[策论试帖]圣Hildegard及其音乐浅析
Before the Renaissance of the Middle Age, much music were often anonymous. What is called Gregorian chant was a series of cantus planuses, from different areas for religious rites, which were admitted and compiled by Pope Gregory I during his ruling. However, we can still find music that had definite composers. Hildegard of Bingen was one of the most important people. We can hear many songs that contained graceful words and original melodies from her.
Hildegard was born in a noble family. She was tenth child in her family. All of the family members had religious belief. Two of her brothers were priests and one of her older sister became a nun. When she was 8 years old, Hildegard was sent to the convent in Disibodenberg which was founded by Jutta, the sister of Count Spanheim. 1136, when Jutta died, Hildegard was elected Magistra of the convent.
Hildegard loved music. Early leaders of church often worried that the melodies were too projective that would affect people's attention and understanding of the words. Augustine once said,"Yet when it befalls me to be more moved with the voice than the words sung, I confess to have sinned penally, and then had rather not hear music."(Aurelius Augustine, Confessions, Publisher: Grand Rapids, Oak Harbor 1999, book 10, chapter 33) However, Hildegard did not have that kind of apprehension. Perhaps her belief was so firm and unshakable that it wouldn't be weakened by music. The most important thing was that her opinion about music was totally different from early priests. In 1178, she wrote a letter in defence of singing, saying "it is proper for the body, in harmony with the soul, to use its voice to sing praise to God." If there's no music, words are only empty shells. Only when sung, they are alive since words are bodies and music is spirit. The reason why music is so lofty is that it is sound which can be connected to the most holy sound of the world. The most holy sound is from God and it is the life of every creature.
Among the works of Hildegard, the most eye-catching pieces are 77 songs. These were songs of rites Hildegard composed for her sisters. They were compiled as one collection, named Symphonie armonie celestium revelationum, including antiphons, respons, sequences, hymns, one Kyrie and one Alleluia and so on. These songs have graceful words and are short and terse. The language is simple and pure. The accompaniments were also composed by Hildegard. They didn't continue the chant mode which were already existed. Instead, they were very original. The melodies were varied. There were not only syllabic settings, but melismatic organums and others as well. Sometimes the range of sound was very wide and the melodies were almost impromptu.
In her sequence O ignis spiritus, Hildegard used Dorian, Hypodorian and Phrygian as the main modes. From rehearsal letter A to the end of rehearsal E was Hypodorian. From rehearsal letter F to the end of Q was Dorian. Then, it went back to Hypodorian from letter R until the end of W. From letter X to the end of this piece, because of the E-flat, the melody turned to Phrygian mode. Although there appeared a low C in Dorian and a high D in the second Hypodorian period, the modes were still clear and definite. These can be regarded as departures from the main modes. As I mentioned before, the melodies composed by Hildegard were almost impromptu and hardly observed the rules of chant modes. These factors made the melody more floating and varied.
Because O ignis spiritus was a sequence, its melodic style was syllable style. Every single syllable of the words matched a single note. The syllables of Each pair of phrases are equal to each other and use the same melody. In terms of melodic shape, the peak of the whole piece is the third verse and the lowest point is the beginning of this sequence. Each peak of every verse is almost always in the middle. For example, in verse 1a, the peak is on "vita", the begining of the second phrase. In 1a, "tos" from "fractos" is the peak. 2a, the beginning of the third phrase "cis" is the peak and so on. However, there's still an exception. In verse 5a, the peak is on near the end of this verse instead of being at the beginning of second or third phrase, like others. Also, there are two peaks in verse 5a, one on "per" from "semper" and the other on "enti" from "sapienti".
As we all know, in the Middle Age, nuns would receive different educations from monks. Many monks or priests were great musicians because they received much more higher educations. Hildegard didn't receive special music training, but up to now, people are moved by her music for its deep emotion and its simple and gentle of beauty.
为了西方音乐史课题研究而仓促作的小论文，英文可能不到800字，但是翻译成中文的话，应该有多……以上，那个，英文看不懂的话，偶只有以后慢慢来翻译了，其他看不懂的话……擦汗……= =llllllllllll偶也不晓得怎么办= =
