Hildegard of Bingen

While most plainchant was composed anonymously, Hildegard was an exception. She also authored texts on various subjects ranging from medicine to spiritual revelations which were later approved by church authorities.  Hildegard is a fascinating historical figure so the information below is extracted from the  bulk of the Wikipedia article on the medieval composer  presented below. A careful reading of the entire article is recommended:  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hildegard_of_Bingen 

Introduction

Saint Hildegard of Bingen, OSB, (1098 – 17 September 1179)  was a German writer, composer, philosopher, Christian mystic, Benedictine abbess, visionary, and polymath.  She was born around the year 1098 to a family of the free lower nobility in the service of the Count Meginhard of Sponheim.  She wrote theological, botanical, and medicinal texts, as well as letters, liturgical songs, and poems.   In her Vita, Hildegard states that from a very young age she had experienced visions. Perhaps due to Hildegard’s visions, or as a method of political positioning, Hildegard’s parents offered her as an oblate (a layman living in a monastery under a modified rule and without vows.)  to the church.

Visions
Hildegard says that she first saw “The Shade of the Living Light” at the age of three, and by the age of five she began to understand that she was experiencing visions  and recognized that it was a gift that she could not explain to others.

Between November 1147 and February 1148 at the synod in Trier that Pope Eugenus heard about Hildegard’s writings. It was from this that she received Papal approval to document her visions as revelations from the Holy Spirit giving her instant credence.

On 17 September 1179, when Hildegard died, her sisters claimed they saw two streams of light appear in the skies and cross over the room where she was dying.

Music
Attention in recent decades to women of the medieval Church has led to a great deal of popular interest in Hildegard’s music. One of her works as a composer, the Ordo Virtutum, is an early example of liturgical drama and arguably the oldest surviving morality play.

. Listen to O frondens virga from Ordo Virtutum.
Hildegard composed many liturgical songs that were collected into a cycle called the Symphonia armoniae celestium revelationum. The songs from the Symphonia are set to Hildegard’s own text and range from antiphons, hymns, and sequences, to responsories.  Her music is described as monophonic,  consisting of one melodic line. Her soaring melodies could  push the boundaries of the more staid ranges of traditional Gregorian chant.

Another feature of Hildegard’s music is that it is highly melismatic, often with recurring melodic units. Scholars also note the intimate relationship between music and text.  Typical of   medieval chant notation, Hildegard’s music lacks  an indication of tempo or rhythm. The reverence for the Virgin Mary reflected in music shows how deeply influenced and inspired Hildegard and her community were by the Virgin Mary and the saints.   Ordo Virtutum (Play of the Virtues), is a morality play,  thought to have been composed as early as 1151. The play consists of monophonic melodies for the Anima (human soul) and 16 Virtues. There is also one speaking part for the Devil. Scholars assert that the role of the Devil would have been played by Volmar,  provopst of the Monestary and Hildegard’s confessor and scribe and a life long friend.   Hildegard’s nuns would have played the parts of Anima and the Virtues.

Listen to this Kyrie Eleison. This part of the Mass is a beautiful setting of the Kyrie eleison. It  is a good example as you can clearly hear the words (“Kyrie Eleison”)  at 24 seconds. the song is quite florid and very melismatic (many notes to individual single syllables) .

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 Modifications and  editing  by Robert Ford