Hildegard von Bingen

Abbess, poetess and writer, botanist, visionary and diplomat, Hildegarde de Bingen was also an important composer. Born in Bermersheim vor der Höhe near Alzey in 1098 to noble parents, the tenth child of a noble family was destined from birth to a religious life. Subjected to visions from the age of five, she entered the Benedictine monastery of Disibodenberg in the diocese of Mainz, where she received a Christian education from the anchorite Jutta of Spanheim. After taking the veil at the age of 15, she succeeded Jutta and was elected Benedictine abbess in 1136. In 1150, she founded Rupertsberg Abbey, near Bingen, and in 1165 Eibingen Abbey, near Rüdesheim. Nicknamed the "Sybil of the Rhine" because of her visions, she received the support of the Church, which encouraged her to record them, which she began to do around 1141. In 1151, she completed her first work, Scivias(Know the Ways). The first part of her mystical trilogy, this richly illustrated collection of theology details twenty-six divine visions and develops her thinking on subjects such as spirituality, science and morality. The last of these visions contains Bingen's first monophonic songs, notated in Germanic neumes and characterized by extensive melismatic writing, highly original in its unusual intervals and octave leaps. In the natural science collections Physica and Causae et curae (1158), the learned abbess takes an empirical interest in the study of plants, animals and minerals, proposing remedies for various ailments while linking her observations to her symbolic thinking. Two other theological treatises, Liber vitae meritorum(Book of the merits of life, 1163) and Liber divinorum operum(Book of divine works, 1174), were published ten years apart, extending his reflections on divine creation, the notions of good and evil represented by allegories, and the parallel between the human microcosm and universal cosmology. Until the ripe old age of seventy, Hildegard of Bingen traveled extensively, preaching in German towns and cities during her stops - a novelty in her day. She maintained an extensive correspondence with personalities of her time, including Bernard de Clairvaux, popes (Eugene III, Anastasius IV, Alexander III), emperors (Conrad III, Frederick Barbarossa), kings and queens, dealing with politics and diplomacy, and not hesitating to interfere in the affairs of Church and Empire. Considered the first recorded composer of Western classical music, Hildegard of Bingen left seventy-seven vocal and instrumental pieces in the manuscript Symphonia harmoniae celestium revelatorium(circa 1176), known as the Codex Villarensis. Her work is divided into hymns, antiphons, responsories, sequences and liturgical chants in a style highly distinctive for her time, with great melodic amplitude and rhythmic freedom leaving room for interpretation. She also composed a liturgical and allegorical drama, Ordo virtutum(Jeu des Vertus, 1151), one of the earliest examples of sacred musical theater, consisting of eighty-two melodies divided into five parts and depicting the struggle of the human soul (Anima) between the Virtues and the Devil, which was quite daring for its time. Having reached the end of her busy life, Hildegard of Bingen died in Rupertsberg on September 17, 1179. An unusual figure of the Middle Ages, with a free, curious and adventurous spirit, Hildegard of Bingen was long known only to scholarly circles of history and religion, until the 20th century when studies revealed the innovative aspect of her thought, before musicology took hold of her work with the rediscovery of early music. The Abbess of Bingen was one of four women to be canonized, in this case by Pope Benedict XVI, who consecrated her a Doctor of the Church in 2012, giving this extraordinary theologian her rightful place. Since its rediscovery, Hildegard de Bingen's music has not only given rise to numerous recordings, notably by the ensembles Sequentia(Canticles of Ecstasy, 1994), Gothic Voices, Organum and Anonymous 4, but has also inspired artistic performances and contemporary composers such as Sofia Goubaïdoulina, Arvo Pärt and Peter Maxwell Davies. Several of his pieces have been sampled and remixed in the New Age.

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