Hildegard of Bingen: A True Visionary

Description
In this minute of classical music history, I’ll delve into the life of Hildegard of Bingen who was, among other things, one of the first identifiable composers—dating back over 800 years to the early medieval period.

Fun Fact
A character of the same name, Hildegard, was created for the Netflix series “Chilling Adventures of Sabrina”. Although Hildegard is mentioned in a long list of witches throughout history, there's no evidence she actually had any magical powers.

About Steven
Steven is a Canadian composer living in Toronto. He creates a range of works, with an emphasis on the short-form genre—his muse being to offer the listener both the darker and more satiric shades of human existence. If you're interested, please check out his website for more.

A Note To Music Students et al.
All recordings and sheet music are available on my site. I encourage you to take a look and play through some. Give me a shout if you have any questions.

Got a topic? Pop me off an email at: TCMMPodcast@Gmail.com 

Transcript

Hi, I’m Steven Hobé.

Hildegard of Bingen was born in 1098 in Bermersheim on the Rhine, the tenth child of a noble family, as per custom, she was swiftly sent off to a monastery.

She’d been having visions since an early age, which in turn inspired a plethora of writing during her lifetime, from theological books to music and poetry. 

One such body of work were her collection of 77 songs that form the liturgical cycle for the church calendar year.

And a music drama, Ordo Virtutum, a morality play whose subject is the struggle between 17 Virtues and the Devil over the destiny of a female soul. Pretty cool, eh?

It’s really only recently that we’ve begun enjoying her music, but she is now considered to be one of the first identifiable composers in the history of Western music, as well as an early feminist and guru.