Voices of Connection: 03/19 Hildegard of Bingen

Throughout this month, we'll be sharing the music of women composers as part of a celebration of Women's History Month. Thus far, we've heard two beautiful pieces by Lili Boulanger and a world premiere by Martha Sullivan. Today, we share something from the first identifiable woman composer in the history of Western Music, Hildegard von Bingen. This remarkable woman was a German Benedictine abbess, writer, composer, philosopher, Christian visionary, and polymath. I recommend the 2009 German movie Vision to you. Hildegard was so ahead of her time that it’s hard to conceive. But, as much as the film portrays her powerful life – and that is indeed fascinating – it doesn’t spend much time on the transcendent chants which inspire such peace in us today.

– Dennis Keene

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HILDEGARD VON BINGEN Ave Generosa

Kathy Theil, Soprano

from the Delos recording
Voices of Ascension - From Chant to Renaissance
℗ 1995 Delos

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