Abstract - Nora Friedman

Using Ellie Hisama’s theory of secondary narratives in her work on Ruth Crawford Seeger, this paper explores the mysticism and art of the 12th century Benedictine Abbess, Hildegard of Bingen. It focuses on the ways in which she was able to attain positions of authority that allowed her to encode meanings of feminine strength into her art, specifically through poetry and music, both consciously and unconsciously. Hildegard lived during a time when papal injunction refused women the right to speak in Church or to write without permission. Her work came to be accepted because she claimed that it was not her own but directly dictated to her by God. As people came to believe that her visions were authentic, she gained power. Hildegard also claimed that she had not been taught to compose music except by God himself. Through analysis of Hildegard’s correspondence, this paper shows how she created a space afforded few women of her time in which to express herself artistically in opposition to the dictates of the Cistercian Reforms. An examination of her morality play, Ordo Virtutum, also reveals the hidden feminine meanings underlying the choices in Hildegard’s musical compositions and proposes that her unusually expansive range celebrated the feminine by utilizing large leaps into “effeminate” ranges, allowing women to explore the fullness of their voices. Furthermore, because the female characters in Ordo stand for the 16 Virtues and Jesus embodies all of these virtues, Hildegard inscribed femininity into the body of Christ. The paper also briefly discusses Hildegard’s artwork, and her depiction of the Church as feminine. This gendered depiction of the Church re-inscribed womanly power into the very construction of Christianity and subversively feminized Christ’s body. Finally, the paper looks at the ways in which Hildegard thought about health in general and her own health in particular. Hildegard suffered from painful migraines. Migraines would frequently accompany her visions, and she wrote that God would not let her rest until she imparted what he had shown her. Often calling herself a “poor little female,” she capitalized upon the paradoxical Christian notion that the meek inherit the earth, to great effect.

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