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Sunday, September 1, 2013

COMPOSER REPORT: HILDEGARD

NAME__________________________________________


PERIOD #____________________



DIRECTIONS: COPY OR FILL-IN ONTO YOUR COMPOSER FORM ONLY WHAT IS PRINTED IN RED.

Then, WRITE YOUR PERSONAL OPINION ABOUT THE MUSICAL STYLE OF THIS COMPOSER AND EXPLAIN.



Illumination in Vision 1, showing Hildegard receiving and writing (and perhaps also dictating) a vision.

COMPOSER PROFILE REPORT 


COMPOSER’S LAST NAME: 
Hildegard

COMPOSER’S FIRST NAME:
Hildegard of Bingen

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: 
Germany

In 1165, she founded a second Benedictine convent, at Eibingen, across the Rhine from Bingen.
Bingen on the Rhine River in Germany.


Bingen at the mouth of the Nahe in the Rhine

Rupertsberg near Bingen

COMPOSER’S DATES: 
1098-1179


NAME FAMOUS COMPOSITIONS WRITTEN BY THIS COMPOSER:

1. hildegard ave generosa, hymn
2. hildegard Columba aspexit

2. Ordo virtutum
Written between 1141 and 1151, is the earliest morality play. The play forms the last vision in Scivia, the thirteenth vision of part 3.
(The Play of Forces) in which she shows the ongoing battle between good and evil, happening over and over again with man and in the world, with 35 dramatic dialogues between virtues and vices.IIt is Hildegard's main concern that man is created free, and the decision is placed in his hands for his entire life, to fulfill what is laid down in his creation: to be God's image. t is possible that the play was performed by the nuns of Hildegard's convent at the dedication of the church at Rupertsberg in 1152.
notated in neumes, symbols above the text showing the melodic pattern.
writing and composing the music for a medieval morality

2. Scivias (Know the Way)
written between 1141 and 1151, is the first of three volumes which record her visions.
Scivias
Incomplete drafts of her first work, a record of her visions,
Scivias were submitted to Pope Eugenius for his approval and after he read parts of it to the synod of bishops held at Trier during 1147-1148 Hildegard became an instant celebrity. The number of both visitors and postulates to the convent Disibodenberg greatly increased, increasing the wealth of the monestary.
In one of the most metaphysical commentaries of the creation story which we will examine, Hildegard grapples with a question familiar to many modern philosophers and theologians: why does a loving, just, omnipotent God permit evil in this world? Scivias is divided into three books of six, seven, and thirteen visions, respectively. In each case Hildegard describes the vision and then explains its meaning. Scivias can be viewed, on one level, as an attempt to answer the question of how Christians should live their lives so as to reach the Heavenly City;

3.
Hildegard composed both the music and the words for Symphonia Armonie Celestium Revelationum (The Symphony of the Harmony of Heavenly Revelations) which contains approximately 70 hymns, antiphons, and reponsories. Worked into a song cycle, these hymns and sequences were to form the mature Symphonia armoniae celestium revelationum (Symphony of the Harmony of Celestial Revelations, 1150s). The themes of the more than seventy hymns, sequences, antiphons, versicles, and responsaries encompass the heavenly hierarchy, with special attention to Mary and to Saint Ursula. While in modern times Hildegard's poetry had an early champion in Peter Dronke, the striking originality of her music is only now being demonstrated, both by musicological analysis and in performance.


4.
Liber Vitae Meritorum 
seems to be a deeper exploration of the same subject, dealing at length with the vices that beset the traveler on the way. This concentration on the negative side of human nature may have been uppermost in Hildegard's mind after the difficulties she had with some of the nuns who were dissatisfied with the move to Rupertsberg. The Liber Vitae Meritorum covers a total of thirty-five vices and outlines the punishment and penance for each.
1158-1173
Work on "Liber vitae meritorum", on papers concerning healing
and curing illness and on "Liber divinorum operum"

Hildegard

Representation of the first vision in Liber divinorum operumd



NAME SOME FAMOUS PEOPLE WHO WERE ALSO ALIVE DURING THIS COMPOSER’S LIFETIME:


LITERATURE:



MUSIC:
http://www.medieval-life-and-times.info/medieval-music/index.htm
Originally, they were passed on through oral tradition, later they were notated on a 4-line staff using square notes called neumes.

HISTORY:
Gregory VII 
Pope Eugenius III
emperor Frederick I 
Barbarossa 
Henry II of England and his queen Eleanor of Aquitaine. 
Thomas Becket 
Anastasius IV
English Kings: William Rufus, King Henry I, Stephen and Henry II

ART:
http://www.medieval-life-and-times.info/medieval-art/index.htm

Donatello
Giotto
Leon Battista Alberti
Cimabue
Filippo Brunelleschi
Fra Angelico
Lorenzo Ghiberti



NAME SOME FAMOUS HISTORICAL, SCIENTIFIC, AND OR LITERARY HAPPENINGS THAT TOOK PLACE DURING THIS COMPOSER’S LIFETIME:


DESCRIBE WHAT YOU THINK THIS COMPOSER’S OVERALL COMPOSITIONAL STYLE IS AND WHAT IS DISTINCTIVE ABOUT IT

Hildegard's visions and music had been hijacked by the New Age movement, whose music bears some resemblance to Hildegard's ethereal airs.

Medieval visionary which were mostly liturgical plainchants in a single vocal melodic line about saints and the Virgin Mary. Every poem and song is a memory of divine harmony. Her 77 chants are a very powerful physical and spiritual healing tool, helping the singer to reconnect to the divine realm and manifesting holiness in daily life.

Her training came with her lifelong beautiful Benedictine rule of chanting eight times a day that inspired her to write 77 chants and the first musical drama in history which she entitled ‘The Ritual of the Virtues’.



WRITE YOUR PERSONAL OPINION ABOUT THE MUSICAL STYLE OF THIS COMPOSER AND EXPLAIN.



IF POSSIBLE, CAN YOU LIST ANY INTERNET WEB ADDRESSES ABOUT THIS COMPOSER?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hildegard_of_Bingen
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/med/hildegarde.html
http://home.infionline.net/~ddisse/hildegar.html
http://www.hildegard.org/documents/flanagan.html
http://www.healingchants.com/hct.html

http://195.186.64.172/maasbe/eLuccaCodex_Ani.html
http://www.umilta.net/hildegard.html

http://home.infionline.net/~ddisse/hildegar.html
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07351a.htm
http://www.hildegard.org/spuren/espuren.html
http://www.maasberg.ch/eHildegard.html
http://www.maasberg.ch/eRupertsberg.html

http://www.omplace.com/articles/Hildegard_vonBingen.html
http://monasticmatrix.usc.edu/commentaria/article.php?textId=2464

http://catholicfire.blogspot.com/2008/09/saint-hildegard-of-bingen-mystic-and.html
http://thewoundedbird.blogspot.com/2007/09/feast-day-of-hildegard-of-bingen.html
http://www.newcockaigne.demon.co.uk/Productions/hildegard.htm



MISCELLANEOUS COMMENTS:

a remarkable woman, a "first" in many fields. At a time when few women wrote, Hildegard, known as "Sybil of the Rhine", produced major works of theology and visionary writings.
She was the first published Western herbologist, healer, mystic, visionary, prophet, composer and writer with her very own signature, daring to speak out aloud and challenge the rulers and authorities of her time, including Popes Eugenius III and Anastasius IV, and German Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa.

It is now generally agreed that Hildegard suffered from migraine, and that her visions were a result of this condition. The way she describes her visions, the precursors, to visions, to debilitating aftereffects, point to classic symptoms of migraine sufferers.

Hildegard was born a "10th child (a tithe) to a noble German family. As was customary with the tenth child, which the family could not count on feeding, being dedicated at birth to the church. The girl started to have visions of luminous objects at the age of tree, but soon realized she was unique in this ability and hid this gift for many years.

Called "the first of the prophets of the modern age," reknowned for her spirituality in her own age, and an accomplished hagiographer, biographer, historian, poet, abbess, musician, artist, physician/healer, scientist, theologian, prophet, mystic, preacher, linguist, playright, advisor to eccleasistical authorities including Popes, founder of convents, traveler, and sociologist,
one of the most important figures in the history of the Middle Ages,"
Hildegard had voluminous correspondence with popes, cardinals, bishops, abbots, kings, emperors, monks, nuns, and laity of all social classes.

By the age of five she had demonstrated extraordinary visionary powers, and at eight her parents dedicated her to the religious life at a Benedictine monastery.

She became abbess at thirty-eight, and continued to develop as an administrator, poet, musician, scientist, and mystic. She was consulted by popes and kings and was greatly respected throughout western Europe. She lived to be eighty-one years old, working productively until the end.

visionary, poet, composer, naturalist, healer, and theologian - founded convents; corresponded with secular and ecclesiastical leaders, as well as a vast range of people of lesser rank; and ventured forth as a monastic trouble-shooter, consultant exorcist, and visiting preacher. Even more remarkable for a woman of her time was the body of written work she produced. Its range - from natural history and medicine to cosmology, music, poetry, and theology - surpasses that of most other male contemporaries; it also possesses great beauty and witnesses to Hildegard's intellectual power.

The reason such correspondents give for their faith in her help is her acknowledged gift of prophecy, in the medieval sense of being privy to God's secrets. In a letter to her superiors at Mainz she expounded the fundamental importance of music in the divine plan.

Encountering the Light
Heaven and Earth as a Mirror of Divine Love
The Ongoing Battle between Good and Evil
The World as God's Work of Art
The Unity of Salvation and Healing
The Momentum of the Unvarnished Truth

The status of Women during the Middle Ages .
• Women were not allowed to sing in church.
• Women were not allowed to learn music skills outside the
confines of a convent.
• Women were not allowed to receive an education.

Picture from the 19. century "St. Rupertus Kloster bei Bingen"

Hildegard of Bingen

Short Biography, facts and interesting information about Hildegard of Bingen the famous Medieval artist and her contribution to Medieval Art

Hildegard of Bingen
The Medieval Times encompass one of the most interesting periods in the History of Art. The names of many famous Medieval people and artists, such as Hildegard of Bingen, scatter the Medieval History books and other historical documents. Why were these important Medieval artists famous and what did they accomplish? Famous Medieval artists of the Middle Ages included both men and women like Hildegard of Bingen who contributed to the Medieval art forms of the Middle Ages dating from 1066 - 1485. The following biography, short history and interesting facts provide helpful information for history courses and history coursework about the key dates and Medieval art accomplishments in the life of the artist Hildegard of Bingen who was famous as a Medieval Florentine painter.

Short Biography about the life of Hildegard of Bingen
The following biography, short history and interesting facts provide helpful information for history courses and history coursework about the life and history of Hildegard of Bingen a famous Medieval artist and her contribution to Medieval art:



Also Known as: The Sibyl of the Rhine and Prophetissa Teutonica



Time Reference: 

Born: She was born at Rheinhesse in Germany in 1098

Family connections : She was the tenth child of Hildebert and Mechthild von Bermersheim, minor nobility of the Holy Roman Empire. Hildegarde of Bingen was was dedicated at birth to the church

Childhood, early life and education: At age of 8 her aristocratic family sent Hildegarde to be educated by an anchoress named Jutta von Spanheimat a Monastery in Disibodenberg near Rheinhesse

Occupation and Career: Hildegard of Bingen took the veil and made her nun's vows at the age of 15. A convent was built next to the Monastery and Hildegarde became the Abbess. She then founded a convent at Bingen

The visions of Hildegarde of Bingen: Hildegarde suffered from terrible migraines which many believed led to her visions. She confided the visions only in Jutta and in a monk named Volmar. The visions clarified the meaning of major Biblical and religious texts. She documented them in the Scivias.


Accomplishments and Achievements or why Hildegard of Bingen was famous: Hildegard produced major works of theology and visionary writings - the Scivias. Hildegard of Bingen was also believed to have been the illustrator of the Scivias and therefore one of the few identifiable women artists of the Middle Ages. She was also famous for writing sacred music and also wrote about natural history and medicine. Hildegard of Bingen wrote the Liber simplicis medicinae (Simple Book of Medicine) in 1160.



Hildegard was so well respected that she was consulted by and advised bishops, popes and kings.

These accomplishments gave Hildegard of Bergen the name of the 'Sibyl of the Rhine'


Hildegard was known for: Her visions, her writings, her musical compositions and poetry
Occupations:

Monastic
Poet & Composer
Saint
Woman of Note


Quotation from Hildegard of Bingen:
"O Holy Wisdom, Soaring Power, encompass us with wings unfurled, and carry us, encircling all, above, below, and through the world."
--O Holy Spirit, Root of Life
More Quotations by Hildegard of Bingen
About Hildegard:

Born to noble parents, Hildegard was educated at the Benedictine cloister of Disibodenberg and became prioress there in 1136. She had experienced visions since a child, but kept them to herself until, at the age of 43, she heard a command to make her visions known to others. She later described how disobeying this command made her ill, so she consulted her confessor, who in turn reported the problem to the archbishop of Mainz. Hildegard was then subjected to the inspection of a committee of theologians, who confirmed the authenticity of her visions.
A monk (Volmar) was assigned to help Hildegard record her visions in writing. The result was Scivias, a collection of 26 visions dealing with topics such as the church, redemption, and the relationship between God and man.

In about 1147, Hildegard left Disibodenberg with several nuns and founded a convent at Rupertsberg. There she continued to record her visions in writing. She also composed music and poetry, wrote saints' lives, wrote treatises on natural history, medicine and herbs, and maintained an extensive correspondence with other monastics that revealed more of her prophecies.
She even created her own language, just for fun.

Hildegard died in her early 80s. Though never formally canonized, she is listed as a saint in the Roman Martyrology for the miracles reported during her lifetime and at her tomb. The recent 900th anniversary of her birth generated renewed interest in her music, much of which has been recorded by groups such as The Anonymous 4, Gothic Voices and Sequentia.