Un documentar BBC despre Hildegard of Bingen

Link

Hildegard of Bingen - A Feather On The Breath Of God - BBC Radio Documentary

This is a BBC Radio 4 documentary about the 12th Century abbess and Christian mystic, Hildegard of Bingen. A Renaissance woman before the Renaissance had even arrived, Hildegard was a prolific poet, composer and artist - among other things. You'll hear some of her music in the background of this programme. It's sublime and totally original.

The programme was broadcast about 10 years ago. I finally got around to digitizing some of my treasured old cassettes of BBC programmes. This version was recorded from the cassette to a stereo wave file in Adobe Audition and encoded to MP3 @ 192 k/ps. I used some of Audition's filters to clean up the audio a little.

It runs for a little over 40 minutes.

The reader is the British actress Geraldine McKuen.

I hope you enjoy it.


http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/med/hildegarde.html

Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) was a remarkable woman, a "first" in many fields.

At a time when few women wrote, Hildegard, known as "Sybil of the Rhine", produced major works of theology and visionary writings.

When few women were accorded respect, she was consulted by and advised bishops, popes, and kings. She used the curative powers of natural objects for healing, and wrote treatises about natural history and medicinal uses of plants, animals, trees and stones.

She is the first composer whose biography is known. She founded a vibrant convent, where her musical plays were performed. Although not yet canonized, Hildegard has been beatified, and is frequently referred to as St. Hildegard.

Revival of interest in this extraordinary woman of the middle ages was initiated by musicologists and historians of science and religion.

Less fortunately, Hildegard's visions and music had been hijacked by the New Age movement, whose music bears some resemblance to Hildegard's ethereal airs.

Her story is important to all students of medieval history and culture and an inspirational account of an irresisible spirit and vibrant intellect overcoming social, physical, cultural, gender barriers to achieve timeless transcendence.