A Companion to Hildegard of Bingen

hearing the heavenly symphony 169
region and demonstrates that Hildegard’s music, albeit unique in some
ways, nevertheless belongs to their sphere. Jefffreys examines the music
in early copies of the Speculum Virginum and fijinds that Hildegard and
her music relate to developments in the Rhineland in the 12th century.26
This contextualizing trend can also be seen in the studies of Jennifer Bain,
who places Hildegard’s style in the context of the theorist/composer Hermannus
Contractus of Reichenau.27 Sheila Mary Forrester’s dissertation
(2001) offfers another theoretical study of the music, from the perspective
of hexachordal segmentation.28 Within a broad cultural analysis, Bruce
Holsinger interprets Hildegard’s music as expressive of homoerotic desire
in his textual study of the corporeality of music production and reception
through the Middle Ages.29
A number of essay collections dedicated to Hildegard of Bingen have
been published, one in the 800th year of her death,30 as well as several
in celebration of her ninth centennial year. Some of the latter contain
articles on music, as do several other compendia devoted to music and
religion, music by women composers, or music in the Middle Ages.
These articles typically: try to explain Hildegard as a composer; treat a
single song, a particular group of works, or the Ordo; or deal with context.
General studies of Hildegard as composer and an examination of her
sequences are found in Prophetin durch die Zeiten, including Karlheinz
Schlager’s study of the sequence melodies, Barbara Thornton’s discussion
of Hildegard’s metaphysics, and Barbara Stühlmeyer’s allegorical interpretation
of her music.31 The collection Voice of the Living Light, edited by
26 Catherine M. Jefffreys, “‘Listen, Daughters of Light’: The ‘Epithalamium’ and Musical
Innovation in Twelfth-Century Germany,” in Listen, Daughter: the ‘Speculum Virginum’ and
the Formation of Religious Women in the Middle Ages, ed. Constant Mews (New York, 2001),
pp. 137–58.
27 See Jennifer Bain, “Hildegard, Hermannus, and Late Chant Style,” Journal of Music
Theory 52 (2008): 123–49; and Bain, “Hooked on Ecstasy: Performance ‘Practice’ and the
Reception of the Music of Hildegard of Bingen,” in The Sounds and Sights of Performance
in Early Music: Essays in Honor of Timothy J. McGee, ed. Brian Power and Maureen Epp
(Burlington, 2009), pp. 253–74.
28 Sheila Mary Forrester, “Hexachordal Segmentation as Analytical Method Applied to
Hildegard von Bingen’s Symphonia” (Diss., Florida State University, 2001).
29 Bruce Holsinger, Music, Body, and Desire in Medieval Culture: Hildegard of Bingen to
Chaucer (Stanford, 2001).
30 Anton Brück, ed., Hildegard von Bingen, 1179–1979: Festschrift zum 800. Todestag der
Heiligen (Mainz, 1979).
31 Hildegard von Bingen. Prophetin durch die Zeiten. Zum 900. Geburtstag, eds. Edeltraud
Forster and Konvent der Benediktinerinnenabtei St. Hildegard (Freiburg, 1997): Karlheinz
Schlager, “Die Sequenz als Lehrstück: Melodien der Hildegard von Bingen zwischen
Inspiration und Redaktion,” pp. 296–312; Barbara Thornton, “Zur Metaphysik der Musik.