Hildegard of Bingen

When I was growing up my piano teacher gave me all the classics: Bach, Mozart, Chopin, Debussy, and many others.  I spent many hours practicing a variety of music from all the classic male composers.  Even when I took music in college, there was very little focus on women composers.  Therefore, I naively believed women were too busy being housewives to compose music.  How silly I was!  I believe that as a society we get complacent with what is taught in school.  I have noticed this especially with music education.  Even though I learned a lot from my piano teacher, she was definitely teaching 1950's curriculum to a studio of 1970’s and 1980's babies.  

Scientific and historical discoveries are happening all the time, and some of these women composers were known by the 1970's.  However, we are now able to find instantaneous information using our technical advances.  Believing all the answers are in the pages of an antiquated book is only being naive.  Therefore, I have vowed to share NOTEable women in music history in this blog series.  I consider myself to be a lifelong leaner, so knowledge I believe is power.  The first NOTEable women is Hildegard of Bingen.

Hildegard von Bingen | Line engraving by W. Marshall

Hildegard of Bingen

Hildegard was the tenth child born to a noble family, from the Rhineland in Germany, in approximately 1080ce.  Her parents were Mechtild of Merxheim-Nahet and Hildebert of Bermersheim, a family in the service of the Count Meginhard of Sponheim. In that time, it was customary for the tenth child to be promised to the church.  Hildegard entered Disibodenberg, an isolated hilltop Benedictine monastery, when she was a young girl.

Hildegard's Religious Life

On All Saints Day, November 1, 1112, Hildegard entered the monastery under the care of Jutta of Sponheim, daughter of Count Meginhard. Hildegard, Jutta, who was an anchoress (a symbolic anchor to God), and a servant lived inside a small enclosed hut, or hermitage. This one-room shelter only had a small window that led to the outside world. Meals would have been passed through the small opening. They were allowed one meager meal each day in winter and two in summer. Jutta, a countess in her former life and the abbess at Disibodenberg, practiced aestheticism, in which she was completely removed from the world and its views. This was a radical lifestyle, even for the time. However, Hildegard's parents insisted she be placed in the enclosure. It is thought that her poor health contributed to the decision. Therefore, Hildegard was raised on a frugal diet and wore simple clothing while not leaving the one-room shelter. Jutta taught Hildegard to write, read the collection of psalms used in the liturgy, and to chant the Opus Dei. Most likely she also taught Hildegard to play the zither-like string instrument called the psaltery.

Here is an image of what a psaltery would look like.

When Hildegard was 18, she became a Benedictine nun at Disibodenberg.  When Jutta passed away, Hildegard succeeded her as abbess in 1136.   Hildegard's writings were shared across Europe and many would pilgrimage to see the Sybil of the Rhine.  This celebrity status interfered with her work.  Therefore, in approximately 1147, Hildegard left Disibodenberg with several nuns and founded the Benedictine convent of Mount St. Rupert, near Bingen, Germany.  Hildegard died on September 17, 1179. Her Liturgical Feast Day is September 17.

Hildegard the Visionary

Hildegard was known to have visions, even when she was a child. She wrote and illustrated her visions in the book she named Scivias (Know the Ways).  These visions caused her much pain and suffering.  Hildegard shared her visions with Jutta and her tutor, Volmar, a monk.  However, she would wait until she was 42 to approach her colleagues.  Her prophetic visions reached Pope Eugenius III and after conducting thoughtful research he approved her work.  This gave her immediate credence, and people called her Sybil of the Rhine. She would continue to write two more theological books devoted to her visions and prophetic thoughts.

It is now thought that the visions Hildegard was receiving were in fact migraine headaches.  Scholars believe that the documentation surrounding the visions point in this direction.  Hildegard had been a sickly child, and it is thought that she had debilitating migraines her entire life.

Hildegard the Scientist and Doctor

Hildegard was what was considered a polymath, which is someone who has a wide-range of knowledge.  Her scientific and medical writings were not based on visions. Rather, they came from her experience helping in and then leading the monastery's herbal garden and infirmary.  Hildegard would have had access to theoretical information from the monastery's library of Latin texts. She combined physical treatment with holistic methods, and she called her method spiritual healing.  Hildegard organized her methods into two works.  In Physica (Natural History), she describes the scientific and medical properties of various plants, fish, stones, reptiles and mammals. Her second medical work, Causea et Curae, (Causes and Cures) is an exploration of the human body and its connection to the natural world. Hildegard viewed the human body as a garden, and spoke of how to maintain "greening power" (Viriditas) and balance between nature and humans.  Hildegard claimed  that diseases and ailments stem from an unbalanced body.

Pope Benedict formally declared Hildegard a saint on May 10, 2012, by way of "equivalent canonization". On October 7, 2012 he named her an official Doctor of the Church.

Hildegard the Composer

Hildegard is wildly regarded as the first known composer. However, the full extent of her musical compositions were not known until 1979, which was 800 years after her death. Hildegard pushed beyond the norms of what was accepted during her lifetime, and her music is a direct refection of this.  In fact, Hildegard even created her own language she called Lingua Ignota, and she used these words as lyrics to her compositions. Hildegard's chants were different than those written at the same time, because they were composed for women's voices.  She wrote these chants as a counterpart to the Gregorian chants sung by the monks at the Disibodenberg monastery.  Hildegard's chants also stretch the boundaries of vocal ranges, and the music is regarded as very vocally demanding.  Hildegard referred to her 77 lyrical poems collectively as ‘The Harmonious Music of Celestial Revelations’ (Symphoniae Harmoniae Celestium Revelationum).  She was so prolific that when Sequentia, an ensemble for medieval music, recorded Hildegard's catalog in it took 9 CDs and took 30 years to complete the project.     

Further Learning

If you are interested in listening to the compositions of Hildegard of Bingen, I highly suggest the list recommended in an article written by the Catholic World Report.  Christopher S. Morrissey also takes the time to provide English translations for his playlist: A Beginner's Guide to the Music of St. Hildegard of Bingen.