From: Harold W. Attridge & Margot Fassler, eds.

, Psalms in Community: Jewish and Christian Textual, Liturgical, and Artistic Traditions (Society of Biblical Literature: The Netherlands, 2003), pp. 215239.

HronceRD AND ruB Dev,'tl Soxc or Leuos: AN IxrnoDUCTIoN to BnxnoICTINE Ps,trltoov

Margot Fassler

HtroEceno on BtNcgN: Evelcnrrst

,q'No Ps,A.u\'loorst

Hildegard

of Bingen, a twelfth-century nun from the Rhineland, is

unique to medieval theology and music for a number of reasons. She is the only distinguished theologian and exegete who was also a composer of major importance, and this claim holds not only for the centuries of the 'western christian Middle Ages but also when one considers the entire canon.l She considered her first theological treatise, Sciuias Domini (Know tbe Ways of tbe Lord')-which she wrote after the age of forty-to be another book of the Bible and herself to be a designatqd transmitter of the \W.ord of God.2 The famous opening scene from the oniy illuminated copy of the treatise, a copy whose illuminations may have been directly inspired by the author, suggests the ideais embodied in her writings.3 She is moved by the power of the fiery Spirit; as she hears God speak, her secretary Volmar writes down what she says of received truth, and-one could argue through iconographical evidence-what she sings of it as well.a

1 For an introduction to Hildegard's life and times, see Barbara Newman, ed.' Voice of the Liuing Light (.Berke\ey and Los Angeles: Universiry of California Press, 1998). For the broader context of women and their education in the tlvelfth-century Rhinelancl, see Constant J. Mews, ed., Iisten, Daughter: Tbe Speculum Virginum and tbe Formation of Religious Women in tbe Mi.tldle Ages (New York: Palgrave, 2001). 2 See Barbara Newman's introduction to the English translation of the treatise (Colnmba Hart and Jane Bishop, trans., Sciuia.s lClassics of -Vestern Spirituality; New York: Paulist, 19901) for further discussion. 3 The miniatures afe ftrl1y reproduced in color and studied by Lieselotte E. Saurma-Jeltsch in Die Miniatauren im "Liber Sciuias" der Hildegarcl uon Bingen: Die Wucbt der Vision und d.ie Ordnung der Bild.er (\il/iesbaden: Reichert, 1998)' 1 See ibid., 25-31, for discussion of the opening illumination and its visual sources. The miniature depicting Hildegard receiving the inspired visions unclerlying her writings is much reproduced.

21.5

276

Margot Fassler

Through this visual preface, Hildegard is situated in two realms. The first is that of the Evangelists, who are often depicted as receiving the word as they w'rite, within a familiar iconic framework. But other elements of the picture are borrowed from another tradition. This one shows Gregory the Great, who sang psalms to melodies he received from the Holy Spirit, melodies that were recorded by a scribe, much as Volmer transcribed Hildegard's divine messages.5 The way Hildegard is deplctecl proclairns that she is both evangelist and composer. Hildegard accor.lnts for the nature of divine inspiration several times, in her treatlses and in her correspondence. Her words reflect the mind of a religious reformer, cast in the mode of prophet. According to the seer, elected officials of the church universal w'ere failing by offering only a lukewarm message, not flt for the salvation of souls. To instruct them God chose the weakest of his vessels to hold the finest wine, a worrran, arl undereducated nun.6
Ar-rd

I hearcl the voice saying to me from thc aforementioned living fire: Oh you u,ho arc wretched eafih and, as a woman) untaught in all

learning of earthly teachers and unable to reacl literature rl,ith philosophical undcrstanding, you are nonetheless touchecl by My light, which kincllcs in you an inner file like a burninJ sun; cry out and relate anrl write these things My-mysteries that yoLr sec and hear in mystical vis:ions. So do not be timid. but say those things you understancl in the Spirit as I speak them through to you; so that those who shoulcl have shon'n My people dghteousness, br-rt who in their perwersity reluse to spcak openly of the justice they know, unwilling to abstain from the evil desires that cling to them like their masters ancl make then'r fly from thc face ol the Lorcl ancl blush to spcak the truth, may be ashamecl. Therefore, O difficlent mind, who are taught inwarclly by mystical inspiration, though because of Eve's transgression you are trodden on by the masculine sex, speak ol that fiery work this sure vision has shou,'n you. (Scirias 2.7)

Hildegard's u.ritings and her music are designed to help restore a of tirings in t1-re church and to offer a corrective for leaders who could no longer leacl-or sing-effectively. She is prophet, evangelf:ri1ed ordel

ist, ancl psalmodist bl'c1ir-ine fi:rt, and her worcls and her music come fiom God. Her works offer a s,ay of reforming the chr-rrch, both through new

5 Leo Treitler, "Hor.ner ancl Gregory: The Transmission of Epic Poetry and Plainclrant," MQ 60 Q974): 333-72. 6 See Barbara Nervrnan. Sister ctf Wisdom. St. Hilclegard's Tbeolc,tgy- ctf the Feminine (2c1 ec1.; Berkcley ancl Los Angeles: University of Califrrrnla i']ress, 1997), and Constant Mews, "Religious Thinker: 'A Frail Human Being' on Fiery Lif'e," in Neu..man, lbice o.l'the Liuin,q Light, i2 69, for cliscussion of Hildegarcl's refbrm theologv.

Hilclegard and tbe Dawn Song of lawds

211

"scripture" and through a new model of ecclesial song. They also point the n'ay toward an apocalyptic new age in which Hildegard believed all peop1e would sing in modes of praise mystically resembling those describecl in her writings and mirrored in her compositional att.t- Hildegard's unique talents allowed her to move freely back and forth from speculative to practical, as she attempted to describe monastic and ecciesial ideals in lhe actual, sounding exercise of song and drama, as well as in the prose of theological treatises.

Hildegard's compositions included music written for her convent's psalmody: her entire corpus of crtmpositions is conditioned by a lived understanding of the Divine Office and its psalmody.s Her reworking of the texts, and her offering of a new book of Scripture, point to some basic facts of Christian psalmody for most of the ages: it is a heavily revised and reworked body of texts, texts recontextualized in a liturgy that transformed their original meaning while preserving many basic elements of the tradition. This essay seeks to indicate several of the ways in which Latin psalmody shaped the Christian imaginatlon 1n the Middle Ages. The subject is vast, and Hildegard provides a useful point of entry. She works within the frame of an ancient tradition, yet she illustrates various modes

of renewal.
Tsn PsultooY olTHE

Bpttsotcrtxr'.Or1cn

In its larger context, Hildegard's work as a composer can be seen as

pafi of the massive songbook created by monastic and cathedral musicians during the Middle Ages. The psalmody of the Latin church, wlth its complex layerings of entire psalm texts and of individual verses, set to countless tones and melodies, occupied the creativity of liturgists, melodists, cantors, exegetes, and copyists for centuries. The psalms have always been, as they remain, the basic texts for prayer and praise in Christian monasticism, even as they are texts that have been transformed. The opus Dei-the work of God-includes communal singing of the psahns, all 150 of them, according to a regular cursr-rs or plan. One disciplined desert father claimed to sing the entire Psalter every day, but monastic nrles, including that ascribed to Saint

7 For discussion of Hildegard's brand of apocalyptic thought, see Kathryn KerbyFulton, "Prophet and Reformer: 'Smoke in the Vineyard,"' in Newman, Voice of tbe

LiDing Light,70-90. 8 Hilclegard's music and its relationship to her monastic ideals are discrrssed in Margot Fassler, "Composer and Dramatist: 'Melodious Singing and the Freshness of Remorse,"' in Newman, Voice o.f tbe Liuing ligbt, 74c)-75; and idem, 'N'Iusic lor the Love Feast: Hildegarcl of Bingen and the Song of Songs," tn Wonten's Voices across

MtLsical'Worlds (ed. J. Belnstein; Boston: Northeastern University Pt'css, 2003).

278

Margot Fassler

Beneclict, provide for weekly singing of the book of Psa1ms.9 From the time the Rr-rle of Saint Benedict was adapted by Carolingian liturgical reformers in the ninth century, the Rule, with its fairly precise outline of psalmody, has shaped not only the daily offices of Benedictine monasteries but the ordered prayer lives of many other monastic communities and of secular

communities as we1l. For centuries al1 members of Christian monastic orders in the \flest had the psalms by heart and knew them within a liturgical, a festive, and, it should be said, a pedagogical context. Several recent scholarly publications contain outlines of the weekly plan of psalmody Hiidegard wor-rld have known as a Benedictine nun in the twelfth century and the changes that occurred when major feasts disrupted this ferial cursus.10 Scholars compare this monastic plan of psalmody with that followed in secular churches and likewise by religious orders whose liturgies were governed by the Rule of Saint Augustine rather than that of Saint Benedict. Benedictines in Hildegard's era knew the Office psalms in the Latin translation of Jerome. This was a heavily Cl'rristianized version of the texts, primarily dependent upon the Septuagint.il Although the Vulgate provided the texts for psalms intoned in the Office, psalm verses in the Mass liturgy were fiequently taken from even earlier Latin translations. Thus, although the psalms were the primary texts of both the Office and the Mass, they were present in ilifferent Latin translations. The cornmentators and faith communities who prayed the texts had to resolve any difficulties, and as they did so much of the Christian theological r-rnderstanding of the texts and their meaning evolved.

9 See the essays in RB l9B0: Tbe Rule oJ'St. Benedict in Lcttin ancl English uith rvole.\ (ed. 1'. F'ry; Co11egevi11e, Nlinn.: Liturgical l']ress, 1981) for an introduction to

the psalmody of the Rule of Saint Benedict. 10 These comparatir.'e tables are for.rnd in Roger Reynolds, "Divine Office." in Dictionary oJ tbe Micldle,4ges (ed, J. Strayer et al.; Nerv York: Scribner, 7982-89), 4:227-37; John Harper. Fctrns ancl Orders o.f Vestern. Liturgg.from tbe Tenth tc-t tbe Eighteenth Centurl: A Historicctl Intrctcluction ancl Guicle .for Stu.clents and Musiciars (New York: Oxford Univelsity Press, 1991); and Lila Collamore, "Prelude: Clrarting the Divine Office," in 7'he Diuine Oflice in the Lottin Middlellges (ed. M. E. Fassler and R. A. Baltzer; Ner, York: Oxford University Press. 2000), 3-11. 11 Jerome made three translations of the Psalter. and it is his second translation, the so-called Gallican Psalter, that rvas used in the Office in the West as well as in the Vulgate Bible. Jeron-re r.as heavily influenced by Origen's Hexapla; on his texts of Scriptule see Gilles Dorival and Alaln Le Boulluec, Origeniana Sexta: OrigAne et la Bible (Leuven: Leuven Universiry Press; Peeters, 1L)95); for an overwiew of various early Latin translations, see Colette Estin in Le monde kttin antique et la Bible
(ec1.

J. Fontaine and C. Pietri; Paris: Beauchesne, 1985), 67-88.

Hildegard. and tbe Dawn Song of Lauds

Ztg

Most modern translations of the Bible are of the Hebrew text, Iittle influenced by the Vulgate or by any Latin translation, and thus they may nor convey the precise meaning embedded in the Latin or offer the subtle flavor known to the medievais who sang and prayed these texts lor srr many centuries.l2 \Tithout consultation with the Latin versions we may not understand why certain psalms or psalm verses were chosen for particular liturgical occasions, or the elaborate net of meanings that was woven for the iiturgical 265-f166 poetry and drama to g1ass, sculpture, mosaics, wall paintings, and manuscript illuminations-by the liturgical psalmody of the Latin Middle Ages.r3 The first way the psalms of the Latin liturgy were turned into christian texts was through the translations themselves, but just as important for transforming the texts into Christian poems were their various settings in the liturgy. As a nun, Hildegard wouid have known each psalm text in several guises: each psalm was sung in its entirety in the Office, framed by interpretive antiphons, and various psalm verses wefe employed in the Mass and Office liturgies in accord with a feast and its themes. Thus, each psalm was present many times to the mind of a medieval monk or nun, and each singing was surely ripe with multifold references. The modern way of knowing the Psalter, by reading it

silently and a1one, formed but a small part of the range of ways medievals knew the texts. Also the modern ideal ol studying psalms in translations that are as ciose as possible to the Hebrew original was far removed from the medieval ideal of a deliberately appropriated, transformecl, and recontextualized text. It would be false to suppose that the psaims of the Hebrew Bible were the psalms known by medieval Christian nuns ancl monks. The texts they knew, and their modes of knowing them, mean that these psalms were very different from the parent texts, although stil1 related to them. one of the best ways to begin to understand the complexities Of medieval Christian psalmody rs by analyzing the relationships of Office psalms to their antiphons. Antiphons are sung texts of several kinds: they may consist of a particular psalm verse chosen to comment upon the whole psalm; they may be newly written texts created to link a given
(trans. C. Misrahi; 3d ed.; New York: Forclham Universify Press, 1982) Jean Leclercq discusses the ways in u'hich medieval writers exploitecl textual resonances in their works, appealing to an audience that had vast quantities of the Bible memorized. It ls especially important to remember that the Bible was known primarily through the liturgy throughout the
72

In

The

loue of Learning and tbe Desire.for

Gctd

Middle Ages. 13 For an introduction to the monastic liturgy of the Latin Middle Ages, see especially Leclcrcq. Loue t2[ LearninB.

220

Margot Fassler

psalm to a particular hour of the day, to a feast, or to a season; or they may be either a simple or complex Al1e1uia (these antiphons dominate the liturgy of the Paschal season). Regardless of the style an antiphon might take, each was meant to be sung before and after the intoned text of the entire psalm itself. This way of singing the psalms has long been central to Christian understanding of these poems and is at the heart of many moclern practices as well.1a In addition to this, the custom in many Christian psalmodic practicesand throughout the Latin Middle Ages-was to seal the text of the psalm with the lesser doxology, "Glory to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit, as it was in the beginnlng and will be now and forever. Amen." Thus the texts were sung according to the formula: antiphon, intoned psalm with the cloxology as its final verse, and a repeat of the antiphon.15 Figures 12.1-3 ofler three types of antiphon, a1l of which were used to frame Ps 62.16 The first antiphon employs a verse from the psalm itself; the second is a setting of the word Allelwia; and the third antiphon was created-both tert ancl melody-by Hildegard. By framing the text of the psalm an antiphon transforms it in several ways. The antiphon comments upon the psalm text, transforming its meaning in the process. In figure 12.1, the antiphon for Ps 62 is the first half of verse 8, "Thy right han{ has received me." That the psalm was rendered with this antiphon in the Office of prayer for the clead explains the reason for its selection: it invokes a sense of God's love and acceptance of human souls in the afterlife.

1+ The er.olution of this practicc in the formative centuries of the late antique perioci is a difTicult subject; tu.o views of it are found in the essays in this collection. bv Robert Taft ancl Lry Peter Jeffery. By the tenth century the practice had becorne fairh, stanclardized. although regional dif'fbrences stil1 existed. ]i For a general rntrodtrction to antiphonal psalmocly, see David Hlley, Westerrt Plctincbcrrtt; A Hartdbook (O>Jord: Clarendon. 1993). 16 The Latrn (Gleek) numbcr of the psalm as usecl in Latin liturgical books is gir.en. All translations frorn the \:ulgate Bible are taken from the so-called l)ouay Rheims Version, the OId Testarnent first published by the English College at I)oLray in 1609, and the Nen, Testament b1' the English College at Rheims in 1582. Although it has been n'roditiecl ser.eral times, most substantially by Challoner in thc mid-eighteenth century, its basic character has not been altered. The original translation was made by scholars who knew the Latin litr,rrgy. albeit as rcfbrmed by the various church councils held in Trent in the sixteenth century. I havc used an edition whose copyright was helcl by the John Murphy Company O91q, printed b1, I']. J. Kennedy & Son :in New- Ycrrk Ciry (n.d,). This particular reprint bore the approbation of James Gibbons, Archbishop of Baltimore;John Farley, Archbishop of New

Yrrk; ancl \X/illian-r O'Conne1l, Archbisl-rop of Boston.

Hilclegard a,nd the Dawn Song oJ'Lauds

221

? Me sus-

ce-

pit

-z
dex- te- ra

hl-

a, Do-mi-

ne.

Fig. 12.1. Antiphon, Mode 7. Antipbonale MonasticLLm, 1163.FCx the full text of the psalm, see the outline of Lauds belorl'.

A different character emerlles when the psalm was sung as in the office of Lauds during Iraschal time, with the antiphon a joyful alleluia in mode 8 (.fig.-12.2)

le- lu-

ia al-

le- lu-

al-

le-

lu-

ia al- le- lu- ia al- le- lu- ia al- le-

lu-

ia

al-

le- lu-

ia.

Fig. 72.2. Antiphon, Mode 8. Antipbonale Monasticum, 471.

Hildegard's thircl antiphon for Lauds of the Nativity, or a Marian feast, lrames rhe text in yet a third way, by relating it to a complex of ideas connectecl with a season and with a saint, with reference to hef role in the hlstory of human salvation (fig. 72.3-). Hilclegarcl of Ringen's musical compositions contain ts,'o sets of psalter anriphons, both apparently composed to be sung with psalms at the Office of Lauds. One of these was specifically for the Feast of the 11,000 Virgins; the other, more general and appropriate either for the Christmas season of for Marian feasts, is the subject of this essay,17 Hilclegard's writings reveal that she, who sang Lauds every day, had long contemplated its position in the liturgical day. Indeed, her lively imagination seems especially well attuned to the themes of this morning l'rour of prayer and its incarnational symbolisrn. Analysis of Lauds as an hour of

prayer, and subsequently

of

Hildegard's Marian antiphons

for

Lauds,

demonstrares a central tr-uth about Christian psalmody in the Middle Ages: the psalms were primarily known as heard rather than as read phenomena.

17 The liturgical poetry of Hildegard of Bingen has becn eclited. translated. ancl ccrmmentecl upon by Barbara Newman tn Symphctnia LS.ympbonl' oJ-tbe Harntony' of Celestial Reuelationsl (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell Universily Pless, 1998)r fi-rrrl'rcr discr-rssion appeafs in the second of her cssays containecl in Voice o.f tbe Liuing Ligbt, 176-92: "Poet: 'lVhere the Living Maiesty Utters Mysteries."'

222

Margot Fassler

pro-ces-

srt

fac- hr-

t^

di*

gi- ti

de-

ta

ad

i-

ma-gi--nemde-

mlx-

ti

san-gui-

nis

per per-

e- gn- na- tl-

G-

nem ca-

sus

a-

e- le- men- ta

,-'
su-sce-

pts

runt

gau-

di-

a vi-

te

lau-da- bi- lis

Ma- ri-

ce-

lo

ru- ti-laa-te

Fig. 72.). W'iesbaden, Hessian State Library, 2, f . 467r (retaining medieval spellings; translated below, p.227)

Hildegard takes this even fufiher: singing makes an indwelling of the Logos possible, both literally and figuratively. Even medieval authors of written commentaries surely "heard" the familiar musical settings of the words in their minds as they wrote. In the Middle Ages, monastic choirs were usually divided into two parts, singing the psalms in alteration. In monastic and cathedral practice, even at the present time, the halves of the choir are seated so as to watch each other as they sing. This practice offers yet another dimension to the texts and the praise they embody, making antiphonal singing the most profoundly communal of all modes oF rendering the psalms. The members of monastic communities were and are bound together on the breath of their antiphonal psalmody. The composer of antiphon texts and music was a creator of commentary as well, in this case, of exegesis of the texts of the psalter. Of all commentaries, those sung in community were the most influential, shaping mlnds, hearts, and human relationships in conjunction with the psalm texts

Hildegard and tbe Dawn Song of Lauds

))4

themselves. Hildegard uses a reference to Rev L4:3 to describe the power

of monastic song, music that finds a parallel in the coufi of the Lamb. In her chapter on religiotts orders in Sciuias, she offers this description:
iour living creatures and the ancients." lWhat does this
"And they sang, as it were, a new song before the throne, and before the
mean?

In

those

faithful ones who embrace chastity for a good purPose and preserve their virginity unstained for love ol God, good will bursts fofih wonderfully in praise of their Creator. How? In the dawn-light of virginity, which always surounds the Son of God, steadfast praise is hidden; no worldly office and no tie of 1aw can resist it, and it sings in the voice of exultation a celestial song to the glory of God. (.Sciuias 2.5.8) PseruooY AND THE Onncn oF
LAUDS

Lauds is one of the major hours of prayer in the Divine Office'tg It had a central role to play in monastic rites as the time for the greeting of dawn and the opening of a new day. For Christian monks and nuns, it was a time to contemplate the transition between death and 1ife, between temporal existence and eternity, and for heralding the coming of the Messiah into human flesh. Some monastic rules and customafies from the medieval period have a specific instruction about waiting for the coming of dawn before beginning Lauds-Benedict states that matutinl (which is usually rendered "Lauds") incipiente luce agehdi sunt, that is, "is to be performed at daybreak" (Rule 8:4). The influential ninth-century liturgical commentator Amalarius of Metz interprets Lauds in tefms of change and the new creation.i9 The Rule of Saint Benedict includes two chapters concerning Lauds, listing the psalms to be rendered during this, the monastic dawn song.

18 The background of this hour of prayer in the Christian East is found in Robert Taft, TLte Liturgt of tbe Hours in East and West (2d ed.; Collegevi1le, Minn.: Litr-rrgical Press, 7993i). Taft calls the Office of Lauds "Matins" throughout most of his study-for the problems posed by terminology see the note on p.77 in Taft. The term "Laucls" came to be used for the morning office because of the importance of the so-cal1ed Laudate psalms within it (Pss 148-150). The term was favored only in the -West, after the time of the Rule of Saint Benedict, who calls Lauds "Matins" and the Night Office either "Vigils" or "Nocturns." Contemporary scholars who work with the Latin rite of the Middle Ages commonly call the morning office "Lauds" and the office of prayer in the middle of the night "Matins," and this is the practice that will be followed in this essay. 19 See his Liber officialis 4.70, ii opera liturgica omnia (.ed. J. M. Hanssens;

Stucli

e Testi 138-40;

Vatican City: Biblioteca apostolica vaticana,7948-50),

2:448-54.

224

Margot Fassler
Chapter 72. Hout the Morring OlJice is tct Be Said. The Morning Officc on Sunday shall begin with Psalm 66 r'ecited straight through s'ithout an antiphon. After that let Psalm 50 be said s,'ith Alleluia, thc Psaln-n 117 and 62, the Canticrle of Rlessing ancl the }'sa1ms of praise; then a lesson fiom the Apocalypse to be lecited by hean, dre responsory, the Ambrosian hymn, the verse. the canticle lrom tl-re Gospel book, the litany and so the end. Chapter 13. Hou the Morning OfJice Is to Be Said on Weekdalts On w'eekdays the Molning Office shall be celcbrated as fo11ows. Let Psalm 66 be saicl without an antiphon and somcwhat slow'ly, as on Sunday, in order that all may be in time for Psalm 50, lvhich is to be saicl with an antiphon. After that let two other Psalms be said accorcling to custom, namely: on Monday Psalms 5 and 35, on Tuesday Psalms 12 tnd 56, on lWednesday Psalms 63 and 64. on Thursclay Psalms 87 and 89, on Friday Psalms 75 and 91, and on Saturday Psalm 142 and the canticle from Deuteronomy, rl.l-rich is divided into t\\ro sections each termin:rted by a "Glory bc to the Father." Brit on the other days 1et there bc a canticle fron-r the Prophets, each on its ovnn day as chantecl by thc Roman church. Next follow'thc Psalms of praisc, then a lesson of tl-re Apostle to he recited from memory, the responsory, the Ambrosian hymn. the verse, the canticle from the Gospel book, t1-re litany, and so the enc1.

Thus Szrint Benedict piovided for two variable psalms and a canticle to be sung each morning between the unchanging psalms, that is, Ps 66 ancl the penitential Ps 50 at the opening, and the ioyfr-rl "Lauclate" psalms, 148-150. sLlnSI as a groLlp, 16 6ls5g.-zo The order as set out in table 1,2 t created a rhyhm of praiseful supplication, slowiy turning into ecstatic joy as the skies fi1led with the lig1"rt of day, and the prophetic voices of varying canticles remindecl the worshipers of Gocl's promises to his people. This s-eekl1, plan. in u,'hich the changing elements of each day were bracketed bv llxed texts. offered the cotnmunity both consistency and change' Anotliel set of psalms, as displayed in table 12.2, came to have special prominence. To underscore its festive ancl joyfi-rl character, the Paschal season was nrarked not onh'bv alleluiatic antiphons but also by a festive set of psalms for Sundal's. In tin're this cursus for the Lauds psalmody of Sundays in Paschal time \-as adaptecl for feasts of high rank in many uses, inciuding the Benedictine. Table 12.J gir-es the psalms of this lestive series in a translation made frorn rhe vulgate Bible and framed by a set of Lauds antiphons q,,ritten by Hildegard of Bingen. To pror,lde their context, other parts of the

20 N{ore cletailecl discussion is louncl in Natl.ran N1itchell, appendk 3. "The Liturgical Cocle in the Rule of Renedict." in Fry, RB 1980, 37947'1. The translation of chapters 12 and 13 above is by Leonard J. Doylc. st. Beneclict's Rule fol Monrsterics

(Col1egeville, Minn. : Liturgrcal I']r'ess, 19'18).

Hildegard and tbe Dawn Song of Lauds

))\

Table 12.1. Lauds Psalms for the'Week, accorcling to the Benedictine Use (Vulgate Psalm numbers)

Sunday Monday
Tuesday
Thursday

66 66 66 66 66 66

50 50 50 50 50 50

177 535
4t

62

Dan 3:57-88 and Isa 72:1-6

56

148-150 148-150 148-150 148-150 148-150 148-150 148-150

)()
64
IJ9

Tob

rwednesday 66

63
87 7i 742

Friday

91.

Saturday

i0

Deut 32:7-27

13:1-10 2:1-10 Exod 15:1-19 Hab 3:1-19 Detrt 32:22-52

1 Kgs

Table 12.2. Lauds Psalms for Sundays in Paschal Time and for Other Highly Ranked Feasts
66

o)

99

62

Dan 3:57-88 and

56

148-150

service are indicated as well. As on all Sunclays in the year, the canticle was the Song of the Three Boys in the Fiery Furnace (the so-called Benedicite,

named from its Latin incipitzt) as found in the Latin text of the hook of Daniel. In this festal cursus the two opening psalms prescribed by fhe Rule of Benedict for Sundays were feplaced with the rwo opening psalms ()f the Roman office of Lauds.22 This set of Sunday psalms, with the Benedicite in fourth place, inspired many sets of antlphons for maior feasts of the temporal and sanctoral cycles. .Jrhen one studies groups of antiphons from the Middle Ages, those for Lauds are consistently stabie irom region to region, the nature of the psalmody apparentiy promoting fixity in the accompanying antiphon sets as we1l.23 These pieces could be adopted for Vespers as

For discussion of the use of this text in the office, see Mitchel1, "Liturgical Code," 403-4; ancl Ruth Steiner, "Antiphons fbr the Benedicite at Lauds," Journal of tbe Plainsong and Merliaeual Music Socieb) 7 (.7984'): 7-17. 22 For comparison of the reconstructed psalmody of the primitive Roman Office to that of the Rule of Saint Benedict, see Taft, Liturgl of the Hours,73040' 23 The classic reference tool for the study of antiphon and responsory texts from the Latin Midclle Ages is Ren6-Jean Hesbert's monumental Corpus antipbonaliLtm officii (Rerum ecclesiasticarum documenta, Series maior, Fontes 7-12; Rome: Herder, 1963-7r, now to be supplemented by the several volumes indered through the Cantus proiect, originatecl by Ruth Steiner at the Catholic University of America, and available online. For discussion of Cantus, see Fassler and Baltzer, Diuine Olfice in tbe Ldtin Midctle Ages, 146-60.
21

226

Margot Fassler

well. Vespers consists of four psalms, with no canticle, and when a set of antiphons was adopted the fourth antiphon (which framed the canticle at
Lauds) was the one omitted. It is noteworthy that the Rule requires the recita-

tion by heart of a verse of the book of Revelation for Lauds on Sundays, a practice adopted for major feasts in some uses as well. Through this intoned text the worshiper is reminded that the incarnational powers of transformation point toward the second coming and the apocalltic end of time.
Table 72.3. The psalms of Lauds for Sundays in Paschal Time and lor Highly Ranked Feasts. (The antiphons are those composed by Hildegard for a feast of the Virgin Mary. The psalms are divided into lines according to the chanted practice, with a pause at the asterisk. In this practice the lines are sung by alternate choirs.)
Lauds Psalm 66 [Deus misereatur, sLtflg to a tone and without an antiphon] May God have mercy on us, and bless us: * may he cause the light of his countenance to shine upon us, and may he have mercy on us. That we may know thy way upon earth: * thy salvation ln a1l nations. Let people confess to thee, O God: * let all people give praise to thee. Let the nations be glad and rejoice: * for thou judgest the people with justice, and direclesrthe nations upon eafih-

Let the people, O God, confess to thee: let all the people give praise to thee: * the earth hath yielded her fruit. May God, our God bless us, may God bless us: * and all the ends ol the eafih fear him.

Antiphon 1: Today a closed gate has opened to us, that which the serpent choked in a woman. So the flower from the Virgin Mary gleams in the dawn.
Psalm 92 [Dominus regnauit) The Lord hath reigned, he is clothed with beauty: * the Lord is clothed with strength and hath girded himself. For he hath established the world * which sha1l not be moved. Thy throne is prepared from of old: * thou art from everlasting. The floods have lifted up, O Lord, * the floods have lifted up their vorce. The floods have lifted up their waves, * with the noise of many waters. \Tonderful are the surges ol the sea: * wonderful is the Lord on high. Thy testimonies are become exceedingly credible: * holiness becometh thy house, O Lord, unto length of days. Doxology Repeat of Antiphon 1

Antiphon 2: Because a woman constructed death, a bright virgin demolished it.

Therelore the supreme blessing comes in the form of a woman beyond all creation: for God became man in the Virgin, most sweet and blessed.

Hildegard and tbe Dawn Song of Lauds

221

Sing

jofully to God, all the earth. * Come in before his presence with
exceeding great joy.

Psalm 99 ffubilate Deo)

Know ye that the Lord he is God: * he made us, and not we ourselves. 'We are his people and the sheep of his pasture. * Go ye into his gates with praise, into his courts with hymns: and give glory to him. Praise ye his name: for the Lord is sweet, his mercy endureth forever, * and hls truth to generation and generation. Doxology Repeat of Antiphon 2 Antiphon 3: While the handiwork of God's fingeq formed after the image of God, was born of the mingling of blood though the exile of Adam's fall, the elements received joy in you, O Mary all-praised, as heaven biushed and resounded in praise. Oh God, my God, * to thee do I watch at break of day. For thee my soul hath thirsted; * for thee my flesh, O how many ways! In a desert land, and where there is no way, and no water: * so in the sanctuary have I come before thee, to see thy power and thy glory. For thy mercy is better than lives: * thee my lips shall praise. Thus will I bless thee al1 my life long: * and in thy name I will lift up my
Let my soul be filled as with marrow and fatness: * and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful 1ips. If I have remembered thee upon my bed, I will meditate on thee in the morning: * because thou hast been my helper.
hands. Psalm 62 [Deus Deus Meus)

And I will rejoice under the covert of thy wings: my soul hath stuck close to thee: * thy right hand hath received me. But they have sought my soul in vain, they shall go into the lower parts of the earth: * They shall be delivered into the hands of the sword, they shall be the portions of foxes. But the king sha1l rejoice in God, al1 they shall be praised that swear by him: * because the mouth is stopped oi them that speak wicked
things.

Doxology Repeat of Antiphon

Antiphon 4: While the unhappy parents were blushing at their offspring, walking in the exile of the fal1, then you cry out with a clear voice, lifting humankind in this way from that malicious fa11.
Song of the Three Boys lBenedicite: Dan 3: 57-38 and 561 ye works of the Lord, bless the Lord: * praise and exalt him above all

A11

O ye angels of the Lord, bless the Lord: * praise and exalt him above

lor
for

ever. ever.

a1l

228

Margot Fassler
O ye heavens, bless the Lord: * praise and exalt him above al1 for ever. O all ye waters that are above the heavens, bless the Lord: * praise and exalt him above all for ever. O all ye powers of the Lord, bless the Lord: * praise and exalt him above all for ever. O ye sun and moon, bless the Lord: * praise and exalt him above all lor O ye stars of heaven, bless the Lord: * praise and exalt him above all for O every shower and dew, bless ye the Lord: * praise and exalt him above
a1l

ever.

evef.

O all ye spirits of God, bless the Lord: * praise and exalt him above all lor

for

ever.

O ye fire and heat, bless the Lord: * praise and exalt him above all lor O ye cold and heat, bless the Lord: * praise and exalt him above all for
O ye dews and hoar frosts, bless the Lord: * praise and exalt him above all for ever. O ye frost and cold, bless the Lord: * praise and exalt him above al1 lor
evef.
ever.

ever.

O ye ice and snow, bless the Lord: * praise and exalt him above all for ,' \.eVef.
O ye nights and days, bless the Lord: * praise and exalt him above all for O ye light and darkness, bless the Lord: * praise and exalt him above
CVCI.
a1l

ever.

O ye light and darkness, bless the Lord: * praise and exait him above all for ever. O ye lightnings and clouds, bless the Lord: *praise and exalt him above
a1l

for

ever.

1et

the eafih bless the Lord: * 1et it praise and exalt him above all lor
hi11s,

lor

ever.

ever.

O ye mountains and
forever.

bless the Lord: * praise and exalt him above all

O all ye things that spring up in the earth, bless the Lord: * praise and
exalt him above all for ever. O ye fountains, bless the Lord: * praise and exalt him above all for ever. O ye seas and rivers, bless the Lord: * praise and exalt him above all for * O ye whales, and all that move in the waters, bless the Lord: praise and him above a1l lor ever. exalt O all ye fowls of the air, bless the Lord: * praise ancl exalt him above all
ever.

for ever. O
al1

ye beasts and cattle, bless the Lord: * praise and exalt him above all
ever.

O ye sons of men, bless the Lord: * praise and exalt him above all for ever.

for

Hildegarcl ancl tbe Dawn Song oJ'Lauds

O let Israel bless the Lord: * 1et them praise and exalt him above all for ever'. O ye priests of the Lord, bless the Lord: '' praise and exalt hin-r above all O ye seryants of the Lord, bless the Lord: * praise and exalt him above

) )(:)

for for

ever.
a1l

O Ananias, Azarras, and Misael, bless ye the Lord: * praise and exalt him above all forever. For he hath delivered us from he1l, and saved us out of the hand of death, * and clelivered us out of the midst of the burning flame, and saved us out of the mldst of the fire. Blessed art thou in the lirmament of heaven: * and wofthy of praise and glorious lbrer er. Repeat of Antiphon ,1

O ye spirits and souls of the just, bless the Lord: * praise and exalt him above a1l for ever. O ye holy and humble ol hean, bless the Lord: * praise and exalt him above all for ever.

ever.

Antiphon 5: O leafy branch, standing in your nobility as the dawn breaks: Now rejoice and be g1ad, and deign to set Lrs fiail ones free from our bad habits, and
strctr

h lortlt yorrr

han.1

l(

) rai\( r.r\ up.

Praise Praise Praise Praise

Psalms of Praise [Psalms 14f]-1501 ye the Lord fiom the heavens: * praise ye hlm in the high places. ye him, al1 his angels: * praise ye him, alt his.hosts. ye hin'r, O sun and moon: * praise him, a1l ye stars and light. him, ye heavens of heavens: * and 1et al1 the waters that are above the heavens praise the name of the Lord.
t1-rey

For he spoke , and

He hath established them for ever, and for ages of ages: * he hath made a decree, and it shall not pass away. Praise tl-re Lord from the eafih. * ye dragons, and all ye deeps: Fire, hail, snow, ice, stormy winds, * which fu1fi1 his word: Mountains and all hi1ls, * fruitful trees and al1 cedars: Beasts and a1l cattle: + serpents and feathered fowls: Kings of the earth and al1 people: * princes and a1l juclges of the ear-th: Young men and maidens: let the o1d with the younger, praise the name of the Lord. * F'or his name alone is exalted. The praise of him is above heaven and earth: * :lnd he hath exalted the horn of his people. A hymn to all his saints: * to the children of Israel, a people apploaching to him. AllclLria.
ll']sa1m 1491 saints.

were made: * he commanded, and they werc created.

Sing ye to the Lord a new canticle: * 1et his praise be in the church of the

Let Israel rejoice in him that made him: * and 1et the children of Sion be joyitrl in thcir king.

230

Margot Fassler
Let them praise his name in choir: * let them sing to him with the timbrel and the psaltery. For the Lord is well pleased with his people: * and he will exalt the meek unto salvation. The saints shall rejoice in g1ory: . they shall be joyful in their beds. The high praises of God shall be in their mouth: * and two-edged swords in their hands: To execute vengeance upon the nations, * chastisements among the people: To bind their kings with fetters, * and their nobles with manacles of iron.

To execute upon them the judgment that is written: * this glory is to all

his saints. Alleluia. lPsalm 150] Praise ye the Lord in his holy places: * praise ye him in the firmament of his power, Praise ye him for his mighry acts: * praise ye him according to the multitude of his greatness. Praise him with sound of trumpets: * praise him with psaltery and harp. Praise him with timbrel and choir: * praise him with strings and organs. Praise him on high sounding cymbals: praise him on cymbals of joy: . 1et every spirit praise the Lord. Alleluia.
Repeat of Antiphon
5

Chapter [Rev 7:12]: Bnediction, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, honour, and power, and strength to our God for ever and ever. Amen. Response: Thanks be to God. Short Responsory

Hymn Antiphon
Canticle of Zachariah (Luke 1:68-79)
Repeat of Antiphon

Kyrie eleison
Pater Noster Prayer

Litany
Prayer

ManiaN Psertsn ANTHoNS Couposeo By HTLDEGARD oF

COHERENCE OF THE GROUP

BTNGEN

Besides her sung play Ordo Vittutunt, Hildegard composed over seventy chants, and the great majority of these are works for the Divine

Hildegard and tbe Dawn Song of Lauds

231

Office. The Office was doubly important to Hildegard: first, it was less fixed in its elements than was the Mass and allowed more opportuniry for expansion, for exerting the individual voice of a given church or community, or even of an individual composer; second, it was managed by the women themselves, without the necessity of male superwision and celebration, as was the case with the Mass liturgy. Hildegard's music for the Office invokes the sounds appropriate for a reformed church at the end of time; it is chant for an apocalyptic new age, one that Hildegard
believed was imminent. Her most favored set of themes unfolds within the set of antiphons composed for the psalms of Lauds, and appropriate for this Office when sung during feasts at Christmastide, and for feasts celebrating the Incarnation of Jesus (March 25) and the Nativity of the Virgin Mary (September 8). Through the framing power of the antiphon texts, which have the Virgin Mary and the incarnational act as their centerpiece, the psalms and the canticle for the day become texts about the fall of

humankind and the act of redemption made possible through Mary's flesh, the reversal of Eve's carnal disobedience. The discussion that follows refers to the antiphon texts, and the psalms they may have been written for, as translated in table 12.3 above. n(/e should note that the psalms joined with these antiphons are the most likely ones: as the choice is not specified in the sources of Hildegard's music, the scholar must offer this arrangement only as most plausible. Because Lauds antiphons were also strng with the psalms of Vespers, flexibility was built in. Indeed, another set of psalms with these same antiphons would beget other valid interpretations. The antiphons do stand together as a group, however, and advance a particular set of themes, as is often the case with a newly composed set of antiphons in
the medievai practice. Meanings, then, were made in several ways in monastic psalmody: by the way antiphons interacted with each other; by the way they framed the particular psalm texts with which they were associated (as well as with other psalm and canticle texts sung during the same day or hour);

by the way the antiphons and psalm texts were tied to themes found elsewhere in the iiturgy, especially as found in the Office readings or in the Mass liturgy; and by the overarching character of particular hours, feast days, and seasons. The complexity of monastic antiphonal psalmody made it a well from which individuals could drink all their
lives, always finding new ideas and sources of inspiration no matter how familiar the texts became over the course of time. The psalms were made alive to an ever-changing range of interpretations through their varied modes oi liturgical organizalion. The first way Hildegard's antiphons make sense is as a group of

poetic texts, especially as a group composed specifically for Lauds.

)1)

Margot Fassler

These five antiphons are found as a group only in one of the two major sources of Hildegard's compositions, a manuscript found today in Den-

dermonde, Belgium (a work that has been published in facsimile).24 This source was prepared at Hildegard's own monastery, the Rupertsberg, in around 71.75.It- was most likely compiled under the composer's supervision and sent to the monks of Villers at the back of her Book of Life's Merits. Because the music was otherwise unknown to the monks, it had to be written in heightened neumes, and these are placed on lines as we11.25 Chant manuscripts from the region in Hildegard's time were usually provided with unheightened neumes, which required knowing the music by memory. The presence of these melodies as a group in this early source gives them a mark of authenticity. A similar set, that written for the Feast of 11,000 Virgins, is labeled "In Matlrtinis Laudibus," a common appellation for Lauds in manuscripts from Hildegard's time and region. As can be seen in the poetic texts (provided in Barbara Newman's translation in table 1,2.3), the poems abound with dawn imagery and offer two views of the light: the original primordial dawn of Eden, and the new dawn heralded by the coming of the blessed Virgin Mary, the flower who "gleams in the dawn." The fire in between these two dawns is not named in the lyrics, but it is,Ihe flaming sword of the angel who guards the gate of Eden, keeping th'e children of Eve from their original home: "And he cast or.lt Adam; and piaced before the paradise of pleasure Cherubims, and a flaming sword, turning every wayl to keep the way of the tree of life" (.Gen 3:24), The luminous brilliance of the new light is expressed in the second antiphon as wel1, for Mary is clara uirgo, "the bright virgin." Singers are advised in this chant to find the highest blessing infemineaforma, "in the form of a woman," for God chose her to create a new order of things and restore the lirst dawn in a new age. Motives of light and new creation continue in the third antiphon, "Cum processit," as the finger of God's hand is seen making his image; but, after the fall, through a mingling of blood. Mary offers a new creation, she who is th,e laudabilis from whom the sky grows red and sounds laudibus, "with praises." The words the poet uses invoke the hour of Lauds and the splendor of the dawn, not only of the day, but of a new age. In the fourth antiphon, as Adam and Eve's offspring rush headlong into hell, Mary's high

24 Peter van Poucke, ed., Symphonia harmoniae caelestium reuelationum (Peer, Belgium: Alamire, 1991). 25 For discussion of the notation ol the surwiving music manuscripts, see Michael Klaper's commentary to his facsimile edition of the Riesencodex in Lieder (.\Yiesbaden: Reichert, 1998).

Hildegard ancl. tbe Dawn Song of Lauds

233

voice (clara uoce) calls them back from the malicious fall. Here Hildegard uses the force of music to paint the words in a powerfully dramatic way, caprtalizing upon her highly melismatic musicai style and her penchant for rapid register change. As can be seen in figure 12.4, the antiphon contains tlvo setting of the word "fa11." The first time the word occurs, the music does indeed fall, and rapidly, almost an octave, from C to the D below. In the next phrase, Hildegard paints the high voice of Mary's cry with a glorious melisma that rises to the E above C, the highest point of the entire chant. In the Middle Ages cantors could pitch a particular piece wherever it was most comfortably sung, as long as the whole was kept consistenf and the relationships established by the mode were preserved. A particular magnificence was achieved in a series of antiphons or other pieces that

worked their way through the entire set of musical modes, a practice Hildegard did not adapt for any of her compositions. Regardless of where this particular antiphon and its psalm were pitched, the extreme highs and Iows used in the word painting would have been evident to singers and listeners alike. Hildegard's cadences are often marked by dramatic melismas; here she exploits her own convention. In the fifth antiphon of the set, "O frondens virga," the image of Christ as a flower from Mary (found in antiphon 1) returns. Here Mary is the verdant branch producing the flower "just as the dawn breaks." The creating finger of the triune God has reached forth again through Mary's own extended hand, transforming humans through a"nevs procreative action. This final antiphon is the most stabie musically of the entire set, and indeed it was not included with the other four in the later complete manuscript containing Hildegard's music, 'Wiesbaden, Landesbibliotbek, Hs.2, the so-

prc- ce- den-tes

in

per

gn- na-ti-

o-

li- ci-

o- so

ca-

SU

Fig. L2.4. rWiesbaden, Hessian State Library, 2, f . 467r Two settlngs of "fa11" lrom "Cum erubuerint"

234

Ma.rgot Fassler

called Reisencodex.26 The antiphon is easy to sing, and the command it offers to praise and rejoice is forcefully expressed.2T The entire group of poems has moved creation through three states and stockpiled a series of images evoking newness: the finger of God and the hand of the Virgln; the lucent flower of the newborn Messiah; the green branch sustaining it; the blushing, glowing dawn which is first to see him and the miracle of his birth; and the praising voice of the singers who greet a remade universe and embrace the joy of rebirth in a new day. Hildegard, a nun who practiced medicine and wrote medical treatises, had witnessed many births and understood fu11 well the effects birthing has upon the female body.zs These Marian poems proclaim a body that remains unspoiled and unwounded as it bears a child. It is not difficult to imagine how miraculous and wonderful this idea would have been for women in the medieval period, when death by childbirth was so common. The rigors of monastic life were life-saving for the w-omen who chose them, and Hildegard writes at length about the slavery of marriage in contrast with the freedom of the cloister.29 Her Mariology must be understood against the backdrop of this social history, as well as, of course, its position within a venerable theological tradition.
THE ANTIPHONS \T'ITH THE'P.SALMS

Antiphons, Hildegard's or any, were never meant to be read or sung as free-standing poems but were always linked to a series of psalms. \(hen we replace them in the context of the psalms their ability to transform the texts through Christian commentary becomes clear. In the Benedictine use, Laucls for a major feast day such as Christmas, or a Marian feast, began with Ps 66, intoned without an antiphon. As can be seen in the translation from the Vulgate, the Psalm was well chosen to open Lauds, or any Office of morning prayer. NTith its unadorned plea that God let his light shine upon

26

Now available in facsimile edition with commentary in German and in Eng-

lish.
27 Hildegard's music has been edited and transcribed by Prudentiana Barth, M. Immaculata Ritscher, andJosef Schmidt-Gorg, Lieder (Salzburg: Mue11er, 1969). 28 Selections from Hildegard's medical treatises have recently appeared in translation by Margret Berger in Hildegard of Bingen: On Natural Pbilosopby and MecJicine (Cambridge; Rochester, N.Y.: Brewer, 1999). For discttssion of Hildegard's medical writings, see the introductory article by Berger; and Florence Eliza Glaze, "Medical rVriter: 'Behold the Human Creature,"' in Newman, Voice of tbe Liuing

Ligbt,72548. 29 A variety of topics concerning medieval women and social conditions, with updated bibliographies, is covered in Linda E. Mitchell, ed., Women in Medieual
'Western

European Culture (New York: Garland, 1999).

Hildegard and tbe Daun Song of Lauds

215

the worshipers as they both confess their weaknesses and offer gifts of praise, Ps 65 established the tone of the entire day and set up the series of psalms to foilow, as well as their antiphons. Its stark, unadorned state made this psalm a contrast with the others, each of which was sung with
an antiphon.

Antiphon 1, when sung with Ps 92, reworks the incarnation, reshaping the verses of the text through allusion to Mary and the virgin birth. In this new guise, the "Lord clothed with beauty" is the flower gleaming in the dawn, the Christ who has come clothed with human flesh'3o The throne prepared from of old is the Virgin Mary, who becomes here the sedes sapientiae, the throne of wisdom.31 This was an archaic theme, and one that achieved visualization in the late antique period, but was especially popular in the twelfth century. Hildegard used the image of the secles sapiemtiae in her depiction of the pillar of the humanity of the Savior, a Jesse tree made from Jacob's 1adder.32 In this depiction, several of the virtues are shown in sed.es position to indicate their power to invoke goodness, to stimulate rebirth through God's grace. The interpretation of the psalm in a Marian context also stimulated the learned imagination with the sounds of sea, for Mary is "the star of the sea" in numerous Christian liturgical and exegetical texts, most famously in the hymn "Ave Maris stella," one of the best known and most beloved of all Christian songs. The final verse of Ps 92 includes the words "holiness becomes thy house," and this too would resonate with a Marian interpretation of the psalm text, Mary being the most colrlmon Christian type for the church, the house of the Lord.33 Antiphon 2, vr'ith its emphasis upon joyful acknowledgement of creative powers, creates a christoiogical context for Ps 99, a powerful text

The first verse of Ps 92, Dominus regnauit, was also sung as the verse of the the second Mass on Christmas day. Liturgical associations such as this, and others supplied in this essay, would have been present in the minds of all religious people w-ho sang this psalm at Lauds, and especially at Christmastide. 31 Verse 2 of Ps !2, referring to "sedes tua," was sung in the Mass of the Roman rite as the Offerlory for the second Mass of Christmas. 32 For Hildegard's utilization of the Jesse tree in the Sciuias and in her liturgical poetry, see Fassler, "Composer and Dramatist." 33 During the Middle Ages, in the region in which Hildegard lived, this verse \\'as sung as the Invitatory for the Olfice of the Feast of the Dedication of the Church. For discussion of Hildegard's use of Mary as a type of the church and the irnpor30 A11eh-ria fcrr

tance

'materia aurea' in der Kirche nach Hildegard von Bingen," in Hildegard uon Bingen; Prctpbetin durch die Zeiten (ed. e. Forster; Freiburg im Breisgau: Herder, 7997).262-83.

of light imagery in this exegetic complex, see Margot Schmidt,

"Maria:

236

Margot Fassler

associated with Christ's birth and his healing ministry through its use elsewhere in the medieval liturgy. The first two verses of this psalm were employed at Epiphany, as an Alleh"ria verse, and as the Offertory on the Sunday within the Octave. The psalm was also sung on Quinquagesima Sunday, the Sunday before the beginning of Lent, just before the reading of the Gospel, Luke 18:31-43, the story of the blind man of Jericho. In this story Jesus restores the beggar's sight and declares that "your faith has made you whole." The allusions point as well to the third antiphon and tc,r association with another scene of restoring sight, that of John 9, when Jesus made mud of dirt and spittle and applied it to the sightless eyes of a beggar. The connection was made powerfully in the liturgy for Ash \Tednesday in the week following Quinquagesima Sunday; this included three texts from .John 9, two for the Office, and one as the communion text at Mass. Hildegard's antiphon 3 in this set, which was sung with Ps 62, would have worked well with the themes of creation already advanced and complemented the newness of a Christian dawn song. As the antiphon states that the heavens blush and ring in the praise of Mary and the renewal of the elements, the psalm longs for change during a period of waiting "at break of day." Indeed various verses of Ps 62 were themselves used as texts for antiphons at Lauds, both for the daily liturgy and for specific feasts. This psalm, surrounded by Hildegard's
dawn-str-uck Mariological antiphon, brings new water to the thirsty, new hope to the agony of flesh.3a The mud of the new creation is the body of the Virgin. Hildegard's fourth antiphon refers to hell and to the fall, as the Virgin's clarion call summons those in the pit to new hope. In the festive plan for Lauds, this antiphon would have framed the Canticle of the Three Boys in the Fiery Furnace, a canticle customarily interpreted by Christians as referring to hell and the Messiah's ability to save, especially as represented by the Harrowing of He11. In this apocryphal story, which dates back to the late antique period, Christ is said to have clrawn Adam, Eve, and many faithful O1d Testament figures with him to paradise. Verses of the canticie were used in many other places in the liturgy, often as the fourth antiphon of Lauds. The position of the canticle was well established,

3'i The litlrrgy Hildegard knew vu'as doubtless in the sphere of influence of the Abbey of Hirsau. Karlsrube, Badiscbe Landesbibliotbek, Aug. I-X, a late twelfth-century antiphoner that originated in Zwief'alten, has been consulted here as a readily available and indexed source whose use was close to that of Hildegard; see The Zwiefalten Antipboner; A Cantus Inclex (intro. by Hafimut Mo1ler; Musicological Studies 55/5; Ottawa: Institute of Mediaeval Music, 1996). The liturgical use of Hildegard is the subject of a paper now in prollress.

Hildegard ancl the Dawn Song

c-tJ'Lauds

)1a

ancl Hildegard wrote an antiphon that complemented the magnificent song

by putting Mary's female voice in the pit, calling to the three boys who represent all humankincl.

The last antiphon of the set as it appears in the earliest source of Hildegard's compositions was undoubtedly sung with the Laudate Psalms (1,18-150), the three psalms that always closed the service of Lauds and that were among the most prominent of all psalms in the medieval monas-

tic use. As might be expected with such an important group,

several verses were selected for use as the fifth antiphon of Laudes, in a variety of f'erial and festir.e sets of Lauds antiphons. The medieval Latin rite, with some variations, contains verses of these three psalms sung as antiphons at Lauds for the Common of Martyrs, Septuagesima, Sexagesima, and Quinquagesima Sundays, for the feast of Michael the Archangel, and for the Votive Office for Angels. In many regions, verses from these psalms were employed for the first, second, third, and fourth Sundays in Lent and fbr the Feast of A11 Saints; selected verses from tliese psaims commonly fbrmed the texts of the fifth antiphon at Lauds for feriai days as we11, for all clays of the week, including Saturday. To the medieval mind, the Lau-

date Psalms were themselves a dawn song, and the opening of

tic rrlar beaury.

Hildegard's antiphon 5 locates Mary, the greening bough, as she stands in the splendor of the dawn, the light of which is refracted through her par-

In the second half of Hildegard's antiphon

5,

the'Virgin Mary is askecl

Sion, noli timere, quia cito ueniet sahts tuct ("Re1oice and be glad, daughter of Jerusalen'i: behold yor-rr king w-i11 come to you")-was sllng as an antiphon at Matins for the Second Sunclay of Advent, and in Hildegard's region fbr the Annunciation as we1l. It depends upon Zacharias 9:9: Exsulta satis, filia Sion, iubila, filia./erusalem: Ecce Rex tuus ueniet tibi ("Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Sion, shout for joy O daugher of Jerusalem: Behold thy King rvi11 come to thee... "). Hildegard's liturgical texts commonly trade upon worcls and phrases lound in the texts appropriate to the liturgical occasion she composed for, establishing these new works in the litr-rrgy and yet expanding the imagcqin new clirections. Antiphon 5 oflers a simple example. Tlie phrase gctucle et laetare allows Mary to ofler praise as the daughter of Zion r,r'ho s'e1colnes her Son, w-ho is also her King. She expects him at Adl'ent: she offers her body for his enfleshment at the Annunciation; she greets him at the clawn, blushing, flresh, ancl whole.

to join the praising throng, charged to "rejoice and be glad," gaude et laetare. The words would have brought to practiced mincls an antiphon text that adapted words from the prophet Zacharias (Zechariah). The antiphon text-Gaude et laetare filia. Jerusalen't: ecce Rex tuus ueniet tibi.

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Margot Fassler
CoNcrusroN

Hildegard's liturgical texts and music were conceived in the context of the Divine Office and meant to be sung either in close proximiry with chanted psalms or, in the case of the pieces studied here, directly with a group of specific texts. ritrhen studied with Hildegard's theological writings, the liturgical songs take on new meaning as well. Hildegard ends her treatise Sciuias with a magnificent commentary upon the third of the Laudate Psalms, Ps 150, the text that closed the psalmody of Lauds every day in the monastic liturgy.

Her final words are a warning to all to praise with the words of the but as understood in a Christian messianic sense.35 Hildegard takes us directly to the way Christians have so often understood the Psalms, as Christian texts, translating them into Greek, Latin, and other languages to make them their own, and interpreting them for their own uses. Of course Christians have, in this process, often ignored the meaning of the originals, or worse, even turned them against the faith tradition that owned them first. !7hat are we to do with this? S7hat has Hildegard to do with Jews and Christians in the postmodern world, in the postpsalms, Holocaust world? The end of Sciuias referred to above suggests an answer. In the apocalyptic endof time, Hildegard's hope is that all will join in the virgins' song, all will sing the music that has been the angelic model a1l along. The virgins whose song Hildegard used as a model are a goad, calling us to the higher life that most mortals simply do not have the power and the grace to achieve in the flesh. Clearly she thought that all would conform at the end of time to a Christian view, but her view nonetheless is of a singing of Ps 150, originally a text from the Hebrew Bible. For all its glories Hildegard's tradition was triumphalist: it was a psalmody that too often makes its meaning by celebrating the triumph of one faith tradition over another, of making Christianity work at Judaism's expense. That is the limit of it.

In order to live with each other better, every tradition

problems and the beauties inherent

needs to

acknowledge differences and to understand as fully as possible both the

in the

others. The psalms have

35 "Praise, therefore, praise God, ye blessed hearls, for the miracles God has wrought in the frail earthly reflection of the beauty of the Most High; as He Himself foreshadowed when He first made rVoman from the rib of the man He had

created.

"But let the one who has ears sharp to hear inner meanings ardently love My reflection and pant after My words, and inscribe them in his sor-rl and conscience.
Amen."

Hildegard q.nd tbe Dawn Song of Lauds

ac)

belonged to both Judaism and Christianity for centuries. The new song of

our new millennium will not forget the past that used these texts as swords, but remembering the beauty of the arts that kept the texts alive

and part of both traditions for their use and reuse today is equally important. Hildegard provokes us to remember the worst; she calls us as well to something new.36

36 In a recent document, published since I wrote this essay, the Roman Catholic Church has endorsed the idea that Christian expectation of the messianic second coming and the Jewish expectation of the Messiah are parallel events that can draw the two falths together. There is much in the medieval understanding of the psalms and of the liturgy to endorse this position.