05
Then I saw the lucent sky, in which I heard different kinds of music, marvellously embodying all the meanings I had heard before. I heard the praises of the joyous citizens of Heaven, steadfastly persevering in the ways of Truth; and laments calling people back to those praises and joys; and the exhortation of the virtues, spurring one another on to secure the salvation of the peoples ensnared by the Devil. And the Virtues destroyed his snares, so that the faithful at last through repentance passed out of their sins and into Heaven. And their song, like the voice of a multitude, making music in harmony praising the ranks of Heaven, had these words….[1]
So Hildegard opens her Vision of Music, a preamble to the set of 14 songs for each of the members of the ‟ranks of Heaven.”[2] Table 5 lists the entire set, where antiphon-responsory pairs constitute the seven sections. Hildegard’s illumination for the Vision of Music (Illustration 4) depicts each of these ranks in cameo circles. Those in the right column are: the enthroned Virgin Mary with scepter and orb, the orders of heavenly spirits with angelic hosts above five boys looking up at them, the bearded Patriarchs and Prophets, and the crowned Apostles. Moving to the left column, Hildegard illustrated the Martyrs with the blood of the lamb, and below a group of six Confessors. In the circle between the columns are the Virgins, a group of women reminiscent of Anima and the Virtues from Ordo Virtutum.
The first antiphon–responsory pair explores the mystical nature of the incarnation, with its descriptions of the Virgin Mary as a ‟most splendid jewel,” ‟sweetest branch,” and ‟fairest daughter.” Later in the Vision of Music, Hildegard would characterize Mary’s realm as ‟the ardor of virginal modesty embraced by the blossoming branch.”[3] In the antiphon, much is made of the ‟primal matter” that ‟brought forth all creatures,” compromised by Eve, then restored as ‟luminous matter” in Mary. It is noteworthy that Hildegard introduces the Virtues from the outset in the antiphon; ‟breathed out” by the word of God, they stand in opposition to the Devil (Audio Ex. 1).
Both recordings were made by the ensemble Sequentia, consisting of a chorus of unison and solo voices, audible right away in the antiphon, and the performers employ the flute, harp, and fiddle in the responsory. The fiddle improvises luscious prelude and interlude music, and also fixes E as a drone supporting the singers. The e3 mode hovers above the finalis of e1 with several leaps up, most notably on the words ‟saliens” (‟[a fountain] springing”) and ‟hominem.” Hildegard’s signature tune sounds out in the series e1-b1-e2 (1-5-8), followed by a downward scale. While the antiphon is performed straight through, the second piece, the responsory, characteristically features a respond [R], ‟cum supernus Pater claritatem Virginis attendit, ubi verbum suum in ipsa incarnari voluit,” which is repeated three times as a refrain, always by the complete ensemble. Most remarkable is the final word of the respond, ‟voluit,” which has a lengthy melisma—a series of pitches all performed on one syllable only—to heighten the significance of the terminal verb ‟willed.” The respond weaves in and out of the final verses, the last one the Lesser Doxology, which Hildegard did not include in the Vision of Music. The responsory’s finalis is a1, but with a bb1 above it, it is in a transposed fourth mode, e4, or the ‟fourth mode on a,” where phrases characteristically dip below the finalis into the plagal range (Audio Ex. 2).
The small group of voices in the ensemble Tapestry creates a mystical atmosphere, made still more luminescent by the ever-present drone on the finalis e1. With its wide range and the brightness of several key phrases, the antiphon ‟O gloriosissimi lux vivens” symbolizes the power of the ‟living light.” Hildegard heard the voice of the living light saying to her, ‟O human, with your poor and frail little nature, you hear in the song…the acuity of the living lights, which shine in the heavenly city.”[4] The climax of the antiphon refers to the pride of the fallen angel, Lucifer, ‟qui volare voluit supra intus latens pinnaculum Dei.” The last word of the antiphon, ‟instituit,” circles around the drone, causing dissonant seconds that intensify the word, meaning to ‟furnish” or ‟prepare,” the work of God’s fingers (‟digiti Dei”)—an image that is used elsewhere in the Symphonia (see Table 4, D 29, R 34). The antiphon has a wide range in the plagal area of the mode, e4 (Audio Ex. 3).
For the words ‟suscepitis” (to receive) and ‟dominationes” (dominations), the responsory ‟O vos angeli” (Audio Ex. 4) has stratospheric settings that evoke the light of the heavenly spirits. Once again, the final word of the respond has a lengthy melisma, on ‟behold” (‟aspicitis”). As in the previous responsory, Hildegard set the music in the fourth mode whose finalis is on a1 (with bb1 providing the characteristic initial half-step for the mode). The poem enumerates the nine orders of the heavenly spirits, from the outermost circle to the innermost realm: angels, archangels, virtues, powers, principalities, dominions, thrones, cherubim, and seraphim (Illustration 5). Bruce Holsinger has pointed out that this responsory ‟has a wider range than any other Symphonia composition” and that in performing the piece, singers become aware of their own inferiority by trying to attain the heights of those heavenly spirits. Holsinger drives home the notion of the suffering and even torture involved in the performance of some of Hildegard’s music. It seems that on purpose she composed an idealized music that belongs to the angels rather than to humans.[5]
In her Vision of Music, section 13, Hildegard said that she heard ‟profound statements of prophecy;”[6] that music is reflected in the songs for the Patriarchs and Prophets here. The antiphon ‟O spectabilis viri” has a vacillating finalis, d or e, underscored by notable cadences with the drone (Audio Ex. 5). The recording by Celestial Stairs features one solo voice and a drone below, played by the symphonia (hurdy-gurdy). The climax of the antiphon occurs on the words ‟immersae fuerant morti” where a brilliant rising fifth emerges from the texture. The drone stops short of the last word ‟reveals” (ostendit) as if literally exposing that word.
The responsory features Barbara Thornton and the Sequentia ensemble (Audio Ex. 6). The beauty of Thornton’s solo voice can be heard before and after the respond: ‟Et o tu, ruminans ignea vox…subvertentem abyssum.” The opening phrase, ‟O you, happy roots,” recalls chant number 3 (lines 6–7) in the Ordo Virtutum, where the Patriarchs and Prophets sing to the group of Virtues, ‟We are the roots, and you, the boughs, fruits of the living eye, and in that eye we were the shadow.”[7] The poem also mentions that very shadow in line 4 above: ‟you, happy roots, from whom miracles…grew in the burning way of lucent shadow!” Beyond the two shared words, ‟radices” and ‟umbra,” chant number 3 of the Ordo Virtutum and this responsory also share the e4 mode. In all likelihood, Hildegard drew upon this pair of songs while expanding the Scivias version into the longer morality play with the Patriarchs and Prophets’ appearance in the Prologue to the work.
The antiphon–responsory pair for the Apostles moves into modal realms expressing joy: g-mode and f-mode. In the Vision of Music, section 13, Hildegard described ‟the sounds of the wondrous words of the expansion of apostleship.”[8] The use of the two bright modes brings those wonders to the fore. ‟O cohors miliciae” starts out in the g7 mode at the outset, but on the fourth to last line, ‟in operibus” moves back into the realm of the e-mode from the previous song (Audio Ex. 7). A lovely moment of word painting occurs on ‟manufactum” (literally, made with the hand), where a falling g2-g1 octave symbolizes the work of that very hand. Since the antiphon contains the ‟evovae” syllables of the psalm differentiae, the work is classified as a psalm antiphon. Therefore, in this recording, the Oxford Camerata alternates the antiphon verses with Psalm 22:16–21, making the work extend to over 15 minutes in length.
The responsory is set in the authentic range of f-mode. The recording by Celestial Stairs features the solo voice of Sabine Lutzenberger with harp and fiddle for a dramatic rendition (Audio Ex. 8). Indeed, it is possible to hear the Ordo Virtutum story reflected in the words of this responsory; the Apostles rise up, open the Devil’s prison and wash the captives in a ‟fountain of living water” (‟in fonte viventis aquae”). On the word ‟wash” (‟abluendo”), a remarkable motif is first introduced, then repeated twice, each time a note higher in a sequence. The same motif is repeated on the words ‟most radiant” (‟clarissima”) and ‟supporting” (‟sustenans”). The responsory is unusual in that the brief respond is never repeated, ‟per cuius gaudium ipsa mater et virgo est vexillata.” For the solemn and tender bridal imagery in the last couplet, the voice gently proclaims the text, echoed by the fiddle in improvisation.
The animal imagery is noteworthy here and in the next pieces for the Martyrs. Pigs and dogs appear as negative forces in the antiphon for the Apostles, where ‟mad senses” lead to feasting on ‟swine,” while ‟most savage dogs” are the enemies to be met with a sharp sword. The lamb in the responsory, by contrast, is spoken of in the most exalted manner; this is an introduction to the blood of the lamb found in the next pair for the Martyrs, visible as the bright red color found in the cameo (Illustration 4).
Hildegard graphically describes the life of the Martyrs in the opening antiphon, ‟O victoriosissimi triumphatores,” performed here as a solo by the soprano Kelly Landerkin of the ensemble Les Flamboyants (Audio Ex. 9). The opening stanza concludes with the words ‟feasting on the slaughtered calf” to make an analogy with the sacrifice of body and blood of the Martyrs. Hildegard returned to the dark e-mode for this solemn antiphon. By contrast, she used her brightest modes, on G, F, and C, for the responsory, performed by an a cappella group from the Sequentia ensemble. The main idea, the shedding of blood, is reinforced by the phrase ‟qui in effusione sanguinis vestri,” which appears as the second line in both antiphon and responsory. The responsory is sung by a solo voice over the women’s chorus drone (Audio Ex. 10).
Hildegard’s synesthesia influenced this pair of songs. ‟Feast” (‟epulantes”) in the antiphon implies the tasting of food, whereas in the responsory, ‟fragrant…your blood” (‟redolentibus…sanguinis vestri”) evokes the sense of smell; at the end of the responsory, it is the sense of touch: ‟the wounds of your bleeding” (‟vulneribus vestri sanguinis”). Taken along with the poetry, music, and image, these pieces represent an overwhelmingly sensory experience.
The brief antiphon ‟O successores fortissimi leonis” features the classic ‟schola cantorum” of Sequentia during Barbara Thornton’s lifetime (Audio Ex. 11). The Confessors are described here as the ‟successors of the mightiest lion,” those who do God’s work and minister to the people. Primarily syllabic, the antiphon is performed straightforwardly, in the d2 mode. After the third line, the fiddle moves up from the drone on d1 to the fifth a1, to which the phrase ‟sicut Angeli” modulates; sonically, we move from the realm of the lion to the realm of the angels. The two highpoints of the song occur there and on the final two words, ‟officio Agni.”
‟O vos imitatores” bestows still greater praise on the Confessors, who intercede between God and the ‟sluggish and straying” people (Audio Ex. 12). Hildegard makes much of the final word of the respond, ‟remittens,” with a lengthy melisma symbolizing the palpable action of the Confessors ‟lifting away great burdens.” The universality of their ministry is emphasized in the adornment of ‟the white and the black” (‟ornans candidos et nigros”). In the verse that follows, the music pushes forward toward the word ‟honor.” Even though it is not the concluding word of the responsory, Hildegard emphasized the respect to bestow on these important intercessors. Set in g-mode, the piece is bright, but shaded by the lowered seventh degree, f1, decidedly not G major!
The final pair of songs complement each other; the antiphon set in the haunting, dark e-mode, and the responsory in the brightest possible c-mode to conclude this series of songs before the morality play begins (Audio Ex. 13–14). Primarily syllabic, the antiphon ‟O beautiful faces” uses the words ‟pulchrae” and ‟ornamenta” to convey the loveliness of the Virgins. In section 13 of this Vision, Hildegard sees a ‟procession of virgins, blooming in the verdancy of Heaven.”[9] With a poem so positive and bright in nature, to 21st-century ears the solemn antiphon in e5 comes as some surprise, but it was with solemnity that Hildegard intended to convey the noble nature of the Virgins/Virtues under the threat of the Devil. The poem ends with the phrase ‟you are also the sweetest garden…,” a conscious link forward to the responsory’s ‟fresh greenness.” Hildegard uses the word ‟viriditas” with some frequency in her music to connote the life-force, the greening power of nature, related to the word ‟viredine” (verdancy).[10]
The poem for the responsory exemplifies the mystic nature of revelation that pervades the Vision of Music. Hildegard sees the Virgins in ‟viriditas” with the sun (‟sole”) lighting them up in a wheel ‟that no earthly eminence comprehends.” Musically, Hildegard bestows great weight on the markers of this mystery with melismas on ‟sole” and ‟candida serenitate.” On ‟no earthly eminence attains” (‟nulla terrena excellentia comprehendit”), she goes one step further and reaches high into the stratospheric regions of the singer’s voice. But the longest melisma is reserved for the respond, which metaphorically envelops the listener in sound, ‟the embraces of divine mysteries” (‟amplexibus divinorum mysteriorum”).
Hildegard may have thought consciously of a song cycle in creating this set of 14 pieces. Two instances in this final pair for the Virgins suggest that this is what she had in mind: she comes full circle with the imagery of the sun from the initial antiphon, and she uses pure c-mode in the concluding position, in the same way that she uses it for Victory’s triumph over the Devil at the end of the morality play (Mus. Ex. 3). The parallels between the Scivias ‟song cycle” and the play provide further evidence that the Vision of Music stands as a self-sufficient dramatic entity.