of temporary exhibitions, said: “Janet Cardiff’s Forty Part Motet is a work of extraordinary and overwhelming beauty.

"Spem in Alium is considered one of the most important choral compositions in English church history. The installation unlocks the full emotive potential of Tallis’ choral arrangement to offer visitors a truly immersive and transcendental experience."

The Forty Part Motet has toured the world and was last shown in the North-East in 2012 at the Baltic in Gateshead,

Janet Cardiff said: “While listening to a concert, you are normally seated in front of the choir in traditional audience position. With this piece, I want the audience to be able to experience a piece of music from the viewpoint of the singers.

“Every performer hears a unique mix of the piece of music. Enabling the audience to move throughout the space allows them to be intimately connected with the voices. It also reveals the piece of music as a changing construct.

“As well I am interested in how sound may physically construct a space in a sculptural way and how a viewer may choose a path through this physical yet virtual space.

“I placed the speakers around the room in an oval so the listener would be able to really feel the sculptural construction of the piece by Tallis.

"You can hear the sound move from one choir member to another, jumping back and forth, echoing each other and then experience the overwhelming feeling as the sound waves hit you when all the singers are singing.”

It is the second contemporary exhibition at Auckland Castle. Last summer, Bill Viola’s Earth Martyr, Air Martyr, Fire Martyr and Water Martyr 2014 was shown in St Peter’s Chapel.