Medieval Latin has no exact equivalent of the verb “to perform”; it is a language which does not precisely identify the self-conscious and extrovert activity that we associate with “performing”.
This is suggestive in a number of ways and, as far as the music of Hildegard is concerned, it is easy to understand. Consider the habits of medieval monastic readers: the more spiritual meaning a text was thought to embody, the more they internalised it by a process which they frequently compared to digestion, absorbing the words in tranquility, then ruminating upon them to release the nourishing spiritual senses.
Plainchant was often approached in a similar frame of mind. Ideally, singers were to allow their activity to absorb the whole spirit and body, inducing a state of meditative calm and so intensifying the quality of devotional life. Distractions, such as the intrusion of instrumental decorations or of extrovert vocal practices, were therefore to be avoided. Discretion was the basis of the ideal: voices betraying a poised, attentive spirit dwelling upon the inner meaning of the text, sensitive to musical nuances but never seduced by them.
...A Romantic notion of [Hildegard] as an intensely individual artist striving to establish a new poetic and musical language could easily encourage a do-as-you-please approach to performance, complete with instruments and wayward vocal techniques. But this would be a falsified picture. Hildegard’s writing suggests a quiet mastery that controls ecstasy and shuns delirium, always working within the mainstream of Christian tradition.
Hildegard’s “Cosmic Tree”
Columba aspexit presents a vision of Saint Maximinus as a celebrant at Mass. The imagery and general conception owe much to Ecclesiasticus 50:1-26 (not in the Authorised Version), a celebration of the High Priest, Simon. The Holy Ghost hovers (symbolised by the dove and the lattice. Hildegard explains the latter symbol in the Scivias as the window of Christ’s mercy through which shines the perfect revelation of the New Testament) as Maximinus celebrates; flooded with grace he is a building—Saint Paul’s edifice of the temple which is in the devout heart. God’s love, represented in biblical fashion by the heat of the sun, blazes in the dark sanctuary. The “stone” of Stanza 4 is the altar—these lines are rich in imagery drawn from the liturgy for consecrating and anointing an altar (lapis); as he moves to it in his celebration, Maximinus is like the hart of Psam 41 (42 in the Authorised Version). Stanza 5 turns to the clergy who surround Maximinus in the ceremony. The “Perfume-Makers” (perfume is a metaphor of Divine Grace) are the clerics of Trier: Maximinus was the patron of the Benedictine abbey there and Hildegard probably wrote this sequence for them.
Columba aspexit
per cancellos fenestre
ubi ante faciem eius
sudando sudavit balsamum
de lucido Maximino.
Calor solis exarsit
et in tenebras resplenduit
unde gemma surrexit
in edificatione templi
purissimi cordis benivoli.
Iste turris excelsa,
de ligno Libani et cipresso facta,
iacincto et sardio ornata est,
urbs precellens artes
aliorum artificum.
Ipse velox cervus cucurrit
ad fontem purissime aque
fluentis de fortissimo lapide
qui dulcia aromata irrigavit.
O pigmentarii
qui estis in suavissima viriditate
horotorum regis,
ascendentes in altum
quando sanctum sacrificium
in arietibus perfecistis.
Inter vos fulget hic artifex,
paries templi,
qui desideravit alas aquile,
asculando nutricem Sapientiam
in gloriosa fecunditate Ecclesie.
The dove peered in
through the lattices of the window
where, before its face,
a balm exuded
from incandescent Maximin.
The heat of the sun burned
dazzling into the gloom:
whence a jewel sprang forth
in the building of the temple
of the purest loving heart.
He, the high tower,
constructed of Lebanon wood and cypress,
has been adorned with jacinth and diamonds,
a city excelling the crafts
of other builders.
This swift hart sped
to the fountain of clearest water
flowing from the most powerful stone
which courses with delightful spices.
O Perfume-Makers,
you who are in the sweetest greenness
of the gardens of the King,
ascending on high
when you have completed the holy sacrifice
with the rams.
This builder shines among you,
the wall of the temple,
who longed for the wings of an eagle,
kissing his nurse Wisdom,
in the glorious fecundity of the Church.
