Hildegard von Bingen
Hildegard von Bingen (1098–1179)
One of the first named composers in history, Hildegard began writing music in her forties to be sung by the nuns of her Benedictine monastery as part of the Divine Office. Her choral output is remarkable in both quantity and originality. The Symphonia, her largest body of work, comprises nearly eighty chants set to her own texts honoring the Virgin Mary, angels, saints, and martyrs — music of soaring melodic lines, upward leaps, and an ecstatic, improvisatory quality unlike anything else of the period. Her morality play Ordo Virtutum is among the earliest surviving music dramas, featuring choral and solo plainchant throughout. Largely ignored until the landmark 1985 recording A Feather on the Breath of God by Gothic Voices transformed her modern reputation, Hildegard's choral music is now recognized as a cornerstone of the medieval repertoire.
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