Hildegarde von Bingen

Teaching journal.

I discussed the music of von Bingen with students through the prism of musical expression, musical experience, and musical creation. Von Bingen’s chants express the meaning of the text vividly. In O Virtus Sapientiaes and Spiritus Sanctus vivificans vita the melody often leaps to great heights and phrases tend to end on the fifth above the final, sustaining an elevation that expresses the glory of the God (the former chant) and the Holy Spirit (both chants). In O quam mirabilis est, in contrast, which praises the earthly human form as a mirror image of God, the phrases tend to end on the stable ground of the final. To get students to really think through even just a single melodic line, I used the conceptual frameworks of 1) aesthetic immediacy versus reason-based evaluation, and 2) the relative importance of inspiration versus rules in creative work. Students figured out that we have an immediate impression of the music upon listening, but that there are also structural elements we can point to in appreciating the chants. Also, the inspiration of the chants might be palpable to those who appreciate this music, but inspiration expresses itself through the musical structure of modes, phrases, and finals.