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It is difficult to know what overall modal scheme Hildegard planned for the Ordo Virtutum, and certainly we must guard against superimposing a tonal trajectory that has more to do with 21st-century determinism than with the modal thought of the 12th. Yet a consideration of musical modes adds to the argument in favor of the Scivias Vision of Music coming first.
The musical modes delineate the finalis, or main note, with regard to two ranges: the authentic, which lies primarily above the main note, and the plagal, which dips significantly below it. In both cases, the finalis is usually the pitch that literally finalizes the song on the last note; the first note may or may not be the same as the finalis. The authentic ranges are denoted by odd numbers (1, 3, 5, 7), the plagal by even numbers (2, 4, 6, 8). According to the system set out by John of Afflighem in his treatise De musica, written roughly around the time of Hildegard’s birth, d-mode has two ranges (d1, d2), as do e-mode (e3, e4), f-mode (f5, f6), and g-mode (g7, g8).[1] Some of Hildegard’s compositions conform to those modes, but more often they are neither plagal nor authentic, instead extending beyond those traditional tone spaces. She used the c-mode sparingly, saved for the very brightest, most celebratory music. The c-mode pre-dates John of Afflighem’s system, occurring in the Guidonian Hand (c. 1000), which features six-note scales, or hexachords, starting on G, C, and F.[2] Few church composers used the c-mode during this period, and Hildegard reserved it for the highpoint of both versions of the play, when Victory sings of the bound devil. If Hildegard tuned her ten-stringed psaltery beginning on C, almost all the hexachords would have been at her fingertips.
That Hildegard composed rarely in f-mode can be understood by means of Table 2, which shows how the fourth note, B, needs to be altered so as to avoid the tritone with the F. She would have had to lower by one half-step the B string on her psaltery in order to move into f-mode. The f-mode is noticeably absent in both versions of the morality play. The many flat alterations found in Hildegard’s manuscripts attest to her practice; one of the largest issues involved in performing her compositions consists in knowing to which notes the flats belong and whether or not the flat once given holds true for successive passages. The issue is compounded by the fact that the extant sources do not always agree.
It was shown above with Table 1 that sections of the prototypical morality play were shifted about to compose the Ordo Virtutum, and new music written to accommodate the larger performing forces available at the Rupertsberg. The musical modes represent an equally important formal element. Table 3 assigns modes to each of the musical chant numbers of the two plays, the long Ordo Virtutum having been numbered 1–87 in the score edited by Audrey Ekdahl Davidson.[3] The chants are unnumbered here because line numbers are easier to follow; the line numbers (1–269) come from Dronke’s edition of the text from the Ordo Virtutum.[4] The table assigns odd mode numbers based on a finalis of d1, e1, or g1 when the range is authentic, that is, when the music lies primarily above the finalis, only dipping below it by one whole step at most. For instance, both versions of the play share the music for lines 242–51, set in d1, the authentic area of D. Even mode numbers denote that the range is plagal when the music falls below the finalis in a significant manner. For instance, the Scivias morality play begins in e4, the plagal area of e-mode. The following illustrative examples mostly come from the so-called ‟Showcase of the Virtues” set from the Ordo Virtutum, corresponding to lines 75–155 (chant numbers 25–56) in Table 3. In this showcase, individual Virtues introduce themselves and invoke the ensemble of the Virtues or respond to them.
In lines 122–26 (chant numbers 43–44), Celestial Love (Amor Celestis) introduces herself and the Virtues answer her (Mus. Ex. 1). Both sections are in d-mode, but the solo is in the plagal range (d2), moving below the finalis in the first phrase, ‟I am the golden gate” (‟Ego aurea porta”) and descending significantly to c1, b, and a. The Virtues answer her with an opening d1-a1-d2, Hildegard’s signature tune of a fifth followed by an octave, which places the beginning of the chant number ‟Royal daughter, you are held fast” (‟O filia regis, tu semper es”) in the d1 mode, the central part ‟in the embraces the world shuns” (‟amplexibus quos mundus fugit”) back in d2, and closing ‟O how tender is your love in the highest God!” (‟O quam suavis est tua dilectio in summo Deo”) in d1.
In lines 142–43 (chant number 51) of the showcase, Victory (Victoria) sings ‟I am Victory, the swift, brave champion: I fight with a stone, I tread the age-old serpent down” (‟Ego Victoria velox et fortis pugnatrix sum: in lapide pugno, serpentem antiquum conculco”) {See Music Example 2}. The passage is in c-mode, contained within the range of g1-g2. When later Victory plays the main role in binding up the Devil, line 226 (chant number 80), she breaks open the octave, moving up to a2 as she sings, ‟Comrades, rejoice: the age-old snake is bound! (‟Gaudete, o socii, quia antiquus serpens ligatus est!”) {See Music Example 3} This is a stunning climax in both versions of the morality play.
In several cases, Hildegard needed to transpose the mode in the interest of the vocal range. For instance, in the penultimate number of the Showcase of the Virtues, lines 154–55 (chant number 55), Patience sings, ‟I am the pillar that can never be made to yield, as my foundation is in God” (‟Ego sum columpna que molliri non potest, quia fundamentum meum in Deo est”) (Mus. Ex. 4). The range of e4 dictates a pattern of whole and half steps in the plagal range, where the boldface indicates the mi-fa relationship: c1-d1-e1-f1-g1-a1 is transposed to ‟e-mode on b,” so that the pattern of notes is g1-a1-b1-c2-d2-e2, where the defining half-step e1-f1 is equivalent to b1-c2 {See Music Example 4}.
In some places the finalis is not literally the last note, because one section in one mode introduces the next in another mode. For example, the Virtues sing in d1, beginning on d1, but end on e1, which serves as a lead-in to the entrance of Contempt of the World in e2, line 113 (chant number 40) {See Music Example 5}
Sometimes an appoggiatura starts the section on a note other than the finalis. One such instance occurs in lines 76–78 (chant number 25), where Karitas (Charity) starts on the c1 below the finalis d1, moving up to the finalis by whole step {See Music Example 6}, singing, ‟I am Charity, the flower of love. Come to me, Virtues, and I'll lead you into the radiant light of the flower of the branch” (‟Ego Karitas, flos amabilis. Venite ad me, Virtutes, et perducam vos in candidam lucem floris virge”). In the final section of the Showcase of the Virtues, lines 154–55 (chant number 56), the mode is g8, but the last note is an f1, which then functions triadically with the d1-a1 opening of the following section, music shared by both the Scivias play and the Ordo Virtutum: ‟O filie Israhel” {See Music Example 7}.
The setting of the musical modes in both versions of the play and the 14 Scivias songs reflects the base human experience that the Virtues have the power to transform through the journey of Anima. By way of denouement for the drama, Hildegard brought the music itself into the brightest of modes, as ‟the true worshippers of God crush the ancient serpent.” [5] The nature of her visionary revelation seems to go hand in hand with the compact version coming first, then, by ‟human touch” she manipulated the play into a longer work specifically intended for the Rupertsberg.
In the overall modal structure of both versions of the morality play, each has its own coherence. The Ordo Virtutum begins and ends in two divergent modes, d2 and e3, whereas the Scivias version begins and ends in e4.[6] Indeed, the Scivias version is dominated by the darkness of e4, the mode found in 19 of the work’s 48 chant numbers. The e4 mode is proportionately less in the Ordo Virtutum, as Hildegard evidently wanted to brighten up the drama. In the Scivias version, she demonstrated the importance of modal unity, whereas in the showcase of the Virtues of the Ordo Virtutum, she could employ a great deal of modal variety.