Hildegard of Bingen taught us that creativity is both an expression and form of prayer . Hildegard was one of the most important composers of the Medieval Period. Her morality play and opera, Ordo Virtutum, is the only Medieval composition surviving today with text and music.
What is Hildegard of Bingen place in music history?
Hildegard of Bingen was a saint, composer and poet . But it's only recently that her songs, writings and remarkable life and visions have been rediscovered. She was born over 900 years ago and for most of her 80-plus years was shut away in an obscure hilltop monastery in the Rhineland.
Why is Hildegard viewed as an important person in the overall history of music?
Why is Hildegard important? One of the largest repertoires attributed to a medieval composer . Hildegard was also a poet and set her own poems to music. The founder of natural history in Germany and a prolific writer.
Why is Hildegard significant beyond music?
Hildegard described the origins of her music as sounds she had heard with her “inner ear”. ... But, like much of her other work, her creative power imparted her music with a unique expressiveness that moved her music beyond some of the formal limitations of her time.
What contributions did Hildegard of Bingen make to knowledge and the arts discuss her music in your answer?
She is credited with writing the first book on gynecology . She wrote 70 poems, chants and songs, and many consider her play “Ordo Virtutum” (Play of Virtues) to be a distant ancestor of opera. Hildegard was an activist against social disease and injustice.
What made Hildegard of Bingen special?
Who was Hildegard of Bingen? A 12th-century Benedictine nun who had extraordinary visions. She wrote about these visions in theological books, and she used them as inspiration for compositions. She founded her own abbey , created her own language, and wrote one of the first musical plays.
What were Hildegard visions about?
Hildegard's visions commanded admiration and reverence because they were believed to be the product of divine communication; her status as a women was overlooked.
How did Hildegard feel about music?
Hildegard valued music, and she felt it was created to worship God . Consequently, much of her music sounds almost angelic, with soaring vocals. Along with the visions, Hildegard wrote music to honor saints, virgins, and Mary, including songs for their feast days.
Did Hildegard claim mystical powers?
Hildegard also used her visions and supposed mystical powers to buck tradition in more practical ways. In 1148, as her celebrity and religious order grew, Hildegard claimed to have had a vision in which God directed her to leave Disibodenberg Monastery and build a new monastery atop the nearby Mount of St. Rupert.
Why is Hildegard still popular today?
Hildegard's soaring music is still popular today. The first composer for whom we have a biography, she composed 77 sacred songs and Ordo Virtutum, a liturgical drama set to music. ... Her lyrics, as well as her melodies, were highly original and she was the only 12th century writer to compose in free verse.
Why is Gregorian chant seldom heard today?
Why is Gregorian chant seldom heard today? (1) It is very difficult to sing, and those who know it are dying out . (2) the Second Vatican Council of 1962-65 decreed the us of the vernacular in church services. (3) It is too old-fashioned for modern services.
Why was Hildegard raised in the church?
Perhaps because of Hildegard's visions, or as a method of political positioning (or both), Hildegard's parents offered her as an oblate to the Benedictine monastery at the Disibodenberg, which had been recently reformed in the Palatinate Forest.
What were medieval traveling street musicians called?
These travelling musicians were called minstrels in England , and troubadours or trouvères in many other countries, or Minnesinger in Germany. The minstrels often sang long songs which told stories (a ballad).
What is the meaning of Hildegard?
noun. a female given name: from Germanic words meaning “battle” and “protector .”
Is Hildegard of Bingen a doctor of the church?
Hildegard is one of the few prominent women in medieval church history. In fact, she is one of only four women who were named a doctor of the church , meaning that her doctrinal writings have special authority in Roman Catholicism. She is considered by many to be a patron saint of musicians and writers.
