Published in the “Music Quarterly , July 1997
To listen: Canticles of Ecstasy by Hildegard von Bingen
Sequentia/Duetsche Harmonia mundi 0 5472 77 3202
I became acquainted with Hildegard von Bingen, 1098-1179, through her wonderful musical work, which caught my attention because it was so different from the music of her contemporaries. The sounds drew me to the words, which I originally translated into Hebrew, and then poetry with a feminist message unfolded before me. In the tenth century AD, before the growth of universities, philosophy, creativity, science and music were the property of the church, and therefore all of von Bingen’s activities and unique sayings are anchored in religion.
Hildegard von Bingen, was and remains one of the most fascinating women in history. She saw Maria as the savior of the women cursed by heaven. Despite her audacity she was accepted and almost became a saint.
One of the most remarkable figures in the history of history in general and in the Middle Ages in particular was Hildegard von Bingen, a nun, theologian, poet, doctor, musician, diplomat and entrepreneur. She is also the first woman composer that we know of, a great composer among her contemporaries, creator of a special feminist liturgy whose vitality has not expired to this day.
Von Bingen was born in 1098 to parents from the aristocracy, in a small village called Mersheim in Germany, during a time of enormous renewal and prosperity in Europe. It was a time when the first universities were established and the courts of rulers had many influential patrons, a time when the heavy Romanesque style in architecture was replaced by the majestic Gothic style. However, the arts, and music in general, still largely remained within the church.
At the age of eight, Hildegard was brought to Utah from Spenheim, the abbess of a small community of nuns that was associated with the Benedictine monastery of Disinbodenberg, near Bingen, southwest of Mainz. There she grew up and was educated according to the Benedictine rules.
In 1141, Jutta of Spennheim died and von Bingen (aged 43) succeeded her as abbess and became the leader of her own community in Rupertsburg. According to her testimony, in that year she experienced a revelation of tongues of fire that descended on her and from that time she devoted herself to a very intense creative life in many fields and toured throughout Germany. As the mother of the monastery, her authority, publicity and creative power grew significantly. Among her writings are two books on the history of nature and medicine, a morality play called “Odo Virtutum”, and a large collection of poems and music called: “Symphonia Armonic eclesium revelationum”, (“Symphony of the Harmony of Heavenly Visions”). The collection contains some of the most beautiful and complex songs written in the Middle Ages and intended to be sung by the nuns in the monastery and at other liturgical events.
Von Bingen’s publication was not limited to Germany, she was also involved in politics and diplomacy and her friends and those seeking her advice included popes, emperors, kings, archbishops, fathers and mothers of monasteries. There was a very extensive correspondence with all of them. One of her most amazing achievements was the renewal of the monastery of St. Rupert in 1150. The original monastery was destroyed by the Normans and after it was restored by her, she moved there with her nuns.
Between Eve and Mary
Von Bingen dedicated most of her poetic and musical work to Maria. She developed the idea that Mary is not only the mother of Jesus but also the savior of all women from the curse of expulsion from Paradise. Eve’s story is in fact one of the most difficult: she was accused of being expelled from the Garden of Eden, of bringing sorrow, pain and death on the human race and her most terrible curse: “Many locusts have afflicted you. In sorrow you will bear sons, and you will long for your husband, and he will rule over you.” C 16)
The story of the creation of the world in Genesis condemns the woman to a bitter and humiliating fate. In von Bingen’s first poem, in the collection “Symphonies for Maria” (from the trilogy that opens the Wiesbaden collection) she announces “Now the gate is opened”. This is the gate that Isaiah refers to in the verse “And open your gates continually day and night, they shall not be shut:” (Isaiah 9:11). The locked gate is the existential principle of women since the expulsion from the Garden of Eden. The opening of the gate has great symbolism and in it is a victory of femininity over the deportation. The feeling that a certain curse has been lifted is the emotional essence of the first poem: “Now the doors of the gate have been opened/which was locked for so long/to show us what the snake strangled the woman/and thus shines for him in the sunrise/Mary’s flower” * The second poem continues the same line of thinking, but while The first is of an energetic nature, the second song is endowed with femininity and sweetness like the text and especially the ending line: “In dulcissima et beata virgine”. “The sweet and beautiful virgin”.
The whole poem is perhaps the most poignant in terms of the new, feminist theological concept, the one that focuses on the idea that Mary is the savior of the women from the curse of the Garden of Eden. Here there is room for comparison with the Jewish woman, who in fact is still seen as Eve, for all that this implies, while the Christian woman, according to von Bingen’s perception, was freed from this burden by Mary: “In the beginning the woman brought death/now his subjugation is a glorious woman/and the great blessing Of all of them/it was given to a woman/and not to any other creature/since God created his creature/in the womb of a woman of great grace and beauty”*. Words as spurs! Mary’s symbolism is in her fertility. In this poem, von Bingen talks about the dignity and sanctity of the woman: no longer the one who condemned man to death, but the one who was chosen to give him life. In the song “Eva Maria” she continues this line “Praise be to Mary/O source of life/Renewer of redemption/Who shakes death/And tramples the serpent/To which Eve raised/Her neck/In the soul of her pride/You trample that serpent/By giving God a son from heaven/You May the spirit of God/soul be in you” The perception of Mary as a counterweight to Eve is clear here: Eve condemned the woman as a curse and humiliation, Mary restored her dignity.
The woman as a branch
The poems that have been quoted so far are very powerful and their treatment of the subject is valuable and practical. The song “Alleluia! O virga mediatrix” is more poetic and brings the image of the woman to the branch. Here is the place to note some very interesting linguistic matters: in Latin the word for virgin is virgin which is derived from the word virga which means a branch.
Indeed, the word virgin does not mean a woman who has not had sexual relations, but a free woman from whom a new branch, a new family, will grow. And more: in Latin as well as in English, a pregnant woman is a woman “in bloom”. Indeed, in von Bingen’s poetry, Maria’s pregnancy is described, as was customary at the time, with images from nature. And so in the pair of poems “Alleluia! O virga mediatrix” (Hallelujah to the bridging branch*) and O viridissima virga (Oh, the greenest branch of all*), the woman, who is the confusing green branch in the poem, stands at the center of a description that is remarkably similar to the description of the lost paradise: “And Jehovah God grew out of the ground every tree that is pleasant to look at and good for food” (Genesis 2:9). eating, All the days of your life, thorn and thistle, you will grow; and you will eat the grass of the field.” (Genesis 3:17-18). “Hallelujah to the greenest branch of all” Von Bingen writes in her poem: “When the time has come/When your heart buds/Hallelujah you/The sun spread brown in you/Like the scent of frankincense*”. And in the next stanza in the same poem: “Because a wonderful flower bloomed within you/whose fragrance gave/to all the dried herbs/and these appeared in their full greenness..*.” and so on. A song of renewal for nature, in which Maria’s pregnancy is the reconstruction of the blooming garden full of fragrances: “And when the time came/your buds blossomed/Hallel, praise you*”. Bathed in the light and warmth of the sun’s rays and wailing in the chirping of birds. The connecting image from von Bingen’s poetry is that of the woman as the tree of life! And it is impossible not to see the symmetry between the story of the expulsion from the Garden of Eden due to eating from the tree of knowledge, so that man would not eat from the tree of life Sea, and food , and live forever. And Jehovah God sent him, from Eden, to work, the earth, which he took, from there, the man; (Genesis 3:22-24) and the story of Mary’s pregnancy and her image to the tree of life itself!
Hildegard von Bingen does not deny the story of the Garden of Eden and does not challenge what is written in it. The last two lines of the song reveal her anger towards Hava. After the idyllic description of Maria’s pregnancy experience comes an explosive line: “Hec omnia Eva contempsit” (for all these things in this Eve*) which reveals that von Bingen has no empathy for Eva’s pain, but rather anger at her actions. That is, von Bingen does not appeal to The truth of the story, and not about the justice of the punishment, she came to emphasize that the curse of pain, sorrow and death brought by the actions of one woman, was canceled by another woman when she was chosen to be the vessel in which life was given “Hallelujah/ Hallelujah to the mediating branch/ Your holy body/ Overcome death/ Your mercy/ Illuminate all that is created/a wonderful flower/that bloomed from the soft perfection/of your sealed righteousness*”
The cosmic harmony
The study of von Bingen’s character and work as a composer is on two levels: her work in terms of the musical materials and poetic content, and her sociological aspect as a woman composer in the Middle Ages.
The musical aspect:
The evaluation of the musical material is based on its absolute quality, as this is the starting point: there is no intention here of “corrective discrimination” but rather of “proper exposure” of wonderful music with universal qualities. Also, the evaluation is from the point of reference of the material to its period stylistically and technically. Von Bingen’s music differs from the music of her contemporaries that we know today first of all in that it was written, naturally, for female voices (and not for male voices as is customary in the common male monasteries). The use of this medium gives her music the “song of the angels” tone. She herself calls her collection of musical works “symphonies of heavenly revelation” and thus she expresses the divine inspiration in the composition and the idea that music is the highest activity of the human race, since it reflects the sounds of the upper letters and the choirs of angels (the idea of music as an activity related to the upper letters is not new And the Greeks also believed in it in the classical period, but in contrast – their point of reference was mathematical and a version that music affects the upper digits. Von Bingen expresses a religious attitude that believes that music is affected by them. Her music was fundamentally different from the typical music of that time: music based on monotonous Gregorian chants in a narrow range sung by male monks, von Bingen’s music was written for female voices, high and bright, was much more melodic and independent and used a large range. In general, her work is written in broad dimensions, as a poet and musician. The musical sources she used were also enormous – starting with a calm melody and ending with an obsessive recitative in a particularly high register. Her work indicates a mind that is in constant motion and a great depth of thought, or as she put it herself: “To write, see, hear and know: all at once”
The social aspect
Hildegard von Bingen is particularly fascinating in her uniqueness as a female creator and in terms of the sociological and philosophical aspects related to this: in a certain sense, she is not a model of a career woman, since she did not herself experience the experience of pregnancy, birth and raising children, which is the ultimate female experience for all that it implies. She dedicated herself to the church and the activities derived from this dedication, and did so with a genius that is unmatched by many. However, the data of her creation, it should be noted, were devoid of the obligations and physical and social difficulties associated with femininity and the role of women in society, and without the enormous conflicts that a woman with creative impulses outside of her home, who is not ready to give up family life as well, has. Against this background, her unreserved and bold dedication to feminist issues, her identification with women and the fact that she created a courageous female theology stands out even more. It is interesting to note in this context that in the church, even within the framework of conventional theology, her works had no opponents, despite her innovation. On the contrary, the Popes Gregory IX, Innocent IV, Clement V and John XII proposed, each in his generation, to become a saint due to her extraordinary work. Although this proposal was not carried out, the very request indicates that her work was not only not condemned but was also highly regarded.
The conflict presented by the Christian world view with the Jewish view poses great questions, since its essence is, as mentioned, in Mary redeeming the women from the curse of the divorced from the Garden of Eden.
“Sybil on the Rhine” as she was called, passed away in the monastery she refounded in Rupertsberg, on September 17, 1179. At the extreme age of 91!
*The translation of the Latin text into English was done by me very freely and without literary intentions.
All rights reserved to Ada Pelleg.