The Classical Music Book

EARLY MUSIC 1000–1400 27

See also: Le jeu de Robin et de Marion 32–35 ■ Messe de Notre Dame 36–37 ■

Missa l’homme armé 42 ■ The Wreckers 232–239 ■ blue cathedral 326

chant repertory of the church

year, studied the playing of the

psaltery (a stringed instrument),

and learned to write Latin. Like

Jutta, Hildegard professed to be

divinely inspired, claiming to have

“never learned neumes, or any

other part of music.” While the

truth of this assertion is unknown,

it may have been an attempt to

disassociate herself and Jutta from

an education that ordinarily would

not have been available to women.

For women in the 12th century, to

profess knowledge of the trivium

(the rhetorical arts) or quadrivium

(the sciences and music theory)

or to provide interpretation of the

Bible might be considered a direct

threat to male authority.

Magnum opus

The earliest extant morality

play, and one of the first musical

dramas to be recorded, Hildegard’s

most well-known work, Ordo

Virtutum (“The play of the Virtues”),

contains more than 80 melodies

that form a musical drama most

likely intended to be performed by

the nuns of Hildegard’s order. The

play calls for a cast of more than

20 singing roles and concerns

the struggle for a soul (Anima)

between 17 “Virtues” (Humility

is the Queen of the Virtues) and

their adversary, Diabolus (the

Devil). Diabolus, perhaps originally

spoken by Hildegard’s friend

and scribe Volmar, lacks all

harmony and articulates in

spoken interjections.

The accompanying melodies

in the manuscript indicate when

the Virtues sing as a chorus and

gives more florid music to the solo

voices. As the Virtues step forward

to introduce themselves, the music

becomes more expressive and

animated, the sweeping vocal

lines of Humilitas (Humility), Fede

(Faith), and Spes (Hope) inspiring

the sister Virtues to respond

with ardor. However, the original

notation is little more than the

barest of bones: recordings with

fiddles, flute, and harmonized

accompaniments represent

the modern interpretation of

this sketch.

Writings and divinity

Hildegard’s letters reveal her

status as “seer and mystic,” which

allowed her not just the freedom

to offer stern advice (even to the

pope) but opportunities for musical

expression. She often emphasized

the transcendent origin of her

works. Music connected her to

a lost Eden, before Adam and Eve

precipitated the Fall of humankind

by eating the forbidden fruit. She

envisaged her texts being at the

service of the music, so that “those

who hear might be taught about

inward things.” ■

Hildegard of Bingen

Born in 1098 as the youngest

child in a large family of

lesser nobility, Hildegard

spent her early childhood in

Bermersheim, south of Mainz,

in Germany. She suffered

from ill health, and even

before the age of five began

to see visions, drawing the

family’s attention to her

spiritual acuity by predicting

the color of an unborn calf.

At about the age of eight,

she was placed in the care of

Jutta of Sponheim, a visionary

who lived as a recluse in a

hermitage near the abbey

at Disibodenberg.

The women’s hermitage

was later opened to monastic

aspirants, and at the age of

14 Hildegard devoted her life

to God as a Benedictine nun.

On the death of Jutta in 1136,

and at the age of 38, Hildegard

was elected to lead the

religious community. She

performed this role until her

death in 1179 but also found

time to write three volumes

of visionary theology, scientific

works, and religious verse.

Other key work

c.1150s Symphonia armonie

celestium revelationum

Heaven was opened and a

fiery light of exceeding

brilliance came and

permeated my whole brain ...

and immediately I knew the

meaning of the exposition

of the Scriptures.

Hildegard of Bingen

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