September 16, 2014

Visionary Woman

Hildegard of Bingen is one of those unique and challenging people from the distant past who seem to be in touch with something beyond time and space. She was a mystic and a scientist, testimony to the fact that a close observation of the things of this world need not occupy one interested in the next.

I commend Margarethe von Trotta’s film on the life of this wonderful character. I delayed watching it (on Netflix); perhaps I thought it would be a pious and tedious tract. On the contrary it is an absorbing and entertaining portrait of an extraordinary woman — extraordinary in her own day, and likely any day up until the present, and perhaps even now.

My "quick icon" is based on the actress who plays Hildegard, Barbara Sukowa. She captures the ambiguities and imperfections of this very real woman. 

One of the most fascinating things about Hildegard is her music. It inspired me to write my own setting of "Come, Holy Ghost" for the profession liturgy for some of the Sisters of Saint Gregory. No recording was made at the time, and it hasn't been performed since (as far as I know). So I offer a synthesized choir which sounds a bit like a group of (perhaps) Bulgarians for whom English is a second language. Nonetheless, I hope you enjoy... Here's to Hildegard!

Tobias Stanislas Haller BSG

MP3 File

2 comments:

  1. June ButlerSeptember 16, 2014

    Lovely, Tobias. Your icon of Hildegard hangs over my computer looking intently just to the right of me. Merton and Teilhard de Chardin stare directly at me.

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  2. Tobias Stanislas Haller BSGSeptember 17, 2014

    Thanks, June. What a powerhouse trio! All of them very important to me, especially Julian and Teilhard -- in bringing me to an adult Christian faith. Hildegard was waiting when I got there... and we are all of us still on the pilgrimage "in a Godward direction!"

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