Unfurling Love's Creation
HILDEGARD von BINGEN
Norma Gentile

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1996
Lyrichord LEMS 8027

May 12-15, 1995
Concordia Lutheran College Chapel, Ann Arbor, Michigan

HILDEGARD von BINGEN

1 - Rex noster promptus est   [4:33]
2 - Hodie   [1:50]
3 - O splendidissima gemma   [3:55]
4 - Ave, Maria   [9:44]
5 - Ave, generosa   [5:42]
6 - Caritas abundat in omnia   [1:57]
7 - Spiritui Sancto   [7:03]
8 - O rubor sanguinis   [2:12]
9 - O eterne Deus   [2:14]
10 - O clarissima Mater   [9:54]
11 - O Ecclesia   [7:57]




Norma Gentile • soprano, Tibetian singing bowls


Drone chorus:

Elizabeth Alberda
John L. Ballbach
Linda Britt
Lori Cohen
Suzanne Czurylo
George Dentel
Beth Gilford
Marilyn Gouin
Lynn Heberlein
Rebecca Heberlein
Karen James
Linda Jones
Cricket R. Killen
Andrew Krepley
Robert Koliner
Kathy Madison
Judy Michaels
Mary M. Miller
Linda L. Moody
Kevin O’Brien
James T. Palazzolo
Christopher Rothko
Gerald Siclovan
Elizabeth Sklar
Frances Tashnick
Ralph Valdez





Unfurling Love’s Creation
Chants of Hildegard of Bingen in Praise of Sophia

The story

In the fifth century, A British king bequeathed his fair daughter, Ursula, to the prince of another land. Ursula, not wishing to marry the prince, desired to follow her own heart into a union with Christ and the Church. She begged her father to reconsider the arrangement, and, failing that, she won instead the privilege of a three-year pilgrimage to Rome before the wedding.

She gathered about her ten women, who in turn each gathered another ten. The cycle continued until the party numbered eleven thousand women, their servants, and an escort party of male bishops. During their return trip from Rome they encountered the army of Attila the Hun near Cologne, Germany. Rather than submit to the men of the army and serve then as concubines, Ursula led the women, along with their escorts and servants, to martyrdom.

In the twelfth century it was thought that a mass grave discovered adjacent to the Cologne Cathedral in 1106 was that of the martyrs. Another prophetically gifted nun, Elisabeth of Schonau, experienced a series of visions (1156-57) which seemed to confirm this. At that time a partially legible Roman inscription (XI MV) in the Cologne Cathedral was interpreted as XI Milles (eleven thousand) Virgines rather than the current reading of XI Martyres Virgines (eleven martyred virgins).

The music in this collection reflects aspects of St. Ursula’s tale. The story is retold directly in O Ecclesia, while Spiritui Sancto reflects Hildegard’s more personal view.

Ave, generosa and Ave, Maria invoke and describe the Divine Feminine which Mary and Ursula personify. O clarissima mater illustrates the power of this divine aspect to bless and heal with the gentlest of sounds, while O splendidissima gemma is a revelation of its glory.

O rubor sanguinis and Rex noster promptus est share a concern with the paradox of blood. As one who ministered to the sick and dying, Hildegard experienced the shedding of blood as a precursor of physical death. Yet for a woman, the regular monthly shedding of blood is a sign of well-being. In her theology, blood became an element which is transmuted into an ever-giving life-force through martyrdom. Rex noster promptus est is dedicated to some of those martyrs, the children slain by King Herod. O eterne Deus, dedicated simply to God, opens as a quiet, inward prayer which expands to include a petition of blessing for all Life.

The symbiotic relationship shared by Jesus and Mary, the Divine Feminine and Sacred Masculine, is made evident in much of Hildegard’s texts. Just as the Divine Feminine incarnate in Mary, loved and cared for the infant Jesus, He as Christ returns that love to the world. This is particularly touching in the gentle Caritas abundat in omnia and the joyous Hodie.


Hildegard von Bingen

The twelfth century was a time of rising feminine influence in the Catholic Church. Just as Ursula was believed to have led a large and powerful group of women, Hildegard’s fame as a leader of women spread throughout northern Europe. This fame attracted not only many visitors to her monasteries, but also women wishing to join her.

Hildegard was born in 1098, the tenth child of a noble family. In order to give her an education, Hildegard was placed within a monastery at the age of eight. She chose to take the veil, and as an abbess she established and led two monasteries for women in her native Germany, near Bingen. She wrote two biographies of saints and books concerning medicine, herbology, theology. Her musical legacy includes seventy-seven sacred monophonic chants on her own Latin texts for use in worship services, as well as a morality play, again with both text and music of her own authorship. Gifted from childhood with visions, she experienced both images and sounds which she attributed to heavenly sources. She described her music as translations of the sounds of the Celestial Symphony which she heard during these visions. She died in 1179 at the age of eighty-one, leaving behind a culture and world touched by the artistry of her deep spiritual expression.

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