The Essential Hildegard

PERFORMANCES

“Ordo Virtutum,” Sequentia, Nov. 22, 3 p.m., and Nov. 23, 8 p.m., Mary Chapel, Mount St. Mary’s College, 12001 Chalon Road, Brentwood, $30-$38, (310) 954-4300.

ON CD

“11,000 Virgins,” Anonymous 4 (Harmonia Mundi). This is one of those rare cases where the highest-profile performers are unsurpassed. In a chant-like style, the group sings Hildegard pieces inspired by the legend of St. Ursula. Not to be missed.

“Ordo Virtutum,” Sequentia (Deutsche Harmonia Mundi). Sequentia’s style is more ecstatic, and the result is also quite powerful. Their rendering of Hildegard’s play shows the benefit of two decades of close contact with the work. Other Sequentia Hildegard CDs. also on Deutsche Harmonia Mundi, are equally extraordinary, especially “Canticles of Ecstasy.”

“Jerusalem, Vision of Peace,” Gothic Voices (Hyperion, forthcoming). This CD will contain two Hildegard pieces, directed by Christopher Page in the style he now prefers. In the meantime, Gothic Voice’s “A Feather on the Breath of God” (Hyperion) sounds surprisingly good 16 years after its release.

WEB SITES

https://music.acu.edu/www/iawm/historical/hildegard.html. This is a good Web starting point. The site, sponsored by the International Alliance for Women in Music, has links to a number of good Hildegard sites.

BOOKS

“Hildegard of Bingen’s Book of Divine Works (with Letters and Songs),” edited by Matthew Fox (Bear Publishing, Santa Fe, 1987). This provides an accessible translation of a particularly important Hildegard work, and also includes 42 of her letters to archbishops, popes, kings and such monks as Bernard of Clairvaux. Such letters were regarded in her day as publications rather than private communications--they make up a part of Hildegard’s output that her contemporaries might have ranked above her music. The book does include some of that, however, with music, texts and translations of 12 of her songs.