Hildegard von Bingen

Paper Summary:

The paper analyzes the many differing musical innovations of the medieval composer Hildegard von Bingen. The paper discusses her biographical background as a woman in the Roman Catholic Church in relation to the spirituality of her music. The paper also looks at her status as a feminist innovator of her time. The paper shows how her spiritual music deviated from normative western religious music interpretations of medieval vocal chant.

From the Paper:

"Hildegard von Bingen was born in 1098 into a family of German nobles from the courts of Sponheim at Bermersheim. In most historical evaluations of her life it was known that she was the 10th daughter and was found to be sickly and weak at birth. However, her family quickly sent her to be educated at the Disibodenberg monastery after her apparent recovery from illness at a young age. At the monastery she was brought under the tutelage of Jutta, a famous nun that played a crucial role in her educational development within the Roman Catholic Church. In many ways, religious education at the nunnery directly resulted in her acquiring the musical lessons and spiritual inspiration to understand the complexities of composing music within the Church tradition. Yet there is a contradictory historical perspective that tells of von Bingen never actually being taught composition, but that it was an act of God that gave her the gift of music."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Hildegard von Bingen. Secrets of God: Writings of Hildegard of Bingen. Cambridge: Shambhala, 1996.
• Mathers, Olivia C. "The Music of Hildegard von Bingen." 2002. ORB database. 7 November, 2006. <http://www.the-orb.net/encyclop/culture/music/mather.htm>
• Newman, Barbara. Voice of the Living Light: Hildegard Von Bingen and Her World. Los Angeles: university of California Press, 1998.
• Witts, Richard. How to Make a Saint: On Interpreting Hildegard of Bingen. Early Music, v26.n3 (August 1998): pp478(8). Gale Group Database. 8 November, 2006. <http://find.galegroup.com>

More papers on Hildegard von Bingen:

• Term Paper # 139815 : "Hildegard Von Bingen"
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• Research Paper # 63324 : "Hildegard von Bingen"

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