Renaissance and baroque music ensemble
Current events
[Past events]() under construction
[Repertoire]() under construction
Recordings
About the ensemble
contact: spheraesonantes@gmail.com
We are a loose association of predominantly young singers and instrumentalist – amateur and (semi-)professional musicians – with a particular fondness for music of the 16th to 18th centuries, especially polychoral repertoire. We were founded on the initiative of two students of musicology at the Faculty of Arts of Charles University, originally in connection with Dr Jan Baťa’s lecture Cori spezzati on the polychoral repertoire of the late Renaissance and an effort to put the knowledge acquired there into practice.
After seven years of activity, our achievements include performances at the Otevřená zahrada festival in Libčice and the Zelenka Festival Prague, a performance of Orazio Vecchi’s eight-part late-Renaissance Easter Mass, and two performances of the concert programme At the Turning of the Ages, featuring a selection of late-Renaissance and early-Baroque music (at St Adalbert’s Church and the Czech Museum of Music). We also regularly provide musical accompaniment for Masses at St Adalbert’s Church, the Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary at Karlov, and other churches in Prague.
The name Spherae sonantes, meaning “the spheres resound”, refers to the medieval cosmological view of the world. According to this conception, the “spheres” – the heavenly bodies (the Sun, Moon and planets) – were in perfect harmony, which was itself music. This is musica universalis, the music of the universe. Although this music cannot be heard, its reflection can be perceived in the human soul. This is musica humana, the inner music of the human being. This perception can then be expressed through music that is audible to us, using both voices and instruments (musica instrumentalis).
We frequently and gladly collaborate with:
Free Musical Brotherhood (artistic director Jan Klimeš)
Ensemble Lazarus (artistic director Marie Vozková)