Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179) was a Benedictine nun, abbess, writer, musician, visionary and prophetess who was visited by popes, kings and emperors and was resolutely engaged in the crises and struggles of her time. In the Roman Catholic Church she is venerated as a saint and teacher of the church. She is also commemorated in the Anglican, Old Catholic and Protestant Churches.
Hildegard von Bingen is considered the first representative of German mysticism of the Middle Ages. Her works deal with religion, medicine, music, ethics and cosmology, among other things. An extensive correspondence has survived from her, which also contains clear admonitions to highly placed contemporaries, as well as reports on long pastoral journeys and her public preaching activities.
On October 7, 2012, Pope Benedict XVI elevated St. Hildegard to the rank of Doctor of the Church (Doctor Ecclesiae universalis)[1] and extended her veneration to the universal Church.[2] Her relics are in the parish church of Eibingen.
Significance in music
The collection of sacred songs of Hildegard von Bingen contains 77 liturgical chants with melodies as well as the liturgical drama Ordo virtutum, preserved in text and musical notation, which is available in two versions and expresses most purely the visionary world of thoughts and images of Hildegard. The spectrum of songs includes antiphons, responsories, hymns, sequences, a kyrie, an alleluia and two symphonies.
Hildegard’s music occupies a special position in Gregorian chant; it is characterized by wide ranges of tones and large intervals such as jumps in fourths and fifths.