HILDEGARD VON BINGEN - MEDIEVAL MYSTIC MUSIC MAKER

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Hildegard von Bingen - visionary, poet, composer, naturalist, healer, and theologian - founded convents; corresponded with secular and ecclesiastical leaders, as well as a vast range of people of lesser rank; and ventured forth as a monastic trouble-shooter, consultant exorcist, and visiting preacher. Even more remarkable for a woman of her time was the body of written work she produced. Its range - from natural history and medicine to cosmology, music, poetry, and theology - surpasses that of most other male contemporaries; it also possesses great beauty and witnesses to Hildegard's intellectual power.

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Born at Bermersheim in Rheinhesse in 1098, the tenth and last child of noble parents, Hildegard showed early signs of exceptional spiritual gifts. Looking back, she placed the onset of her visionary experiences in early childhood, although at that stage she did not understand their significance.
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Her parents, Hildebert and Mechtilde, although wealthy and engaged in worldly affairs, were not unmindful of the gifts of the Creator and dedicated their daughter to the service of God. For when she was yet a child she seemed far removed from worldly concerns, distanced by a precocious purity). The life they chose for her was that of a companion to Jutta, daughter of Count Stephan of Spanheim, who lived in a cell near the church of the Benedictine monks at Disibodenberg. Jutta instructed her young charge in the recitation of the Psalter, teaching her to read and (by no means an obvious corollary at the time) to write. In subsequent years Hildegard was always quick to point out how limited her formal education had been, emphasizing that she had been taught by an "indocta mulier" (unlearned woman) and, consequently, that any insight she gained into theological or secular matters was divinely inspired.

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The reputation for holiness of Jutta and her pupil soon spread throughout the district, and other parents sought to have their daughters join what was developing into a small Benedictine convent on the site of the monastery of Disibodenberg. By the time Hildegard was fifteen the process seems to have been complete, for at that time she took the veil from the hands of the bishop of Bamberg.

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The visionary experiences that set her apart as a child had continued, as had her recurrent illnesses. That there was a link between her visions and her state of health was recognized by Hildegard herself (some modern commentators claim that the visions were occasioned by a migraine condition). By this time, however, Hildegard had learned to conceal the visions. She confided them only to Jutta, who in turn informed the monk Volmar of Disibodenberg, who was to become Hildegard's teacher, trusted assistant, and friend until his death in 1173.

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Between the time other profession as a nun and the death of Jutta in 1136, when Hildegard was unanimously elected to head the convent, sources give only the most conventional descriptions of the kind of life she led. Within a few years, however, this situation was to change. She recalled the turning point in her life, the vision that suddenly enabled her to penetrate to the inner meaning of the texts of her religion:

"And it came to pass in the eleven hundred and forty-first year of the Incarnation of Jesus Christ, Son of God, when I was forty-two years and seven months old, that the heavens were opened and a blinding light of exceptional brilliance flowed through my entire brain. And so it kindled my whole heart and breast like a flame, not burning but warming.... And suddenly I understood the meaning of the expositions of the books, that is to say of the Psalter, the evangelists and other catholic books of the Old and New Testaments ...."

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More important than this sudden access of understanding was the command that was part of the vision: Hildegard was to say and write what she learned in this way. When she hesitated to start writing, doubting that she was equal to the task and fearful of the reaction of her male contemporaries, she fell ill. She interpreted this phenomenon as a sign of God's displeasure and confided at last in Volmar. With his encouragement, and the permission of Abbot Kuno of Disibodenberg, she began recording the visions that formed the basis of Scivias
 (Know the Ways [of God]. 1141 -1151), a work that
 took her ten years to complete.

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by Sabina Flanagan

University of Adelaide

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"Listen: there was once a king sitting on his throne.

Around him stood great and wonderfully beautiful columns ornamented with ivory, bearing the banners of the king with great honor. Then it pleased the king to raise a small feather from the ground, and he commanded it to fly. The feather flew, not because of anything in itself, but because the air bore it along. Thus am I, a feather on the breath of God."

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Hildegard von Bingen

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HER GIFT OF MUSIC
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At the heart of Hildegard von Bingen's extraordinary creativity was her accomplishment in music. In the poetry and melody of her songs, she reveals the full authority, intelligence and striking originality of her genius. She wrote profusely as no woman before her. Even though she received no formal training in music, her talent and motivation drove her to write 77 chants and the first musical drama in history, which she entitled "The Ritual of the Virtues." She writes in her autobiographical passages: "I composed and chanted plainsong in praise of God and the saints even though I had never studied either musical notation or singing." Unlike the mild, mainstream music of her day, her lyrical speech breaks into rhapsodic emotion; her zesty melodies soar up to two and one half octaves, leaping and swirling into flourishing roulades which leave the singer breathless. Hildegard's music can only be fully understood, however, in the light of all her work.

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THE WIDE COMPASS OF HER MUSIC

The beauty and depth of theme found in Hildegard’s theology, philosophy, cosmology and medicine can all be found condensed in her music as in a jewel. For Hildegard, music was an all-embracing concept. It was the symphony of angels praising God, the balanced proportions of the revolving celestial spheres, the exquisite weaving of body and soul, the hidden design of nature's creations. It was the manifest process of life moving, expanding, growing towards the joy of its own deepest realizations and a profound unity of voices singing the praises of God here on earth. It was beauty, sound, fragrance and the flower of human artistry. Over 300 times in her writings, Hildegard uses music to illuminate spiritual truths.

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SYMPHONIA

Hildegard combined all her music into a cycle called The Symphony of the Harmony of the Heavenly Revelations. This title refers not only to the heavenly inspiration of her music but to the place music held in her schema as the highest form of praise to God. She believed that many times a day, we fall out of sorts, lose our way or find ourselves off center. Music was the sacred technology which could best tune humanity, redirect our hearts toward heaven and put our feet back onto the wholesome pathways of God.

"Symphonia" was a key concept in Hildegard's thought and meant not only the joyful harmony achieved in blending voices and instruments but the spiritual field of unity we all long for when we sing. In singing and playing music, we integrate mind, heart and body, heal discord between us, and celebrate heavenly harmony here on earth. According to Hildegard, this becomes our "opus" – the epitome of good work in the service of God.
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HILDEGARD AS A COMPOSER

Musically, the most important thing that Hildegard experienced as a child in the monastery was the opportunity to take part in the Divine Office. According to the Benedictine rule, monastics sang the Office eight times each day, beginning in the dead of night at 2.a.m. and concluding around 9 p.m. Every three hours, she listened to the musical interplay of words and tones. Musician and scholar Christopher Page puts it very well when he says, "life was spent singing the words of the liturgy and reading the words of the Latin Bible until the fabric of [her] memory was dyed with them to the deepest, to the most irremovable, tint." Thus, we see that Hildegard was immersed in music from the start.

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The women's cloister had two windows, one that opened to the outside and one that opened into the church from a small choir where the nuns sat and participated in the liturgy. Through this window, Hildegard heard the form of the music, deciphered the eight modes and absorbed the subtle match of text and sound. Singers might also read notes from one large manuscript book called the Graduale.

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Every day, the sisters sang during the Divine Office and at the celebration of the Eucharist. This means that the nuns chanted for almost four hours a day. For Hildegard the composer, the monastery provided an ideal situation. It had a scriptorium where experienced copyists could pen her music; a skilled and practiced performing body to sing it; and liturgical occasions for its performance.

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Dr. Nancy Fierro, CSJ

Mount Saint Mary's College, Los Angeles

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Instruments

We do not know whether or not Hildegard used instruments to accompany chants at the monastery. We do know that she affirmed the use of instruments and considered them a means to soften the heart and direct it toward God. She gave certain instruments a special function and meaning.

Tambourine – inspires discipline. The skin of the tambourine is spread tightly over the frame, like that of a fasting body.

Flute – with its seductive and intimate sound reminds us of the breath of the Spirit.

Trumpet – clear, strong, wakeful, like the voice of the prophets.

Strings – correspond to the earthly condition of the soul as it struggles back to the light. The sounds of the strings stir up the emotions of our heart and lead us to repentance.

Harp – instrument of heavenly blessedness. It brings back thoughts of our holy origins and helps us remember who we are and who we are called to be.

Psaltery – a plucked instrument with strings stretched over a soundboard and played by one or two plectra. It represented the unity of heaven and earth since it was played both on the top and bottom strings.

Organ – as an instrument capable of playing harmonies, it helps create community.
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Spiritus Sanctus Vivificans Vita
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O Holy Spirit
who bestows life to all,
who brings movement to all,
you are the breath
of all creatures.
You wash them clean
of all impurities,
you anoint and heal
their wounds.
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You are the fire
that awakens our spirits,
you are the light
that guides our way,
may all praise you.
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Translation by Joanne Asala
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