September 16 - Hildegard von Bingen (The Musical Birthday Series, 5th Annual Cycle)

Previous posts for September 16th are here: Hildegard von Bingen (2019), Charlie Byrd (2020), Nadia Boulanger (2021), and Nick Jonas; Hildegard von Bingen (2022)

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Hildegard von Bingen (1098 – 17 September 1179) was one of the most accomplished minds of the Middle Ages, distinguishing herself in a number of fields. We do not know when she was born, but September 16 is cited occasionally, although it is unclear on what evidence.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mine, All Mine; or, Thinking Ahead

Several manuscripts of her works were produced during her lifetime, including the Dendermonde Codex, , which contains one version of her musical works. At the end of her life, and probably under her initial guidance, all of her works were edited and gathered into the single Riesenkodex manuscript. -- adapted from Wikipedia

If you are called upon to sing

   An old medieval chant,

And you should ask who wrote the thing,

   You’ll never know, you can’t.

The names are lost within the mists

   Of dark medieval mysteries,

And so “anonymous” persists

   In our medieval histories.

But Hildegard’s productions are

   Exceptions to this fact;

She labored at her escritoire

   With the foresight to redact.

She sat in Bingen on the Rhine

   And held her holy pen,

And then by some Divine Design

  She wrote her chants.  Amen.

 

 

 

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