Two Songs by Abbess Hildegard von Bingen (1098 - 1179)
Performed by Members of the Collegium Musicum
Director: Eric Rice
Soloist:
Margaret Bell
Hildegard, Abbess of Rupertsburg, Germany, was born exactly two hundred years before the year Mugai Nyodai died -- in short, 1998 marked an anniversary for both women. And so we have brought these two powerful spiritual women from opposite sides of the globe together into a fictional but true sisterhood. Wholly different in personality and creed, they nonetheless share a profound dedication to the spiritual side of human experience. Hildegard's philosophical emphasis on wisdom, her belief that life requires a "symphonic" accord of soul and body; her assertion that human beings themselves are responsible for the order and harmony of their world and that when out of harmony with one's source one cannot be in harmony with oneself -- all this is congenial to Zen. Despite radical differences, there was common ground between this Catholic master and this Zen master. It seemed appropriate to let each honor the other at the memorial ceremony.
Ideally the medieval singers of plainchant focused deeply on the inner
meaning of the texts, became wholly absorbed by it, and their singing induced
in them a state of meditative calm. This is not unlike the chanting of
the Buddhist sutras.
O quam mirabilis est
Antiphona
| O quam mirabilis est praescientia
divini pectoris, quae prescivit omnem creaturam. Nam cum Deus insprexit faciem hominis, quem formavit, omnia opera sua in eadem forma hominis integra aspexit. O quam mirabilis est inspiratio, quae hominem sic suscitavit. |
How wondrous is the prescience of the
divine Heart, that foreknew every creature! For when God gazed into the face of the human being whom he formed, he beheld all his works, in that same human form, entire. How wondrous is the informing breath that awoke mankind in this way! |
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-- translated by Peter Dronke
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O virtus sapientiae
Antiphona
| O virtus sapientiae,
quae circuiens circuisti comprehendendo omnia in una via, quae habet vitam, tres alas habens, quarum una in altum volat, et altera de terra sudat, et tertia undique volat. Laus tibi sit, sicut te decet, o sapientia. |
You power of Wisdom
that circled circling and embracing all in a course that is filled with life -- you have three wings: one soars into the heights, another has moisture from the earth, the third flies all around. All praise to you, Wisdom, as is your due! |
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-- translated by Peter Dronke
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