A Companion to Hildegard of Bingen

192 leigh-choate, flynn, and fassler
Conclusion
From the Scivias songs and Symphonia to the Ordo, Hildegard’s music
arose from and contributed to the liturgical life of her monastery. Whether
written for her communities on the Disibodenberg and Rupertsberg or for
others, such as the monks of Sts Eucharius and Matthias in Trier, Hildegard’s
songs reflect and inform the monastic cycle of worship. They also
derive meaning from and impart it to her other theological and exegetical
works, and those of other writers. As our discussions of (Nam) O vos angeli
and the Ordo have shown, Hildegard’s songs must be analyzed within this
interpretive framework, as they would have been understood by those in
her day who received (and presumably performed) her music.
Although Hildegard often claimed to be unlearned in the realm of
music, her own compositions suggest otherwise. Our case studies and
much recent scholarship have shown that her music reflects contemporary
trends in music theory and practice, while at the same time exhibiting
a characteristic individuality in both style and form. Her motivic organicism,
expansive ranges, and genre bending combine to create a recognizably
Hildegardian musical language.
Hildegard wrote her songs and music drama to enrich the contemplative
life of monks and nuns who had renounced the world in order to
serve God always. She intended her music to bridge their earthly exile: to
introduce a bit of heaven on earth, embody the praise of the angels, and
place her reader-singers in the company of the celestial symphony. More
than that, her songs encouraged greater faithfulness in cultivating celestial
virtues and renouncing the devil. As described in the next chapter,
“Hildegard as Musical Hagiographer,” many of her songs offfered musical
hagiographies of the saints, pointing the way to eternal life for those set
apart to be servants and brides of Christ. In all of these ways, her music
reflected the preoccupations of her treatises and correspondence. To sing
the liturgy, Hildegard believed, was to unite soul and body in emulation
and adoration of Christ. It was to join in the supernal “song of rejoicing,
sung in consonance and in concord, [which] tells of the glory and honor
of the citizens of Heaven, and lifts on high what the Word has shown.”94
It was, above all, to sing the divine love song, the heavenly symphony.
94 Scivias (Eng.) 3.13.11, pp. 532–33. Scivias 3.13.11, pp. 630–31: “Quapropter et sonus ille
ut uox multitudinis in laudibus de supernis gradibus in harmonia symphonizat: quia symphonia
in unanimitate et in concordia gloriam et honorem caelestium ciuium ruminat, ita
quod et ipsa hoc sursum tollit quod uerbum palam profert.”