Hildegard of Bingen

Blessed Hildegard of Bingen (or von Bingen) (September 16 1098 – September 17, 1179) was a German abbess, monastic leader, mystic, author, and composer of music.

Divine Harmonies

Music was extremely important to Hildegard. She describes it as the means of recapturing the original joy and beauty of paradise. According to her, before the Fall, Adam had a pure voice and joined angels in singing praises to God; after the Fall, earthly music was invented and musical instruments created in order to worship God appropriately.

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Hildegard wrote hymns and sequences in honor of saints, virgins and Mary. She wrote in the plainchant tradition of a single vocal melodic line, the predominant method of liturgical singing in the 12th century.

Related Topics:
Hymn - Sequence

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Currently her music is undergoing a popular revival and enjoying public success. One group, Sequentia, recorded virtually all of Hildegard's musical output in time for the 900th anniversary of her birth in 1998, including examples of Hildegard's metaphorical writing, imbued with vibrant descriptions of color and light, that occur in her visionary writings.

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