Department of
Fine Arts
presents
"A FESTIVAL
of EARLY MUSIC:
Hildegard von Bingen,” April 24-26, 2001.
Our inaugural
Festival
of Early Music focuses on Hildegard
von Bingen (1098-1179) and explores this powerful
Medieval
figure and her
world through an interdisciplinary symposium,
a staged
performance of
her musical drama Ordo Virtutum by the
German Ensemble Ordo Virtutum,
a guided
performance
workshop, and
a performance
by
We hope you
will join
us.
Marianne
Pfau, director
USD Associate
Professor
of Music
Hildegard
von Bingen (1098-1179)
A German
Benedictine nun
and leader of her cloister, visionary, writer and composer, who is also
known
for her religious and diplomatic activities.
Unorthodox for a medieval woman, she has left an enormous body of
literary,
scientific and musical works whose significance is only now becoming
clear. Her oeuvre
includes recorded visions, medical and science book,
hagiography and countless letters. The
culmination of her work is her lyrical and dramatic poetry, much of
which has
survived with hauntingly beautiful music. The musical play Ordo
Virtutum represents the apex of her creative output.
Hildegard
entered religious life at age 8. By 1136,
she was prioress of a group of nuns
attached to a male monastery. Open only
to noble women, the community came under fire for its exclusivity, but
its
eccentric liturgical observances, including special garb, ritual and
novel song
composed by Hildegard, raised even more eyebrows. Against strong
resistance
from the monks, but compelled by divine command, Hildegard seceded with
her
nuns, an unprecedented step for her time. Within a decade she was able
secure
financial independence from the male monastery, archbishopric
protection, and
even an acknowledgement Emperor Frederick Barbarossa
as 'abbess'.
Her
prophecies and miracles brought her fame.
Popes, emperors, kings, archbishops, abbots and abbesses, lower clergy
and lay
persons all consulted her as the “Sybil of the Rhine,” both on
spiritual and
political matters. She involved herself
in diplomacy at a time of immense political and ecclesiastical turmoil. Also unprecedented for a woman, she took
extended public preaching missions.
Hildegard’s
power came from the visions which
had pressed upon her from the age of 5, but which she kept hidden for
forty
years. In 1141, the Church took the
unusual step to mandate her to record what she saw.
Her books Scivias
(1141-51), Liber
Vite Meritorum
(1158-63) and Liber Divinorum Operum
(1163-73) form a visionary trilogy of apocalyptic, prophetic and
symbolic
meaning, and establish her as an important mystic.
Balancing her theological concerns, and
highly unusual, was her great interest in the natural world and her
argument
for a holistic view of the spiritual and the material realms. Her works on natural science and medicine, Physica and Cause et cure,
(1150-60), which focus on illness and healing, led to her estimation as
Scivias concludes
with a vision
of the cosmos and the human soul’s place within that cosmos. Despite
its
medieval language, the questions it poses about the proper place of
humanity in
the universe are surprisingly timely and close to modern concerns. Hildegard’s vision culminates in the musical
play Ordo Virtutum which dramatizes
the life journey of
Anima (human soul) who is torn in her choices between
Virtue and
Vice. Laden with brilliant imagery,
Hildegard’s inspired texts share the apocalyptic language of biblical
prophesy,
have some affinity with the poetry of Notker
Balbulus from the 9th century, and are akin
in richness and
imaginative quality to those of Peter Abelard and Walter of Chatillon. But it
is
the music that speaks to us today and transports the subject into a
realm of
spiritual ecstasy even after 900 years.
FESTIVAL
EVENTS
1.
SYMPOSIUM:
“Hildegard
and the Medieval World”
Tue,
April
24, 2001, 10:40 a.m. - 1 p.m., Salomon Lecture Hall, Maher Hall
Cost:
free
Moderated by
Dr. Marianne Pfau, seven speakers
will cast an interdisciplinary view on Hildegard’s rich medieval world.
▪ Dr. Pfau,
Assoc. professor of Music,
will introduce the life and works of Hildegard von Bingen.
▪ Dr. Gary
Macy, Professor of Theology,
will discuss controversial aspects of church-politics in the 12th
century pertaining to the status of abbesses in the church. Questions of their ordination and legitimacy
will be the focus, and provide a context for this celebration of
Hildegard, one
of the great medieval abbesses.
▪ Dr. Stefan
Morent, director Ensemble Ordo Virtutum,
▪ Sister
Elizabeth Walsh, Professor of
English, will consider medieval approaches to good and evil, vice and
virtue.
Hildegard's focus on moral and ethical questions in her play Ordo Virtutum in the 12th century marks
the beginning of a strong preoccupation in later medieval artistic
tradition
with moral and ethical issues. Sr. Walsh will address how Dante in his
"Purgatorio" deals with good and evil, prayer, intercession and
divine grace in the 14th century.
▪ Dr. Linda
Peterson, Professor of
Philosophy, will speak on Hildegard's view of the soul/body relation
and of how
divine revelation is received and assimilated by the soul. In Scivias, she talks about a "fiery
light" that "poured through my whole brain," and also about how
the soul affects the brain. Most medieval philosophers followed the
neo-platonic tradition in holding intellection and cognition to be
entirely
immaterial processes. Hildegard seems to have a much more holistic view
of the
soul/body relation. Probably her work in medicine influenced her
thinking about
these metaphysical and epistemological issues.
▪ Dr. Ann
Woods, Lecturer of Art History,
will look at medieval visions in art.
Hildegard's visionary texts, notably her book Scivias,
are accompanied by idiosyncratic illuminations that detail
vividly what she "sees." Dr.
Woods will focus on the presentation of Hildegard's subject matter
through
visual art.
▪ Dr.
Florence Gillman, Professor of
Theology, will address the use of feminine imagery in the Bible. In her
visions, Hildegard personifies divine powers as women. Her play Ordo
Virtutum is about the influence these feminine divine powers or
"virtutes" have on the life of the human soul, the "anima."
This look at the Bible will provide a context for reflecting on
Hildegard's
"theology of the feminine."
2. PERFORMANCES:
●
Hildegard von Bingen: Ordo Virtutum
(Play of Divine Powers)
April
24
and April 26, 2001, 7:30 p.m., pre-concert lectures 6:30-7:00 p.m.
Founders
Chapel, Founders Hall
Cost:
$12
general, $8 seniors, students, free with valid USD ID.
Complete
staged performance of Hildegard's
musical drama on the life journey of the Human Soul
struggling with choices
of vice
and virtue, Ensemble Ordo
Virtutum from
Dr. Stefan
Morent, Director.
●
Chamber Music Recital
Thursday,
April 26, 12:15 am, French Parlor, Founders Hall
Cost:
Free
Performance
of early chamber music on period
instruments, by ensemble La Monica from
3.
WORKSHOP:
Playing and
Singing Medieval Music
Wednesday,
April 25, 2001, 11:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m., USD Founders Hall, French Parlor,
Cost:
Free
Members of
Ensemble Ordo Virtutum lead a workshop/demonstration
on medieval music. With La Monica,
All
events
are open to the public. Concert tickets available
at the
door. Free
evening parking, free guest parking permits for day-time events.
For
more
information, please contact the USD Fine Arts Department, 619-260-2280,
or Dr.
Pfau, at 619-260-4101.
To
hear
the performance of