Vetus Carmina is a professional vocal ensemble dedicated to the study and performance of sacred polyphony from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Directed by Spanish conductor Arturo Moscoso, the ensemble brings together singers specialising in Renaissance repertoire and historically informed performance practice.

 

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Based in Antwerp, Vetus Carmina focuses its work on the study and revival of Renaissance sacred polyphony in Northern Europe and the Iberian Peninsula. Its approach is grounded in the original sources and the historical contexts in which these works were conceived, taking into account not only their musical dimension but also the liturgical practices, spaces and modes of listening that gave them meaning. Drawing on this research, the ensemble seeks to offer performances that restore, as far as possible, the relationship between text, ritual, space and music, allowing audiences to experience this repertoire from a historically informed perspective without diminishing its capacity to speak to contemporary listeners.

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​Beyond preserving a historical repertoire, Vetus Carmina seeks to recover, as far as possible, the particular mode of attention that this music originally demanded. It was not conceived for the modern concert hall or for aesthetic contemplation in the contemporary sense, but as part of a ritual practice that gave shape to collective memory, mourning, hope and devotion. Performing this music today therefore involves more than simply reconstructing the past; it also offers an opportunity to reflect on those fundamental human experiences through which communities have understood themselves across the centuries. In this sense, the transmission of Renaissance polyphony also entails the passing on of a cultural legacy whose questions remain, in many respects, our own.