A Voice of Her Own: Program & Notes
Program
| Dilectus meus | Katherina von Tirs (15th century) |
| Kyrie | Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) |
| O frondens virga | Hildegard of Bingen |
| Favus distillans | Hildegard of Bingen |
| O quanta qualia (instrumental) | Abelard, arr. Margriet Tindemans |
| Flet pastore | Margriet Tindemans (2008) |
| Ay, in welken soe verbaert | text: Hadewijch (13th century), melody Utrechts Prosarium (13th century) |
| Als hem die tijt vernuwen sal | Hadewijch / Margriet Tindemans |
| Fair as a dove | Sheila Bristow (2010) |
| O pulcre facies | Hildegard of Bingen |
| O nobillissima virginitas (instrumental) | Hildegard arr. Margriet Tindemans |
| O dulcissime amator | Hildegard of Bingen |
| Puer natus in Bethlehem | Anna von Köln (c. 1500) |
| Jhesus wyn is upgedaen | Anna von Köln |
| Heir boven in myns Vaders rijch | Anna von Köln |
| Ich weys eyn maget schoene | Anna von Köln |
| Laist uns syngen ind vroelich syn | Anna von Köln |
| Behold, thou art fair | Karen P. Thomas (2010) |
Notes:
Loyal followers of the Medieval Women's Choir, or of medieval music in general, will know that rarely are medieval compositions ascribed to composers by name. The majority belong to the category of "anonymous" works, literally "unnamed". The prevailing culture of Christian art, which was to be in the service of God, did not encourage the celebration of the individual. This principal applied to all medieval writers and musicians, but even more so to women.
In this program we present five women who for different reasons, and in varying degrees, escaped this anonymity. Each of them, in her own way, found "A Voice of Her Own".
By far the most famous is Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179), by all accounts a strong-willed woman. She describes how in her early forties she started having visions, in which God told her "to write down that which you see and hear". Some 70 songs by Hildegard survive, along with a musical drama, the Ordo Virtutum. The Kyrie is the only Mass setting she wrote --all other songs are antiphons (O frondens virga, O pulcre facies), responsories (Favus distillans) and hymns (O dulcissime amator).
Although she was, and is, known primarily through her ill-fated love affair with the Parisian philosopher Abelard, Héloise was a fine and well known poet herself, as well as a successful abbess of the convent of the Paraclete, near Troyes in central France. Unfortunately her works did not fare as well as Hildegard's. The only poem that with some certainty can be ascribed to Héloise is the lament Flet pastore, which I have set to music for the choir.
Certain areas of the medieval sacred and spiritual experience were considered uniquely "feminine". Starting with the 12th-century "sybil of the Rhine", Hildegard of Bingen, the Germanic-Dutch territories produced a line of female "mystics", who gathered fame as visionaries, poets, and musicians. Central to their belief is the concept of their spiritual marriage to the Son of God. They saw themselves as "Brides of Christ". In their expression of this "Minne", or love, each found "a voice of her own".
Hadewijch lived in the 13th century, in the province of Brabant, or possibly in Antwerp. She was a well educated noblewoman, and lived in a community of beguines: lay women who lived alone but in communities and supported themselves by manual labour and teaching. They did not take vows and did not renounce their properties. It is clear from her poetry that Hadewijch was very familiar with the courtly love poetry of her time: she uses its images and poetic devices with ease and skill to express her sublimated love of Christ. None of Hadewijch's songs were written down with their melodies. The first one, Ay, in welken soe verbaert, is set to the tune of a sequence found in a contemporary collection from Utrecht in the Netherlands. I have set the second one, Als hem die tijt vernuwen sal, to a melody of my own invention.
By the late Middle Ages this mysticism influenced a religious movement, called the Devotio Moderna, or the Modern Devotion. It promoted an intense personal relationship with God, and a more individual attitude towards religion. Singing was an important part of the devotion. Both Katherina von Tiers and Anna von Köln were followers. Although very little is known about their lives, they must both have been wealthy: each commissioned a collection of songs for personal worship. Anna von Köln uses melodies and texts of dance and even drinking songs popular in her time and transforms the texts into sacred ones.
Images of nature are present in almost all of the poems: flowers, greenery, branches and references to the growing season, dawn and night, gardens full of fruit-bearing trees, a honeycomb, and birds. Many of these images are inspired by the Old Testament poem about the courtship between a Bride and her Bridegroom, the Song of Songs, which in the Middle Ages was widely interpreted as an allegory of Christ and the Church. It is not surprising that this lush, sensually ambiguous poem appealed to the female mystics.
Karen P. Thomas and Sheila Bristow are 21st-c. composers who have set texts from the Song of Songs. Behold, thou art fair and Fair as a dove were performed during the Song of Songs Festival in the spring of 2010, in which the Medieval Women's Choir collaborated with St. James Cathedral and Seattle pro Musica.
This program also celebrates the singers of the Medieval Women's Choir. Many members of the group come to the choir after years of not singing, because of the demands of careers and child-rearing. As the founding director of the choir I take great pride and satisfaction in seeing how each of them re-discovers "her own voice".
~Margriet Tindemans