Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179)
Arranged by Michael Engelhardt
Walton Music WW1632
Kaylee Burkholder, soloist
A female-forward program would be lacking if it did not include the writings of Hildegard von Bingen, religious mystic, healer, composer, and poet. I have always been struck by the thought that, had she lived a few centuries later, would we have been deprived of the music of her visions because she would have been deemed a witch? Would she have experienced the same fate as other female holy visionaries, such as Anne Askew, Joan of Arc, and the women in the area we now call Germany, which was once deemed as the “witch-burning capital of the world”? Saved by time from that horror, she produced a prolific catalogue that is an inspiration to male and female composers, musicians, and music lovers to this day.
O antiqui sancti
quid admiramini in nobis?
Verbum Dei clarescit in forma hominis
et ideo fulgemus cum illo,
edificantes membra sui
pulchri corporis.
O ancient holy ones,
why do you marvel at us?
The Word of God gleams brightly within
the human form,
and therefore we shine with him,
enhancing the parts of his beautiful body.