Hildegard von Bingen: 873 years before Taylor Swift's Eras Tour
- Chris
- Apr 2, 2025
- 4 min read
It might be a little late for International Women’s Day, but I wanted to celebrate a female composer who I am always fascinated by whenever I listen to her music.
Let’s start with a question: when do you think the first known musical play in history was written? 19th century perhaps? No, Opera started before that so perhaps the 18th or even 17th centuries, right? Still not quite… 16th century?!
The answer, as far as we know at the moment from historical evidence, is actually back in the 12th century, in 1151. The play is called Ordo Virtutum, a morality play composed by German Abbess, author, and composer, among many other things, Hildegard von Bingen.
The four-part play depicts the struggle between the Virtues and the Devil for the soul of Anima.
But Hildegard von Bingen composed a great many more pieces than just Ordo Virtutum. She seems to have written anywhere from 70 to 150 known works, possibly more, possibly less. I suppose the passage of time and some slightly confusing medieval music notation systems might make that figure trickier to come to than one might hope. I’ll be honest, I haven’t found a consistent answer anywhere online, but that’s the ballpark number.
What I love most about Hildegard von Bingen, apart from her being a female polymath in an era that wasn’t especially friendly to women (her opinions and guidance on matters of church and state seem to have been requested and respected not infrequently), is how somehow timeless her music feels. When I listen to some of her music, it could almost be from the soundtrack to a modern fantasy film.
'There's something that feels inherently very human about her music'
Now I know what you’re thinking: ‘how is that timeless? Surely the modern composers are just good at mimicking the sounds and harmonies of medieval music?’ I suppose you do have a point there, but there’s something that feels inherently very human about her music. The monophonic voices, very raw and manual medieval instruments if there are any, lovingly recreated by whichever historical ensemble has recorded the particular track you’re listening to. Perhaps I am thinking too far into it, but it doesn’t feel so muddied by any kind of ulterior motives – she’s not writing for any patron, style or market, any particular audience or customer. She is writing purely out of her own faith and dedication.
I think it would be fair to say that her music, written without those outside pressures and mostly, if not solely, from her own emotion, mind and motivations, is one of the purest forms of musical expression there is.
You could argue, of course, that she is writing for religion, so perhaps it is not completely internal. But then again, I would reply that her motivations are still her own, and it is the elements of her religion and faith that she has internalised into herself and made her own that enable her to write such great works as Ordo Virtutum. The fact that she also explored musical storytelling through the play – something I’m a big fan of as it is – is enough to convince me that she was certainly experimenting with new and different methods and channels for musical expression.
It's this experimentation and creative freedom that I think all musicians, and all artists generally, really aspire to. The freedom to create, however you like, to experiment, to try new things, to get things wrong, but then to get things right subsequently. To really leave a mark on the world that it will never forget, just as Hildegard von Bingen did – although she still needs to be remembered and listened to 25 years shy of nine hundred years later!
'Her music is still around and pretty well known [...] almost one thousand years later (almost).'
But isn’t that amazing in itself? That her music is still around and pretty well known, all things considered, almost one thousand years later (almost). A legacy of a thousand years or more is pretty good going for anyone, but especially, in my view, for someone who created beautiful and amazing works of art from a place of freedom, wisdom, and good intentions (unlike so many characters in history it seems…). And at that, especially for a woman in a society that wasn’t typically known to be the friendliest to women.
So, like I say, it’s a bit late for International Women’s Day, but aside from being one of my favourite composers, Hildegard von Bingen is, for me, an example of a powerful, wise, creative woman at the height of her creative power for a lot of her life. Her legacy, for all its hundreds of years, will soon be nine hundred years old, and has, I’m sure, outlasted the legacies of a great many others who we do not remember today. 873 years before Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, Hildegard von Bingen was already making her mark on the world, as I’m quite sure a great many female composers, both those forgotten and those we remember, did before her and have done since.
It would be a bit silly of me to waffle on about Hildegard von Bingen and finish up without even mentioning a piece of hers to listen to. The answer for me is easy. My favourite piece of hers is O Frondens Virga. The notation for this is not as precise as later Western classical music, so there seem to be some different interpretations out there. But I just love the way the piece sounds and moves harmonically, the simple but meandering melodic line, the intertwining of the voices (if it’s been recorded with voices!) and the instruments, creating clearer sections and more relaxed, quieter sections, but coming back with that typical medieval monophony for the main sections. Have a listen, see what you think! (I’m actually working on writing a jazz version of this piece at the moment – give me time, I might share it one day. I hope it won’t sound as weird as it sounds…as it were!)
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