Hildegard of Bingen · Theology

Symphonia: Music as the Echo of Paradise

Hildegard&rsquo;s theology of music: the soul itself is <em>symphonic</em>, and song is no ornament but the soul&rsquo;s deepest act - a recovery of the harmony Adam sang with the angels before the Fall, and a participation, here and now, in the praise of heaven. Her <em>Symphonia</em> and her sung morality play, the <em>Ordo Virtutum</em>, put the doctrine into sound.

What you'll be able to recall

You learned that Hildegard held the soul to be symphonialis (symphonic), that music recalls the paradisal harmony Adam lost in the Fall and lets us share in heaven&rsquo;s praise, that her Symphonia is a large body of soaring liturgical song, and that her Ordo Virtutum is the earliest known morality play - sung throug…

Leads to Boethius.

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