Ordo Virtutum (Latin for Order of the Virtues) is an allegorical morality play, or sacred music drama, by Hildegard of Bingen, composed around 1151, during the construction and relocation of her Abbey at Rupertsberg. It is the earliest morality play by more than a century, and the only medieval musical drama to survive with an attribution for both text and music.
A short version of Ordo Virtutum without music appears at the end of Scivias , Hildegard's most famous account of her visions. It is also included in some manuscripts of the Symphonia armoniae celestium revelationum ("Symphony of the Harmony of Celestial Revelations"), a cycle of more than 70 liturgical songs. It may have been performed by the convent nuns at the dedication of the St. Rupertsberg church in 1152 [1] or possibly before the Mass for the Consecration of Virgins at the convent. [2]
The subject of the play is typical for a morality play. It recounts neither biblical events, nor a saint's life, nor miracles. [3] Instead, Ordo Virtutum is about the struggle for a human soul, or Anima, between the Virtues and the Devil. [4]
The piece can be divided as follows: [5]
Part I: A Prologue in which the Virtues are introduced to the Patriarchs and Prophets who marvel at the Virtues.
Part II: We hear the complaints of souls that are imprisoned in bodies. The (for now) happy Soul enters and her voice contrasts with the unhappy souls. The Soul is too eager to skip life and go straight to Heaven. When the Virtues tell her that she has to live first, the Devil seduces her away to worldly things.
Part III: The Virtues take turns identifying and describing themselves while the Devil occasionally interrupts and expresses opposing views and insults. This is the longest section by far and, although devoid of drama or plot, the musical elements of this section make it stand out.
Part IV: The Soul returns, repentant. Once the Virtues have accepted her back, they turn on the Devil, whom they bind. Together they conquer the Devil and then God is praised.
Part V: A procession of all the characters.
The Soul (female voice). The Virtues (sung by 17 solo female voices): Humility (Queen of the Virtues), Hope, Chastity, Innocence, Contempt of the World, Celestial Love, Discipline? (the name is scratched out in the manuscript) Modesty, Mercy, Victory, Discretion, Patience, Knowledge of God, Charity, Fear of God, Obedience, and Faith. [6] These Virtues were seen as role models for the women of the Abbey, who took joy in overcoming their weaknesses and defeating the Devil in their own lives. Chorus of the Prophets and Patriarchs (sung by a male chorus) Chorus of Souls (sung by a women's chorus) The Devil (a male voice -- [7] the Devil does not sing, he only yells or grunts: according to Hildegard, he cannot produce divine harmony). [8]
The meaning and emphasis of the Ordo Virtutum in Hildegard of Bingen's community is affected by role assignments among the nuns. [9] It has been suggested that the soul represents Richardis von Stade, Hildegard's fellow nun and friend, who had left to become abbess of another convent. Hildegard was upset by this appointment and tried to have it revoked, appealing even to Pope Eugene III. Hildegard was unsuccessful and Richardis departed, only to die shortly thereafter on October 29, 1151. Other scholars propose an allusion to Hildegard's brother Bruno. [10] Before dying, Richardis told her brother that she wanted to return to Hildegard, not unlike the returning, repentant Soul of Ordo Virtutum. [11]
Hildegard of Bingen received no traditional education in composition, nor was she trained to play instruments.[ citation needed ] She was "self-taught," although not in a way that many people would expect. Her whole life, Hildegard of Bingen claimed to be both clairvoyant and clairaudient. The music came to her in trances. She also attempted to describe what she was going through in works such as Ordo Virtutum. [12] [ better source needed ]
Music was a part of daily life in the abbey, since the nuns chanted psalms several times a day during the Liturgy of the Hours. The performance of non-liturgical music was more rare, having to do with celebrations and special occasions in the life of the community.
Hildegard of Bingen believed that music had a powerful, even medical effect on people. Music was a type of biblical meditation. The manner in which this was practiced resembles in some manner the way Buddhists meditate and other religious traditions use music. The neurologist Oliver Sacks has researched Hildegard's belief that music can bring a connection between the human brain's two hemispheres, to heal and calm the body. [13]
The Ordo Virtutum is written in dramatic verse and contains 82 different melodies, which are set more syllabically than Hildegard's liturgical songs. All parts are sung in plainchant except that of the Devil. [14] There is an alternation between solo and chorus parts as well as melismatic versus syllabic lines. [15]
The main "acts" in the play are set in allegorical towers and the musical dimensions are driven by the architectural understanding: for example, the development of processional chants that link the action in one tower to that of the other. [16]
The final verses of the play move into a mystical mode and describe the crucifixion of Christ, asking the audience to bend their knees so that God may "stretch out his hand to you" (genua vestra ad patrem vestrum flectite / ut vobis manum suam porrigat, pp. 36–37). The final word, porrigat ("stretch out"), is set to thirty-nine notes, making it the longest melisma in the play. It is meant to illustrate the stretch of a divine hand toward humanity. [17]
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Hildegard of Bingen, also known as Saint Hildegard and the Sibyl of the Rhine, was a German Benedictine abbess and polymath active as a writer, composer, philosopher, mystic, visionary, and as a medical writer and practitioner during the High Middle Ages. She is one of the best-known composers of sacred monophony, as well as the most recorded in modern history. She has been considered by a number of scholars to be the founder of scientific natural history in Germany.
The morality play is a genre of medieval and early Tudor drama. The term is used by scholars of literary and dramatic history to refer to a genre of play texts from the fourteenth through sixteenth centuries that feature personified concepts alongside angels and demons, who are engaged in a struggle to persuade a protagonist who represents a generic human character toward either good or evil. The common story arc of these plays follows "the temptation, fall and redemption of the protagonist".
Plainsong or plainchant is a body of chants used in the liturgies of the Western Church. When referring to the term plainsong, it is those sacred pieces that are composed in Latin text. Plainsong was the exclusive form of Christian church music until the ninth century, and the introduction of polyphony.
Benjamin Bagby is an American singer, composer, harpist, and performer of medieval music.
Evelyn Tubb is an English soprano, and long-time member of The Consort of Musicke and one of the world's greatest early music specialists, known for her innovative and original performances.
Catherine B. Brazelton is a New York-based American composer, bandleader, improviser, singer/songwriter, and instrumentalist. She has released albums and fronted bands across varied genres, including contemporary classical, electronic music, pop, art rock, punk, and avant-garde jazz. She was awarded the 2012 Carl von Ossietsky Composition Prize for Storm, a choral setting of Psalm 104 featuring Brazelton's own retranslation. Her opera Art of Memory was awarded the 2015 Grant for Female Composers from Opera America.
A lingua ignota was described by the 12th-century abbess Hildegard of Bingen, who apparently used it for mystical purposes. It consists of vocabulary with no known grammar; the only known text is individual words embedded in Latin. To write it, Hildegard used an alphabet of 23 letters denominated litterae ignotae.
Sequentia is an early music ensemble, founded in 1977 by Benjamin Bagby and Barbara Thornton. The group specializes mainly in Medieval music. Sequentia focuses particularly on music with texts, specifically chants and other stories with music, such as the Icelandic Edda. They are interested in the interplay between drama and music, and sometimes do partially staged performances, such as that of Hildegard of Bingen's Ordo Virtutum. Bagby and Thornton have both been active in original research on the projects they perform.
Eibingen Abbey is a community of Benedictine nuns in Eibingen near Rüdesheim in Hesse, Germany. Founded by Hildegard of Bingen in 1165, it was dissolved in 1804, but restored, with new buildings, in 1904. The nuns produce wine and crafts. They sing regular services, which have been at times recorded. The church is also used as a concert venue. The abbey is a Rhine Gorge World Heritage Site.
Volmar was a Saint Disibod monk who acted as prior and father confessor for the nuns at Disibodenberg. He was one of two teachers of Hildegard of Bingen during her early years, the other being Jutta.
Seraphic Fire is a professional vocal ensemble in the United States, led by Artistic Director Patrick Dupré Quigley and Executive Director Rhett M. Del Campo, and based in Miami. Seraphic Fire's repertoire includes Gregorian chants, Baroque masterpieces, works by Mahler, and newly commissioned works by American composers.
Scivias is an illustrated work by Hildegard von Bingen, completed in 1151 or 1152, describing 26 religious visions she experienced. It is the first of three works that she wrote describing her visions, the others being Liber vitae meritorum and De operatione Dei. The title comes from the Latin phrase Sci vias Domini. The book is illustrated by 35 miniature illustrations, more than that are included in her two later books of visions.
Vox Animae is an early music ensemble, founded in 1994 by director and instrumentalist Michael Fields. The group specialises in Medieval music, particularly vocal music, such as sequences, chants and other music with a strong story-line, such as Visitatio sepulchri. They are particularly keen on using drama to enhance the audience experience of the music, and feature staged performances individually crafted to suit each venue.. They are renowned for their presentation of Hildegard of Bingen's Ordo Virtutum.
Barbara Thornton was an American singer, musicologist, and groundbreaking performer of medieval music.
This is a bibliography of Hildegard of Bingen's works.
This is a discography of Hildegard of Bingen's musical works.
Canticles of Ecstasy is an album of sacred vocal music written in the 12th century by the German abbess Hildegard of Bingen and recorded by the early music ensemble Sequentia that was released by the Deutsche Harmonia Mundi recording label in 1993.
Barbara Stühlmeyer OblOSB is a German theologian, musicologist, author, especially a Hildegard scholar and a science journalism.
Beverly Mayne Kienzle retired in 2015 as the John H. Morison Professor of the Practice in Latin and Romance Languages at the Harvard Divinity School, Harvard University. She is a specialist in Christian Latin, Latin paleography, and medieval Christianity. She has published over seventy articles and fifteen books, including five on Hildegard of Bingen. Her latest book is an authoritative biography of her grandmother, Virginia Cary Hudson, author of the best-selling O Ye Jigs and Juleps!.
Richardis von Stade was a German nun and Benedictine abbess of Bassum Abbey. She was a member of the Udonids family as the daughter of Rudolf I, Margrave of the Nordmark and Richardis; and the sister of Hartwig, Count of Stade and Archbishop of Bremen, and Lutgard of Salzwedel, Queen consort of Denmark, Adelheid and Udo. She is best known for her intimate friendship with Hildegard von Bingen.
