Theology in Music

A blog considering theology as illustrated by Western Art Music

Hildegard von Bingen

  • A stream of blood which cries

    Hildegard von Bingen has featured on this blog before, and is not the first composer to have more than one piece considered. A single vocal line, and possibly an unfinished or incomplete idea, O cruor sanguinis is a short antiphon associated with the crucifixion. The short text reads: O cruor sanguinis qui in alto sonuisti, Read more

  • The dove looked in through the window

    No doubt all readers have been waiting impatiently for this blog’s first mention of Hildegard von Bingen, the Rhineland Abbess famous as an ‘early female composer’. She was not, of course, only or even primarily a composer, but a poet, mystic, theologian, leader, and fierce advocate for what she saw as righteousness and justice. As Read more