Great Composers: Genius or Madness?
1106
Was there a thinner veil between heaven and earth in the Middle Ages? With less distractions, were people more tuned to the voice of God? Did they really have less distractions, or were they as mentally occupied as the minds of today’s society?
It is 1106, and little 8-year-old Hildegard, the tenth child of a medieval noble family, is brought to the Disibodenberg Monastery, in what would become Germany today, to become an oblate and companion to Jutta Von Spanheim. Her next 6 years are spent in prayer and education, and in 1112, Jutta becomes the Anchoress of Disibodenberg, and Hildegard, her assistant. They are – what the church delicately refers to as – “enclosed.” Hildegard and Jutta are literally bricked into a small enclosure in the church wall.
This barbaric practice comes from the “Rule of Life,” known as the “Ancrene Wisse,” a medieval concept where “an anchoress was anchored under a church like an anchor under the side of a ship, to hold it, so that the waves and storms do not pitch it over.” 1 It is considered an honor to be the Anchoress, who must fast and do penance. Many pilgrims come to visit and speak to the Anchoress outside of her window. They ask for prayers and wisdom. Jutta happily delves into her new job. By today’s standards, she would most probably be considered a cutter, someone who hurts herself to come to terms with an overwhelming emotional event, but by medieval standards, she is the perfect Anchoress. She wears a sharp barbed chain around her waist. Her ripped skin never quite heals, becomes infected and smells.2
Jutta and Hildegard live in two small rooms, one with a small window into the church where they can worship during mass, another in which they sleep. The second room has narrow high-walled courtyard attached, where they might glimpse the sky and a passing bird.2 Both Hildegard and Jutta had visions, which not only increases their value as “enclosed” nuns, but increases pilgrim visitation and provides additional revenue for the monastery. Hildegard would lapse into a coma-like trance, now possibly thought to be induced by severe migraines. Her visions include God’s creation, relationship of the body and soul and the history of salvation.3
Hildegard’s exceptionally lovely voice is frequently raised in song during mass. During the course of her life, she would write music, along with books describing her visions, medicine, healing and theology. Her liturgical music was mostly monophonic and highly melismatic, with emphasis on text. She wrote a Play of the Virtues, 69 poems set to music, performed by her community of nuns. An outspoken woman, Hildegard was held in high regard by only some of her contemporaries, including Bernard of Clairvaux, Archbishop Henry I of Mainz and Pope Eugene III. She has been described as the greatest woman of her time, but some who knew her in her lifetime would describe her as mad.
1"Anchoress," accessed 30 March, 2014
2Mary Sharratt, "Illuminations: a novel of Hildegard von Bingen," Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2012
3 Hildegard of Bingen, "Scivias," accessed 30 March, 2014
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