Hildegard+Von+Bingen+2

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 * //Hildegard Von Bingen //**

Early Life:
Hildegard was born into a noble family in Bockelheim, Germany. She was born in the year of 1098, but her exact day of birth is unknown. She was the tenth child of her family, and the custom of the time was to dedicate the tenth child to the church. For this reason, she was educated at the Benedictine cloister of Disibodenberg under priestess Jutta, but she only began to adapt the habits of the Benedictine at 15 years of age.

Hildegard also experienced visions as a child. Visions that were apocalyptic in nature and were always biblical. These visions were kept to herself until adulthood.

Musical / Adult Life:
Hildegard became so successful as a priestess that she succeeded Jutta as a prioress in 1136. After a time, Hildegard and several other nuns left Disibod enberg, hoping to find a new convent. Soon after, they found that new convent at Rupertsberg.

Her visions as a child continued into adulthood, and she eventually went and told someone of these visions. The church got wind of this, however, and assigned a monk to record these visions into writing as Hildegard had them.

Hildegard died on September 17, 1179; around 81 years of age. This was remarkable for such a time, when the life expectancy was barely above 30 to 40 years.

Types of Compositions:
Hildegard was well known for the style of music that was common in this era; Gregorian Chant. She wrote Gregorian Chant for female voices, which wasn't so common for the day. She also wrote poems and plays during her days in the church.

One popular pieces of her work is the Scivias, which was all of her visions recorded into one book. Another work, Ordo Virtutum (Play of Virtues), was a play performed in her own convent. Liber vitae meritorum (Book of Life's Merits) was (obviously) a book containing what she thought was the "merits of life".

This isn't all of her works, and probably a hundred more works of Hildegard are lost to time.