Mondays, July 10, 17, 24, 31, 7-9 pm
Course Fee: $60 (payable after registration)
OR: $15 per session (see registration form below)
Sally Mitchell, director
Zomerzang, a community choir that meets during the summer months to sing medieval music, returns in 2023 to its original in-person format to study and sing the music of Hildegard von Bingen.
Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179) was a German Benedictine abbess, writer, philosopher, mystic, visionary, medical writer, and composer. Her music ranges from small-scale chants for liturgical use to larger works, including her morality play, the Ordo Virtutum.
Using both oral transmission and transcriptions we’ll explore some of Hildegard’s smaller works, especially hymns and antiphons. We’ll look at the neumes used in Hildegard’s manuscripts and talk about how they influence our interpretation, and we’ll examine Hildegard’s use of modes.
Hildegard’s songs are unique. Her melodies can rocket upwards through an octave or more in three consecutive notes, and she uses the modal system in a far more flexible way than other contemporary sources of sacred chant.
All singers (both female and male and of all ages) are welcome to experience the music of this extraordinary woman. Music reading ability is not required.
Sally founded Zomerzang in 2019 as a summertime community medieval choir for women. During the pandemic, Zomerzang became an online choir and included pre-recorded instrumental accompaniments. It returns in the summer of 2023 to its original in-person format.
REGISTRATION: