HILDEGARD OF BINGEN (1098-1179)

The Sibyl of the Rhine

Color Aesthetics, Shape, and Line in Hildegard

OBJECTIVES:

1. Be able briefly to discuss the life, career, and achievements of Hildegard of Bingen.

2. Be able to discuss Hildegard's feminine vision of the Divine, and to place it within the context of the times.

3. Be able to discuss the illuminations of Hildegard in relation to her feminine vision of the Divine, and the use of color and shape to communicate that vision.

4. Be able to discuss the chant of Hildegard, as well as the general musical examples we will discuss from other composers, nd to relate it to her use of color and shape.

QUOTATIONS:

From Hildegard's works:

"When I was 42 and seven months old, a bringing light of tremendous brightness coming from heaven poured into my entire mind, like flame that does not burn but enkindles. It inflamed my entire heart and breast, like the sun that warms an object with its rays." "All at once I was able to taste the understanding of the books-- The Psalter, the Evangelists, and the books of the Old and New Testaments."

On her illuminations:

The eggs shows "the mighty way in which everything that is in the heavens, on the earth, and under the earth is penetrated with connectedness, penetrated with relatedness."

Hildegard on Hildegard:

"[I am but a] simple creature" and "a poor little womanly creature," and a "small sound of the trumpet from the living light."

OUTLINE

I. Introduction

a. The achievements of Hildegard

II. Biography

a. Noble birth
b. Tenth child
c. To Disibodenberg and later as abbess
d. Rupertsberg
e. Foundation of Eibingen
f. Disputes with papacy
g. Preaching against the Cathar heresy

III. Hildegard the visionary

a. Beginning of the visions
b. Recording of the visions

i. Volmar and Richardis von Stade

c. Her description of her visions

i. while awake vs. asleep
ii. a simple, intuited knowledge vs. book learning

d. The Scivias, Book of Merits of Life, Book of Divine Works
e. The Illuminations:

i. The Cosmic Egg
ii. Sophia
iii. The Choir of Angels
iv. Man in Sapphire Blue

f. Chants: Color in Music

i. Concepts: viriditas, the greening of the earth
ii. Mary as viridissima virga

IV. Conclusion