Hildegard Von Bingen - Coursework Example

Introduction Hildegard of Bingen produced major works of visionary and theological production at the time when women were not considered to participate in such art. She used curative power of natural objects to heal her patients and also wrote treatises about the history and medicinal help of plants, trees, stones and animals. Her vibrant convent that she established was used for playing and performing her music. Musicologists and historians of science and religion have revived the interest of this exceptional woman who is frequently referred to as St. Hildegard. However, her vision and music has been thwarted by the musical resemblance of the new age ethereal airs. Her story is of irresistible spirit who overcame social-cultural, physical, and gender barriers to achieve transcendence. (Monson 2013) Early life Hildegard was born the tenth child of a dignified family. It was custom in hat time for the tenth born child to be offered to the church. She was to be a companion to Jutta who decided to be a religious recluse in the Benedictine monastery of saint Disibod. Hildegard at that time was uneducated but Jutta thought her how to chant psalms and thus enabled her learn basic Latin. Hildegard had some gifts she had not disclosed to anyone, only to Jutta whom she had grown to trust. She disclosed how she had visions of the divine while her eyes were fully open since she was a child. Jutta informed the monk priest Volmar who became Hildegard’s most important teacher, confessor and secretary. When Jutta died she was elected the nuns’ mother superior based on her good administrative skills. Awakening Hildegard turned most of her early visions into her first prophetic book known as Scivias, which was divided into three parts; creation, redemption and salvation. Pope Eugene III ordered the Scivias and read it to the bishops and cardinals. He ensured he got the synod approval and ordered Hildegard to continue writing her visions. Many people wrote to her for advice and she became the only woman to be allowed to preach in the covenant as a prophetess. Hildegard’s vision of her preaching accompanied with other nuns enabled her get authorization to start her own covenant. From her fame and unique abilities, she gathered a large number of followers that came to listen to her and give their messages in the covenant. By getting written and oral messages it helped her improve her skills and in handling her visionary work. She was considered the most prolific and original composer in the twelfth century. Aside from writing eighty three melodies for her ordo virtutum, she had more than seventy five responsorial, antiphons and hymns gathered in a single song circle referred to as “The symphony of the harmony of celestial revelation”. Hildegard was in an inspirational composer of monophonic chant known by name. In her biography she says she was not taught how to sing and given her ignorance in childhood, the chanting of psalms taught to her by Jutta played an important role in her composing of songs. Instead of writing new lyrics for the existing melodies or inventing tunes that could be sung for more than one text, she composed her own original chants with melodies and words that were catchy for singers. Major works Hildegard’s music and poetic composition are divided into two main groups, that is, symphonia armonie celestium revelation and Ordon Virtutum. She composed songs praising angels, saints and the Virgin Mary that she included with a sketch of the Ordo Virtutum (play of virtues) in the final section of her scivias. She was not included in music textbooks because her unique style was not compatible with medieval music and music theory. In 1970, when Peter Dronke brought to attention Hildegard’s Ordo Virtutum to the attention of medievalist, he made a spectacular discovery in the history of medieval drama research. The music drama scholars have hailed the Ordo Virtutum as being a master piece. They examined how the Ordo Virtutum related to what they regarded as the first version of the play in book three of Hildegard’s scivia . In the book three, Hildegard’s ordo virtutum represents the struggle of a faithful soul against wickedness and temptation. Most of her work was easily integrated since she made her nuns chant the original songs and performed in the covenant. The main manuscript of Ordo Vatitum is also called Riesenkodex, a heavy and huge codex written in two columns that contain all Hildegard’s work except her scientific work. The consists of sixteen leaves transmitting both Hildegard’s symphonia and her music drama. Her symphonia is a collection of seventy seven songs used for the mass and office including hymns, antiphons, sequences, a kyrie and an alleluia. Lieven van Acker and Albert Derolez who reviewed the production suggested that Hildegard was determined to preserve copies of her work for posterity before her death; she supervised the scribes’ most likely nuns who were given the responsibility of compiling the codex in the scriptorium. (Monson 2013) The play begins with a prologue that introduces virtues to the prophets and patriarchs. In scene one; the chorus of soul’s lament how difficult the life on earth is but one soul, Anima happily celebrates her life. However, by the end of the scene Anima is convinced otherwise to follow the ways of the other way from righteous life after hearing persuasive arguments. In scene two we are introduced to various virtues; humility, fear of god, charity, obedience, faith, hope, chastity, innocence, world rejection, heavenly love, discipline and patience. In the third scene these virtues symbolized to be requesting Anima to return and finally convince her. The fourth scene is about Anima being taunted by the people that introduced to the outside world but under humility they are bound to God. The play is concluded with a chorus that summarizes the history of God’s people from creation, suffering of Jesus and fall of nature. The lyrics exhort listeners to worshipfully respond to those events in the play. Musically Musically the play is of a wide range and in most cases with several passages. There are several melodic gestures such as; ascending fifths. In the play the evil person is given a singing part which is not the case because they only talk. Audrey Ekdahl Davidson makes many meaningful observations on the play. She notes several correspondents between the music and the words in the part of Anima and the virtues. The variation in Anima’s tessitura defines her emotions and how unstable they are. Higher pitches express her emotion of elation while lower pitches express discouragement. Audrey also shows how majority of the passages occur in the section where individual virtues announce themselves. The musical high point falls right at the center of the musical play. It is, however, impracticable to establish a definite modal classification of the play because of its high ambiguity and alteration between mode d and e. The play begins on mode d but most songs in scene two ends in mode e. The third and fourth scenes are characterized by d as final while the last song begins and ends in the e mode. In the play there is only one male role and it is to be believed the play was performed for the nuns and the secretary Vulmar the only male only sang twice while the play begun.( Monson 2013) Sequence is a chant that is sung between alleluia and the gospel. Until lately in the twentieth century, sequence was characterized by paired vesicles. That is, two lines of text set to the identical musical line. Words did not rhyme and their lengths varied from one line to another. They were based on biblical topics and not derived from the scripture as other chants. Hildegard in O Ecclesia talks about virginity and its text relies on heavily in imagery from the Song of Songs book in the bible. The husband praises his wife of her beauty and she responds with affection and adoration. Christians in the middle age saw this metaphorically as the love shared between the church and Jesus. In creating text and music for the sequence, Hildegard followed the contents for the sequence genre while still being able to express her style musically and historical situation. Her texts were in a mixed manner and each sequence contained examples of syllabic text setting. There would be a solitary line of text at the commencement and end of a sequence and each set in their own musical phase. Her melody style is that of large intervals usually the fifth. One major aspect that distinguishes Hildegard’s work from her counterparts is the use of rapid leaps commonly at the beginning of phases. Other chants are a kyrie and an alleluia having a set text than could be combined with various melodies. (Monson 2013) A kyrie is her only musical work format in the f mode and includes large leaps and descending scale passages for several notes. The alleluia chant is sung in the mass after the gradual and before the gospel or sequence. The imagery of the alleluia text is characterized of Hildegard’s poetry and deals with one of her preferred topics; the victory of the Virgin and her body. She used such chants to encourage other nuns to remain chaste. Just like sequence, hymns texts are newly compose material. However, hymns texts are in poetic form have a regular number of lines and similar syllabuses per line. Hildegard’s hymns do not fit the traditional format since they have varying numbers of lines per stanza or syllabuses per line. As a result new music has to be created per stanza and each stanza thoroughly composed lacking internal repetition of complete lines. Antiphons are short additions to chant liturgy that are sung with the chants in the mass or the office. They are short usually in one line and are syllabic. In her uniqueness, Hildegard sometimes used longer antiphons that were used respective of the music composition. Responsories are chants sung at the office after reading or recitation of the bible. They consist a response and a stanza followed by a go-over of all or part of the respond. Hildegard’s responsories are considered greater and are the most chanted. In her symphoniae she uses generic titles but does not stick to basic characteristics of those genres. She did not do such acts as a result of ignorance of conventional ways of composing but due to her willingness to adjust such methods to suite her own purposes. Her intended purpose was to provide songs to her nuns from their perspective of the relationship with the Heavenly Father. She played a very important role in reconciliation of religion with science and also encouraged her nuns to stay in chastity. Hildegard’s conventional ways were introduced to musical scholars recently yet it existed since the middle age. However, her impact in the music genres and composition techniques is still felt today. Her chants were created in a stylistic fashion that made them inseparable in words or rhythm. Many people who compose music emulate her texts and stanzas to enhance uniqueness and easily understandable chants. It is important to consider her innovative ways in composing music for scholars and artists given the impact her style of music has made over the years to date. Till her death some her visions were yet to be realized but it is a challenge for scholars to explore the context of Hildegard’s music and its intended meaning. Work cited Monson, Craig, and Roberta M. Marvin Music in print and beyond: Hildegard Von Bingen to the Beatles, 2013 print Read More