Hildegard Von Bingen's Ordo Virtutum by Michael Gardiner

Author:Michael Gardiner
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor & Francis (CAM)

Ov 3

In Ov 3 the text continues the series of reflections begun in the previous chants; the Patriarchs and Prophets sing; “We are the roots, and you [Virtues] the branches” describing an inverted, reflected symmetry of the tree and its roots. They continue, “the fruits of the living eye, and in that eye we were the shadow.” Note the movement of subject from “we” to “you” and back to “we,” corresponding with the inverted arboreal image, and then the shadow itself, another reflection, in this case, the shadow of God, present only in negative, apophatic form.49

In addition to the fact that it makes textual sense not to disrupt the procession from the verbum dei down to the embodied souls, and individual Anima, it is also important to ask, does the music support the division of a “Prologue” separate from Ov 4–21? I do not believe that it does. The principle reason being that the music of Ov 3, which serves as a mediation between the D-music of Ov 1–2 and the E-music of Ov 4 is an unstable, co-mingled music, hardly the type I would deem adequate to punctuate the conclusion of a section, in much the same way that the harmonic instability of a development section would hardly be adequate to conclude the exposition of a sonata form. Rather it lies in a between space, a musical space of mediation.

The reflections of Ov 3 extend beyond the Patriarchs and the Virtues, as the next line of text makes clear; “[the virtues are the] fruits of the living eye [fructus viventis oculi], and in that eye we are the shadow [et nos umbra in illo fuimus].”50 There is an additional light source, an emanation that shines from without, of which the Patriarchs [and Virtues] are shadows in the living eye. The language is reminiscent of Hildegard’s presentation of herself as a shadow of the living light in her letter to Guibert of Gemloux (Chapter 2); “The light that I see is not local and confined. It is far brighter than a lucent cloud through which the sun shines…. This light I have named ‘the shadow of the Living Light.’” The cloud to which Hildegard refers in her letter, could also be connected to the cloud of Ov 1 and the apophatic light source which causes that cloud to cast a reflection within the living eye.

Hildegard’s responsory O nobilissima viriditas may be helpful in the interpretation of Ov 3.51 This chant for the virgins relates an implicate wholeness with its inverted image of a plant with roots in the sun (O nobilissima viriditas que radicas in sole), creating a bright serenity interior to a sphere/wheel (serenitate luces in rota), which, in turn, is enfolded in divine ministries (tu circumdata es amplexibus divinorum ministeriorum). Admittedly, the image of a positive shadow is enigmatic, but frequently appears in her texts. For example, in her responsory O vos felices radices,52 Hildegard establishes a link between roots and shadows: “O you fortunate roots / with

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