The Music of the Spheres

An adventure in sound (best in a resonant building)

Performers: 8 singers

“Sleep, fleshly birth, in peaceful earth
And let thine ears list to the music of the spheres.”

Pythagoras, Aristotle, Dante, Milton…

 

Sphere

The Greeks spoke of an ever-present music created by the planets as they revolved around the earth which we had lost the ability to hear because of the noise of everyday life. This idea has fascinated writers and composers ever since.

In medieval times music and astronomy were further linked in the quadrivium, (along with geometry and mathematics). Proportion and number, as evident in natural acoustic properties, were proof of God’s creation.

This programme is an adventure in sound. Exploring Renaissance masterworks that combine these features, through extraordinary structural devices or unusual soundscapes (chromaticism or bitonality), it attempts to make a music of the spheres on earth.

Programme includes:
Josquin – Agnus Dei from ‘Missa L’homme armé sexti toni’
Don Fernando de las Infantas – Loquebantur variis linguis
Tallis – Miserere mihi
Gombert – Je prens congie de mes amours
Sheppard – Libera nos
Hildegard of Bingen – O viridissima virga
Martland – Skywalk

Follow I Fagiolini on Twitter