Incomplete And Utter History Of Classical Music

FROM 'STAFF' TO DISTAFF

O

ne of the things I've always found curious about the abbess, composer, 'see-er of dreams' and general all round eccentric I lildcgard of Bingen is that, well, she wasn't. From Bingen, I mean. She wasn't born in Bingen, she didn't live in Bingen, and she didn't die in Bingen. If, at this point, you're thinking you may as well, just as.u curately, from now on, refer to her as Hildegard of Basingstoke, or I hklegard Von Symonds Yat, then, well, sorry. No, although she was born in Rheinhessen and died in Rupertsberg, at least Rupertsberg -which is around sixty kilometres south-west of Stuttgart - is near ltingen. Good. Glad to clear that up.

Hildegard was clearly a remarkable woman, someone just as happy doling out advice to bishops - popes even - as she was preparing a soothing poultice of plant extracts, mixed to her own recipe. She had visions from an early age, and was sent off to become an 'anchor' very early on. An 'anchor' was a sort of cross between a nun and an SAS survival expert - Ray Mears meets Sister Wendy - and Hildegard would have experienced a last rites ceremony before being shut off in solitary confinement.

When she was forty-two, she had a vision which she said gave her total understanding of religious texts, and, from this point on, she wrote down everything she saw in her dreams and visitations. Today, her major contribution is considered her musical one. She left behind her a large number of plainchants, often to her own texts, rather than the existing settings so common at the time. I still find it sad that Hildegard is famous now not only because she was one of the first important composers of whom we have any record, but also because she was one of the ONLY female ones. Still. As Mr Brown said, it's a man's world. Verily, be it the globe of a gentleman. But, moreover, he would, amounteth to little…

…NAUGHT, indeed,… minus a woman or a nun. At least I think that's what he said. Hard to tell, when he shouts so much.

Her story is all the more remarkable when you stop for a moment and think how hard it must have been not just to be a female composer in those days - jeepers, that's hard enough now - but, well, how hard it must have been to be a female ANYTHING! 'Yes, I am a woman. Yes, I am a composer. Yes, as it happens, I do have visions, which I write down as soon as I can. Er, no, actually, I'm not a witch, thank you very much!'

I say we clasp a picture of her in one hand, a full goblet of wine in the other, and zoom on to 1179 to toast her non-witchly, eccentric musical-ness. Or whatever. Actually, is that a wart on her left cheek?