Partita for 8 Voices is a 360-degree visual and sound immersion inside the Pulitzer Prize winning piece of the same name, composed by Caroline Shaw and performed by the group Roomful of Teeth.

Using a dome projection that surrounds the audience, this unique film experience takes the public right to the heart of a performance by the eight multi-talented and eclectic singers of the group, standing in a circle, looking back at the viewers in the middle.

As the music progresses, monochromatic lines start to appear around the singers and the public. The animated art coming to life is inspired by the Wall Drawings series by Sol Lewitt. The Wall Drawings have not only influenced Shaw when she wrote Partita, they are present in the music itself. Created in different places by numerous draftsmen and artists throughout the years, the Wall Drawings are based on guidelines Lewitt wrote. Not too different from a composer writing guidelines for musicians to perform.

The “art” is first in the concept and then comes the reproduction process. As the singers read out some of Lewitt’s instructions, an array of artistic imageries unfolds creating a whole immersive environment. Fragments of musical notations from the score appear in and around the ensemble. The line “the detail of the pattern is movement” (also in the piece) and other excerpts from poems in various languages materialize in the background. All the drawings, musical notations and writings move, merge together, morph into poetic representations of sound waves and slowly fade away.