Editing Hildegard of Bingen (section)

===Music===
{{see also|List of compositions by Hildegard of Bingen}}

Attention in recent decades to women of the medieval [[Catholic Church]] has led to a great deal of popular interest in Hildegard's music. In addition to the {{lang|la|[[Ordo Virtutum]]}}, 69 musical compositions, each with its own original poetic text, survive, and at least four other texts are known, though their musical notation has been lost.<ref>Hildegard of Bingen. ''Symphonia'', ed. Barbara Newman (2nd Ed.; Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1988, 1998).</ref> This is one of the largest repertoires among medieval composers.

{{Listen|image=none|help=no|filename=O frondens 2.ogg|title=''O frondens virga''|format=[[Ogg]]}}
One of her better-known works, {{lang|la|Ordo Virtutum}} (''Play of the Virtues''), is a [[morality play]]. It is uncertain when some of Hildegard's compositions were composed, though the {{lang|la|Ordo Virtutum}} is thought to have been composed as early as 1151.<ref>Flanagan, Sabina. ''Hildegard of Bingen, 1098–1179: A Visionary Life'' (London: Routledge, 1989), p. 102.</ref> It is an independent Latin morality play with music (82 songs); it does not supplement or pay homage to the Mass or the Office of a certain feast. It is, in fact, the earliest known surviving musical drama that is not attached to a [[liturgy]].<ref name="Burkholder, J. Peter 2006" />

The {{lang|la|Ordo virtutum}} would have been performed within Hildegard's monastery by and for her select community of noblewomen and nuns. It was probably performed as a manifestation of the theology Hildegard delineated in the {{lang|la|Scivias}}. The play serves as an allegory of the Christian story of sin, confession, repentance, and forgiveness. Notably, it is the female Virtues who restore the fallen to the community of the faithful, not the male Patriarchs or Prophets. This would have been a significant message to the nuns in Hildegard's convent. Scholars assert that the role of the Devil would have been played by Volmar, while Hildegard's nuns would have played the parts of Anima (the human souls) and the Virtues.<ref>Audrey Ekdahl Davidson. "Music and Performance: Hildegard of Bingen's Ordo Virtutum." ''The Ordo Virtutum of Hildegard of Bingen: Critical Studies'', (Kalamazoo, MI: Western Michigan University, 1992), pp. 1–29.</ref> The devil's part is entirely spoken or shouted, with no musical setting. All other characters sing in monophonic plainchant. This includes patriarchs, prophets, a happy soul, an unhappy soul, and a penitent soul along with 16 virtues (including mercy, innocence, chastity, obedience, hope, and faith).<ref>{{Cite web |title=Hildegard von Bingen Biography |url=https://www.singers.com/bio/4103 |access-date=14 May 2020 |website=www.singers.com}}</ref><ref>Gillespie, Charles. 2024. ''Illumination and Sonic Synesthesia: Present and Absent Ornamentation in Hildegard von Bingen.'' In Steven Okey and Katherine G.  Schmidt, eds. Theology and Media(tion) 2024. NY: Orbis Books. pp. 170–181. </ref>

In addition to the {{lang|la|Ordo Virtutum}}, Hildegard composed many liturgical songs that were collected into a cycle called the {{lang|la|Symphonia armoniae celestium revelationum}}. The songs from the Symphonia are set to Hildegard's own text and range from antiphons, hymns, and sequences (such as ''[[Columba Aspexit]]''), to responsories.<ref>Maddocks, Fiona. ''Hildegard of Bingen: The Woman of Her Age'' (New York: Doubleday, 2001), p. 194.</ref> Her music is [[monophony|monophonic]], consisting of exactly one melodic line.<ref>Newman, Barbara. ''Voice of the Living Light'' (California: University of California Press, 1998), p. 150.</ref> Its style has been said to be characterized by soaring melodies that can push the boundaries of traditional Gregorian chant and to stand outside the normal practices of monophonic monastic chant.<ref name="holsinger">Holsinger, Bruce. "The Flesh of the Voice: Embodiment and the Homoerotics of Devotion in the Music of Hildegard of Bingen (1098–1179), "Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 19 (Autumn, 1993): pp. 92–125.</ref> Researchers are also exploring ways in which it may be viewed in comparison with her contemporaries, such as [[Hermannus Contractus]].<ref>See Jennifer Bain, "Hildegard, Hermannus and Late Chant Style," ''Journal of Music Theory'', 2008, vol. 52.</ref> Another feature of Hildegard's music that both reflects the 12th-century evolution of chant, and pushes that evolution further, is that it is highly [[melismatic]], often with recurrent melodic units. Scholars such as [[Margot Fassler]], Marianne Richert Pfau, and Beverly Lomer also note the intimate relationship between music and text in Hildegard's compositions, whose rhetorical features are often more distinct than is common in 12th-century chant.<ref>Margot Fassler. "Composer and Dramatist: 'Melodious Singing and the Freshness of Remorse,'" ''Voice of the Living Light: Hildegard of Bingen and Her World'', ed. Barbara Newman (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998), 149–75; Marianna Richert-Pfau, "Mode and Melody Types in Hildegard von Bingen's Symphonia," ''Sonus'' 11 (1990): 53–71; Beverly Lomer, ''Music, Rhetoric and the Sacred Feminine'' (Saarbrücken, Germany: Verlag Dr. Müller, 2009) and eadem, "Hildegard of Bingen: Music, Rhetoric and the Divine Feminine," in ''Journal of the International Alliance of Women and Music'', vol. 18, No. 2, 2012. See also Lomer's discussion of "The Theory and Rhetoric of Hildegard's Music," in the International Society for Hildegard von Bingen Studies' [http://www.hildegard-society.org/p/music.html#Theory_and_Rhetoric online edition of Hildegard's ''Symphonia''].</ref> As with most medieval chant notation, Hildegard's music lacks any indication of tempo or rhythm; the surviving manuscripts employ late German style notation, which uses very ornamental [[neumes]].<ref>See the facsimile of her music now freely available on [http://imslp.org/wiki/Symphonia_et_Ordo_virtutum_%28Hildegard%29 IMSLP].</ref> The reverence for the Virgin Mary reflected in music shows how deeply influenced and inspired Hildegard of Bingen and her community were by the Virgin Mary and the saints.<ref>Butcher, Carmen Acevedo. ''Hildegard of Bingen: A Spiritual Reader'' (Massachusetts: Paraclete Press, 2007), p. 27; see also Beverly Lomer, "Hildegard of Bingen: Music, Rhetoric and the Divine Feminine," in ''Journal of the International Alliance of Women and Music'', vol. 18, No. 2, 2012.</ref>