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The Question of Compositional Process in the Music of Hildegard Von Bingen

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The Question of Compositional Process in the Music of Hildegard Von Bingen The question of compositional process in the music of Hildegard von Bingen Catherine jefieys The Symphonia hamzoniae caelestium revelationum by Hildegard's compositions appear. .as proc- Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179) occupies a unique esses that entail the shaping of the melody in conjunctionwith the delivery of the text, that and uncertain position in music history. This cycle of involve the formal unfolding of each phrase seventy-seven liturgical items and a liturgical drama, and of the piece as a whole.5 the Ordo virtutum,l exists on the periphery of chant scholarship, although it is occasionally, albeit tenta- A study of Hildegard's compositional process tively, included in discussions of the Latin religious should necessarily involve as many areas of considera- song of the twelfth century. For musicologists, two tion as possible. The present assessment will take into consequences of this uncertain position have been the consideration two areas of concern commonly over- continued treatment of the Symphonia as if it existed in looked by scholars: the musical language in which an historical vacuum and the consideration of Hildegard Hildegard was immersed and its relation to contempo- I I the composer as if she were peerless. The uncertainty rary theory; and the most frequently dismissed and , surrounding one issue in particular, that of Hildegard's least understood aspect of the Symphonia, the notation I I compositional process, can only compromise efforts to used to preserve Hildegard's melodies. ! place Hildegard within a musical tradition. Two twelfth-century manuscript copies of the To date, musicological studies of the Symphonia Symphonia cycle survive: Dendermonde St.-Pieters & have depended upon the analysis of musical structure Paulusabdji MS. Codex 9 and Wiesbaden for an insight into Hildegard's compositional process. Landesbibliothek Hs.2 (the ~iesenkodex).~One of four Two scholars come to mind as having considered the principal liturgical functions is assigned to each of the entire repertory: Ludwig Bronarski, who authored the seventy-seven items: antiphons, responsories, hymns first complete study of the Symphonia, and Marianne and sequences. These liturgical forms are homog- fichert Pfau. Bronarski's methodological focus is ex- enised: all antiphons, including multiple-verse ones, clusively historical, that is, it relies upon the traditional are presented as a single text, and many are accompa- concerns of mode and genre for information about the nied by a psalm cadence; verses and second repetenda compositional process. The narrowness of his method- divisions are indicated in responsories, although dox- ology and a desire to explain Hildegard in historical ologies are not always present; hymns, both textually terms led Bronarski to impose upon her music the and musically, consist of a series of single stanzas; and technique of cent~nisation.~This prompted the fol- sequences generally follow a set textual and musical lowing conclusion: pattern of paired stanza^.^ Die Melodien Hildegards sind nach In both manuscripts, these liturgical forms are or- folgenden Prinzipien gebaut: Sie bestehen ganised according to subject matter beginning with nicht aus ausgewachsenen musikalischen God the Father and descending through the celestial Linien, aus weit und zielbewugt hierarchy to individual saints. The preference given to gesponnenen melodischen Bogen, sondem subject matter as a means of redactional organisation, setzen sich aus kurzen Abschnitten, kleinen musikalischen Phrasen zusammen, die while unusual, is not unprecedented.8 A secondary aneinandergereiht werden.3 principle of organisation is discernible; antiphons and responsories are arranged together within subject [Hildegard's melodies are constructed [ac- groups and are separated from longer items, princi- cording] to the following principles: they consist not of complete musical lines, of long pally sequences and hymns.9 There are only three and purposefully invented melodic curves, items in the repertory for which a liturgical function is but are made up of short segments, small not indicated: two Symphoniae, 0 dulcissime amator musical phrases which arestrung together.14 and 0 dulcis electe, and one 'song' devoted to the Virgin, Pfau's examination of melodic shape and structure 0 viridissima virga.10 These items are more properly in Hildegard's melodies forms the basis of a well- described as non-liturgical, that is, there is no evidence rounded methodology which also takes into consid- that they were ever integrated into any official liturgi- eration the traditional concerns of mode and genre. cal service. Two other items complete the collection, an Her conclusion about Hildegard's compositional proc- Alleluia verse and a Kyrie setting. ess, though less certain, is infinitely better informed During Hildegard's life time, the practice of the than Bronarski's: liturgy was inno way standardised. Religious commu- nities were under the control of regional authorities degree to which Gregorian chant, for example, agrees and liturgical practices were to a large extent localised. with the specifications of genre and mode is such that Furthermore, diocesan control over individual monas- these criteria provide a foundation from which the tic communities was 'often very loose',ll and this stylistic differencesbetweenchants naturally emerge.14 allowed for the development of new ways to conduct When applied to the Symphonia however, the criterion the liturgy. The practice of liturgical embellishment, of mode often proves inapplicable and on its own which is generally thought to have involved the inte- reveals little about the music. Liturgical function is gration of newly composed chants into established equally unrevealing, beyond the observation that anti- services, was tolerated by the church,12 and a substan- phons and responsories are given melismatic settings tial amount of new chant was composed during the and the stanzaic songs syllabic ones. twelfth century. New feast days and a heightened Modal classification of Hildegard's melodies is appreciation of the Virgin were two factors which undermined by three factors: range, ficta (or the use of contributed to its composition; the forty-three items in the b-flat), and modally unstable melodic progressions. the Symphonia devoted to either local saints or the Hildegard's excessive ranges prohibit their categorisa- Virgin account for well over half of Hildegard's musi- tion as either authentic or plagal. The use of b-flat in cal output. melodies, especially those which begin on a and c, There is no indication in either Symphonia manu- tends to obscure intervallic associations with the four script of how these items were integrated into official maneriae, or modal groups. There are long passages of liturgical services or for which feast days individual melody which appear wholly unconnected with a des- items were intended, although there are a number of ignated final; the theoretical recommendation that the items devoted to saints with only one feast day. Fur- final should act as a central pitch was not always thermore, some forty-three Symphonia song texts ap- adhered to. In preference to an acceptance of this pear inmanuscripts outside of the Symphonia cycle. Set notion, it has been suggested that the manuscripts within the context of letters and didactic writings, harbour aconsiderable amount of scribalinaccuracy.15 these song texts probably once assumed an expiatory These observations seem to render modal classifica- role, since liturgical functions are not indicated.13 Of tion of most Symphonia items a superficial and unpro- the three items preserved with music outside of the ductive exercise. Symphonia manuscripts, only Hildegard's Kyrie, by What has been previously ignored here is the pos- virtue of its text, appears to have been written specifi- sibility that musical experimentation was widespread cally for inclusion in the liturgy. during this period. In the quest for an explanation for Nearly thirty of these song texts appear in manu- Hildegard's wide ranges, use of ficta and melodic scripts which predate the two Symphonia sources. In peculiarities, a consideration of the Cistercian chant the case of these thirty, liturgizal functions were most reforms offers a particularly good basis for likely assigned a posteriori. Furthermore, it is possible contextualisation. The lack of uniformity between that other liturgical items were originally conceived as monasteries and the apparent freedom with which either extra- or non-liturgical. As a cloistered woman, chant was sung were important influences on the Hildegard engaged in the discourse of praise commu- Cistercian reform movement during the mid-twelfth nally, through participation in the Mass and the Divine century. Central to this movement was an attempt to Office, and through individual contemplation. The unify monastic code and practice between Cistercian separate documentation of the seventy-seven Symphonia houses. Consequently, the reworking of Mass and items suggests that individual items were either inte- Office chants was high on the Cistercian agenda, and grated into services when the need arose or used in revisions to their antiphonary were conciliated by private worship. c.1147.16 One direct consequence of the Cistercian The contemporaraneous view of the liturgy as sub- reform movement was the 'drastic alteration' of exist- ject to variation or embellishment meant that newly ing chant.17 The principle exponent of the Cistercian composed music
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