Hildegard of Bingen Robert White

Hildegard v. Bingen & Herrad v. Landsberg - Hortus Deliciarum: twefth-century gregorian chants
Discantus / Brigitte Lesne
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 246 MB | Full Artwork | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Naive, Opus111 # OP 30390 | Country/Year: France 2004
Genre: Classical | Style: Medieval, Sacred

…The unison singing is quite remarkable for its clarity and smoothness. The singers have discovered, too, how to manage repercussions, subtly but entirely convincingly. The ordering of the recital, with its frequent use of First Mode pieces juxtaposed, and its judicious groupings, is successful and never monotonous. The listener is left with a good sense of how sacred music was developing in the 12th century by leaps and bounds in so many directions, even to the extent of cantillated readings being occasionally sung in three parts.

Only a single manuscript transmits Hildegard’s ordo virtutum: the Wiesbaden Codex (also known as the Rupertsberger Riesencodex), which was started in the scriptorium of her monastery in Bingen during the last years of her life and finished after her death. Today it is considered to be her legacy: Hildegard has not only the authoress of the individual works collected here, but also had influence on the overall composition of the codex. She wanted her work to be transmitted only in this and not in any other way.

Hildegard von Bingen - O Eterne Deus - Vajra Voices (2016) {Music & Arts Official Digital Download}
FLAC (tracks) - 16bit/44kHz - Official Digital Download (qobuz.com) -> 226 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 118 Mb
Full Artwork (pdf+jpg) -> 21 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2016 Music & Arts | CD-1291
Classical / Medieval / Early Music / Sacred Vocal Music

The music of the 12th century poet and composer Hildegard von Bingen continues to exert a spell on the modern imagination, and not just among those who are (rightly) eager to seize on her as an early feminist icon. The chant melodies, rendered here with heartfelt elegance by the women’s chorus Vajra Voices under the direction of Karen R. Clark, are striking in both their shapeliness and the spiritual fervor that runs through them. To a modern listener, accustomed to hearing melodic lines combined in contrapuntal mesh or harmonic byplay, the spareness of these textures - even with the deft accompaniment of Shira Kammen on the vielle (a bowed string instrument) and medieval harp - can make them seem attenuated. But listen more closely, and Hildegard’s careful attentiveness to the liturgical texts, with all their implications, becomes ever more affecting.

Canonized by Pope Benedict in May 2012, St. Hildegard von Bingen, abbess, visionary, healer, singer, poet and composer, left two precious manuscripts filled with spiritual songs. With this anthology, Music for Paradise, the world-renowned ensemble Sequentia presents the entire spectrum of Hildegard's music - songs of surprising depth and virtuosity, at times meditative, at times shocking, yet always energized by the unique musical genius and voice of this visionary artist more than 800 years after her death.