The Early Music Podcast: Hildegard von Bingen

This sixth episode takes us back, in a single move, to an early moment in the history of occidental music (the Middle-Ages, and more precisely the XIth century), but also at the very beginning of the “Early Music Movement” in the late 70s! Early Music, as we present it today, was born in the second half of the XXth century as an experimental, almost punk, approach to “classical music”. And who would be a better person to tell this story than someone who was there to see it? 

Today’s guest, Benjamin Bagby, founded Ensemble Sequentia in 1977 with Barbara Thornton. That is around 800 years after the death of Abbess Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179), known for her important work as a naturalist, poet, and her legacy as a mystic. During her long life as a nun, she also composed more than one hundred and fifty liturgical songs and melodies, making her one of the earliest composers of occidental music whose name we actually know! Her contribution as a composer was rediscovered in great part due to the works of Ensemble Sequentia. 

CREDITS

guest Benjamin Bagby, founder of Ensemble Sequentia

interview & editing Andrew Burn

production REMA

Platée, Act 1, Orage - Jean-Philippe Rameau

performed by Les Talens Lyriques, dir. Christophe Rousset
Camera Lucida 2014
All rights reserved - Courtesy of Les Talens Lyriques

design Doretta Rinaldi

original drawings Vincent Flückiger

cover score Folio, Riesencodex, 1175–1190 (Landesbibliothek Wiesbaden, BM 3600 FY 29451)

Instrumental dance I & II & Instrumental lament - Hildegard von Bingen

performed by Ensemble Sequentia

Ordo Virtutum, Sony 1998

Instrumental piece II - Hildegard von Bingen

performed by Ensemble Sequentia

O Jerusalem, Sony 1997 

Instrumental piece II - Hildegard von Bingen

performed by Ensemble Sequentia

Geistliche Gesänge, BMG 1985