Melodia et rhetorica: the devotional song repertory of Hildegard of Bingen

Jeffreys, Catherine Mary (2000) Melodia et rhetorica: the devotional song repertory of Hildegard of Bingen. PhD thesis, Faculty of Music, University of Melbourne.

Abstract

A central focus of this thesis is the word-music relationship in the devotional-song-repertory of Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179). Surrounding this focus is an examination of aspects of her life and work that relate to the production of her seventy-seven monophonic songs. This examination commences with a review of biographical sources, collation and discussion of parchment sources of her music, and identification of her music scribes. The theme of Hildegard's music scribes is then developed, including their influence upon the liturgical genres in which her songs are cast and the melodic behaviour of her music. It is argued that, as a result of the rendering of her melodies on the medieval gamut, the surviving sources of her songs represent corruptions of orally produced chant. The word-music relationship in Hildegard's songs is then introduced. Her views on the role of music and her own role as monastic preacher form the basis of an examination of the relationship between rhetoric and her songs. This examination draws on contemporary modes of rhetorical criticism, and an approach which treats her songs as musically articulated rhetorical discourse is developed. A selection of her songs is then examined through this approach, and particular attention is given to songs which preserve unusual melodic behaviours. It is argued that her songs represent iubilatio responses to both the grammatical and rhetorical syntagms of her song texts, and melodic characteristics which suggest traces of her pre-redacted melodies are identified. As a codicil to this study, a critique of 'new' and 'unusual' monastic practices in Germany by Anselm of Havelberg (c.1100-1158) forms a point of departure for discussion of a small number of surviving songs which surrounded the production of Hildegard's music - the five monophonic songs comprising the Epithalamia to the Speculum virginum (c.1140), and a twelfth-century canticle setting emanating from the monastic home of her music scribes. This examination points towards a tradition of 'new' and 'unusual' musical practices in Southern Germany during the twelfth century and provides one possible context for Hildegard's devotional-song repertory.