HILDEGARD OF BINGEN (1098 - 1179): the abbess, poet, philosopher, botanist, historian, composer, visionary and saint, who turned her convent into one of the most enlightened centers of learning in Europe. They called her the Sibyl of the Rhine. Born some time in 1098, died in 1179, she is not only the first composer in recorded history male or female (there are more surviving chants by Hildegard than by any other composer from the entire Middle Ages), she is also known as the mother of natural history in Germany, famous for her medicinal gardens. She founded two abbeys apart from her own. She’s one of the few composers to write the words as well as the music and astonishingly after almost a thousand years almost all of it still survives.
Presented by composer Joan Tower for International Women’s Month in March, written and produced by Charlotte Wilson for WMHT
