A Feather on the Breath of God: Sequences and Hymns by Abbess Hildegard of Bingen

Several years ago, I started attending local events of the SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism), a non-profit educational group that celebrates and recreates the medieval way of life. My friend Mad Gordy Stax was and remains a great fan of the SCA and goes to their events on a regular basis. I have a fascination with the era, so I started going, too. There was a nice thick handbook that the SCA put out called A Handbook for the Current Middle Ages that not only explained the purposes of the organization, but gave a great amount of information to help people enjoy their time with the SCA. One of the chapters was about medieval music, and one album they strongly recommended was A Feather on the Breath of God: Sequences and Hymns by Abbess Hildegard of Bingen, recorded by Gothic Voices for the Hyperion Record Label in 1982. I bought it more than 20 years ago, and it remains one of my favorite CDs.

Hildegard receiving a vision from God and transcribing it to her secretary

Hildegard was an extraordinary woman. Born in 1098, she was sickly her entire life yet lived to be 81 years old. She was given to the church by her family when she was only eight, was elected Magistra by her fellow nuns by the time she was 38, created her own abbey when she was 52, and began a second abbey when she was 67. She had visions all her life, which she reluctantly recorded. These visions became 3 books, dozens of musical pieces (between 70 and 80 survive), and books on nature and medicine and the church. She created her own alternative alphabet and invented words which she taught her fellow nuns as a means of creating greater unity in the abbey. Despite her frail health, she travelled Europe on four different occasions, giving lectures to the public and church and civic leaders alike. At a time when the roles of women were highly regulated and limited, she created her own intellectual and artistic freedom. She was the confidant of kings and popes, as well as her own congregation and the common people who sought her blessings and advice.

Illumination from "Motherhood from the Spirit and the Water"

As I mentioned, A Feather on the Breath of God was recorded by Gothic Voices for the Hyperion record label in 1982. It was an immediate success and remains Hyperion's best selling recording nearly 30 years later. It's easy to understand why. While this is monophonic plainchant of the style common 850 years ago, it is far from monotonous. Hildegard paid close attention to the relationship between the music and the text, which is highly rare in plainchant. The melodies are memorable, lingering long after the song has finished, and this interpretation by Gothic Voices is stunning. It is simple, unembellished, just as it would have been performed in the 12th century. Director Christopher Page explains that the internalization of the music and eschewing of "extrovert vocal practices" was the ideal he sought. By lingering on the meaning of the text and singing with reverence, the emotion would come to the surface without the singer succumbing to it.

Universal Man, illumination from "Liber Divinorum Operum"

The singers are Kevin Breen, Emily van Evera, Poppy Holden, Emma Kirkby, Howard Milner, Andrew Parrott, Margaret Philpott, and Judith Stell, with Doreen Muskett [symphony] and Robert White [reed drones], with Christopher Page directing. In Hildegard's time, her fellow nuns would have sung this music, with the monks from the nearby abbey supplying the voices of the men. Some songs are sung in group, and some are solo. Emma Kirkby was a young singer at the time, and this recording cemented her reputation as one of the leading medieval singers of our age. Also noteworthy is the singing of Margaret Philpott. Her mastery of the alto register is extraordinary. Her performances on "Ave, generosa" and "O presul vere civitatus" are ecstatic yet controlled, a rare but beautiful combination. I also love the performance of Emily van Evera on "O Euchari.' It is sung with conviction, simply and beautifully. The grandness of the music is enhanced by removing all artifice and embellishment. Hildegard's visions, her words, her thoughts and her beliefs are given wing, like Hildegard herself, as a "feather on the breath of God."