The Music of Hildegard of Bingen

Soooo much fun to create a super colorful two-page spread for Hildegard of Bingen! You can click on the photo if you want to enlarge it.

In looking for stories of a variety of Saints, including representation of women and people of color, I ran across Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179).

Completely fascinating woman! I found three picture books on Amazon:

Hildegard's Gift by Megan Hoyt

Hildegard of Bingen: Scientist, Composer, Healer, and Saint by Demi

The Secret World of Hildegard by Jonah Winter

Of these, my favorite is The Secret World of Hildegard. In my opinion, Hildegard's Gift is too vague and Hildegard of Bingen: Scientist, Composer, Healer, and Saint is too wordy. But the one by Jonah Winter is just right!

Of course, as soon as you start talking to kids about Hildegard of Bingen they want to hear some of her music. I want to hear some of her music too! So I'm taking the time tonight to sit down and find some online, and I figured it might be useful to others if I shared the links here as well.

When researching Hildegard you quickly find that she wrote a LOT of music, so here are just a few things I found:

sample from O Ignis Spiritus (0:42)
from Texas Early Music Project -- perfect for a taste

words to O Ignis Spiritus
in the original Latin and translated into English
from International Society of Hildegard von Bingen Studies

O Vis Aeternitatis (8:55)
from NPR Daily Download

Spiritus Sanctus Vivificans (3:29)

O Viridissima Virgina (22:25)

album Celestial Harmonies
streaming on Amazon

album Canticles of Ecstasy
streaming on Amazon

album Vision
streaming on Amazon

I just discovered that you can ask Alexa to play music by Hildegard von Bingen and she will happily oblige. The world is quite a remarkable place.

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