BaL 16.04.16 - Hildegard of Bingen (survey)

[french frank]

Very early on SM-P stated very baldly that medieval women didn't write, which made made my wife, something of a medieval historian, raise her eyebrows down the back of her neck! [/I].

Later on she said that H's nuns didn't read, and so would have had to learn her ditties by ear.

Confirmation/ refutation of any of these assertions would be very welcome chez LMPs!

I think there would probably have been two classes of religious - as with men, where there would be lay brothers (who did the housework and gardening &c) as well as priests; so education would have varied between individuals. Egeria 'the Spanish Nun' wrote a Latin account of her pilgrimage in the 4th century (if I remember, it wasn't very polished Latin!); and Hrosvitha was a more interesting 10th. c writer from Germany; there were also female troubadours in the 12th c. Generalisations are bound to cloud the issue a bit.

I know no one will acknowledge my presence here so this is my parting gesture. Goodbye and happy reading.

NVV.

At least, that gets people acknowledging you

[doversoul1]

But thank you for the reference - even the first page makes it clear that early medieval nuns probably would have been literate.

I wonder if S M-P meant that women / nuns didn’t read musical notation.

My guess is that those girls who were sent to nunneries to be educated were from cultured/educated families but there must have been a large number of girls/women who enter convent for reasons other than education. Those women/nuns probably did not learn to read.

I thought this BaL was very good. Just one thing: it would have been interesting to hear, when S M-P was critical, her reason for not very keen in just a few words.

I hope there will be more BaL in the similar format.

[Barbirollians]

I liked the Hildegard with John Cage extract but no sign of the album on either Amazon or Presto.

[Bryn]

I liked the Hildegard with John Cage extract but no sign of the album on either Amazon or Presto.

It can be found at a ridiculous price on amazon.de, or for somewhat less on Discogs. However, the best bet seems to be to order direct from Wandelweiser at http://www.wandelweiser.de/home.html . The catalogue number is EWR 1201 and you order via Paypal from http://www.wandelweiser.de/_e-w-records/index.htm quoting the catalogue number(s) in the message section of the Paypal payment page. You will note that the more CDs you buy, the lower the pro rata cost. I found 5 other Cage CDs which looked interesting enough for me to order them too.

You might like to wait for me to report back on the progression of my order.

[Bryn]

Just had an email from Wandelweiser advising receipt of my order and inviting me to add two extra titles since they charge their double albums, two of which I included in my order, as of they were single CDs. I have thus added a Christian Wolff disc and another Cage double album. Postage is included in the price, it would seem. Many thanks to SMP for alerting listeners to the very existence of the label. Those taken by Frey's work will find several CDs on the Wandelweiser label which include his compositions.

[Barbirollians]

It can be found at a ridiculous price on amazon.de, or for somewhat less on Discogs. However, the best bet seems to be to order direct from Wandelweiser at http://www.wandelweiser.de/home.html . The catalogue number is EWR 1201 and you order via Paypal from http://www.wandelweiser.de/_e-w-records/index.htm quoting the catalogue number(s) in the message section of the Paypal payment page. You will note that the more CDs you buy, the lower the pro rata cost. I found 5 other Cage CDs which looked interesting enough for me to order them too.



You might like to wait for me to report back on the progression of my order.

Thanks await with interest.

[antongould]

Just got the chance to listen to this - I found it an excellent BAL - perhaps SMP will become a member of the Reviewers Club. If we believe Lord ferneyhoughgeliebte of Huddersfield and Spennymoor then she would be ideally suited to a similar BAL on contemporary music.

[MickyD]

Though not by Hildegard, I felt that this article should be placed on this thread, as it features Benjamin Bagby.

Very bizarre that this esoteric news turned up on the Daily Mail website!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3554539/The-song-not-heard-1-000-years-Listen-Middle-Ages-melody-reconstructed-using-stolen-manuscript-lost-142-years.html

[ardcarp]

Indeed, how often do 'neumes' get a mention in the Gaily Fail.

[Bryn]

Thanks await with interest.

The Wandelweiser discs arrived today. Interestingly frugal presentation, folded card with dense foam hub(s) for the disc(s). The Hildegard/Cage disc has each piece twice. First you get the 9 Hildegard items, then the 9 sections of Cage's Sonnekus^2. There then follow the same 18 items interleaved. I have not yet listened closely enough to determine whether or not the interleaved tracks are the same as those originally given. Highly recommended. In all, I ordered 6 albums (3 of which were double albums, so 9 discs in total). The cost was €65 (p&p included).

[MickyD]

I've just received the 8 CD set by Sequentia. Funnily enough, having previously spoken about Hildegard not having written instrumental music, I'm currently listening to the first CD, and Sequentia are seemingly playing just that - a wonderful interweaving of sounds from stringed instruments. I have no idea whether it is just the group's artistic licence, because of the lack of any programme notes. But it is absolutely spellbinding.

...addendum: I've just spotted in tiny print on the CD sleeve that the instrumental music is "conceived and arranged by Elizabeth Gaver". Is/was she a member of Sequentia?

[MickyD]

Reviving this thread, I have just begun listening to the three Stevie Wishart CDs. I can only echo Bryn's regrets that this series never got beyond Volume Three.

[Richard Barrett]

...addendum: I've just spotted in tiny print on the CD sleeve that the instrumental music is "conceived and arranged by Elizabeth Gaver". Is/was she a member of Sequentia?

Yes. Quite a few of the groups who have performed Hildegard's music have made instrumental arrangements. Actually, just about the same amount of arrangement goes into Sequentia's realisations of the vocal music - solo or ensemble, a cappella or accompanied, monodic or drone-accompanied and so on - all of which might or might not resemble how she and her sisters performed the music originally, of course.

[MickyD]

Thank you for that, Richard...this thread died a death for some reason back in 2016. I'm finding these Sinfonye/Wishart CDs very special indeed.