First Friday of Advent
Hildegarde of Bingen
As I write this, I am listening to some of the music of St. Hildgarde in an utterly incredible recording called Vision. The recording puts some of Hildegarde's Gregorian Chants together with new age instrumentation. The album actually made into the Billboard top 100 in 1995.
But I get ahead of myself. First, some basic facts. Hildegard's life spanned most of the twelfth century. She was born in Germany in 1098, the year the Crusaders took Jerusalem. She died 1179. She came from a family of some means and showed intellectual brilliance early. There is only one thing to do with a very smart girl in the twelfth century. Send her to a nunnery. Only in a nunnery can she get an education. She did. By the time she was 30 she had become Mother Superior and had founded three other convents. by her 50's she administered a network of convents all over Europe.
I first read Hildgarde in a course on Late Medieval Mysticism I took at Duke Divinity School in 1970. She was an early medieval mystic, so we didn't spend much time of her. I was, however, introduced to her three volume systematic theology, Scivias. As I have often noted, I'm not a theologian. Much of her writing was beyond my grasp at that time.
We never touched on her music. I did not even know she was a composer until the late 1980's, when there began a revival of her work in early music circles. Much of her music was found in various monastic libraries in Europe. Some of the manuscripts are illuminated. She did the artistic designs for the illuminations and the actual painting on some.
Hildegarde's music is all in the style of Gregorian Chant and all written for female voices. Almost all of the music of this time and earlier was composed anonymously. Hildgarde was one of the earliest composers whose name is on her works, the first woman composer who was not anonymous. Her music, like her writing, is profoundly mystical, and also deeply feminine. She wrote the words as well as the music, another practice uncommon in early music (and uncommon in much modern music). On many different fronts she was centuries ahead of her time. Her musical intent was to create the sound of angels. The newly arising Gothic Cathedrals of Europe, as well as the chapels of her monasteries, proved perfect for her sound.
Among other musical accomplishments, Hildegarde wrote the first musical drama, Ordo Virtutem, which I had the privilege of hearing performed by the renowned early music group Sequentia in Duke Chapel back the early '90's. Sequentia has several recordings of her music. My favorite is Canticles of Ecstasy. My other top recommendation is a recording by the group Anonymous 4. The recording is entitled A Feather on the Breath of God.
There are a number of translation and editions of her writings. My favorite is that of the Classics of Western Spirituality series, published by Paulist Press. All her writings are in Latin.
Hildegarde was one of those rarest of talents, a creative genius in more than one field. In her case it was literature, art, and music. William Blake did extraordinary painting and wrote great poetry. I can't at the moment think of anyone other than Hildegarde who did all three at genius level.
You may asking, "If she's so great, how come I've never heard of her?" I know two reasons. One is that history writing up to the twentieth century was entirely the activity of men. the other is that the 20th and 21st centuries are a secular age. Historians, other than church historians, have little interest in religious figures.
In this series I'm hoping to introduce many of you to some significant people in the history of Christianity with whom you likely have little or no acquaintance. Yesterday I said I had written a blog on one, Erasmus. I have since remembered that it's two. The other was St. Brigid of Ireland. Two women and one man. I'll try to even it up next time.
Now, I'm just going to listen to St. Hildegarde for a bit.
Faithfully,
Christian
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