Harmony of the Spheres​ 

 

A voice said, Look me in the stars 
And tell me truly, men of earth, 
If all the soul-and-body scars 
Were not too much to pay for birth. 

- Robert Frost 

 

Immeasurable, elusive, the incomprehensible magnificence of the universe, celestial bodies moving around a cosmos which is so far removed from our earthly existence: for millennia humans have been looking up full of wonder, looking for inspiration and meaning. Pythagoras imagined the movements of sun, moon and planets each producing their own musical pitch, leading to a wondrous heavenly harmony. Later, in the Renaissance, Johannes Kepler matched the perfect geometry of the heavenly bodies to the most ingenious polyphony of his time. For him this was the ultimate path to God, who created the relationship between geometry, astronomy and music in all its perfection. 

 

In Harmony of the Spheres some of the gems from the Renaissance that follow these heavenly ideals are heard. Music from among others Josquin des Prez and Orlando di Lasso is combined with the sounds of our own time in works by Giuliano Bracci, Wouter Snoei and Seung-Won Oh. They have each in their own way been inspired by the mysterious perfection of the firmament, too. The warm sound of the trombone and the pureness of human voices will fill the halls from all sides in a timeless, heavenly concert. 

 

‘This is not a programme about complex musical ideas or styles; it’s an intuitive experience of all ages. If you like at the stars together you often realise how small and puny we are here on earth.’ – Sebastiaan Kemner 

 

For this production Lonelinoise is collaborating with Silbersee, a modern collective for unorthodox opera and musical theatre working with of some of the most unique musical voices in Europe. 

 

 

Musicians: 

Heleen Bongenaar, soprano 

Michaela Riener, mezzo-soprano 

Fanny Alofs, alto 

Jussi Lehtipuu, baritone 

Maciej Straburzynski, bas 

Sebastiaan Kemner, trombone 

 

Composers: 

Seung-Won Oh (world premiere) 

Giuliano Bracci (world premiere) 

Wouter Snoei (world premiere) 

Orlando di Lasso 

Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck 

Josquin Desprez 

Lambert de Sayve 

 

Sebastiaan Kemner, concept en muzikale leiding 

Wouter Snoei, sound design 

Jeroen Smith, lighting design 

Julliëtte van Ingen, movement coach 

Bowie Verschuuren, photography