Look up contralto in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Contralto is the deepest female classical singing voice,^[1] with the lowest tessitura,^[2] falling between tenor and mezzo-soprano. It typically ranges between the F below middle C (F₃ in scientific pitch notation) to the second G above middle C (G₅), although at the extremes some voices can reach the E below middle C (E₃) or the second B♭ above middle C (B♭₅).^[1]

Terminology[link]

"Contralto" is meaningful only in reference to classical and operatic singing, as other genres lack a system of vocal categorization comparable to that generally accepted in the classical context. Even within current operatic practice, contraltos are often classed as mezzo-sopranos, because singers in each range can cover for those in the other. When appearing separately, the term "contralto" applies only to female singers; men whose voices fall in the same range or higher are known as "countertenors."^[2] The Italian terms "contralto" and "alto" are not synonymous, the latter technically denoting a specific vocal range in choral singing without regard to factors like tessitura, vocal timbre, vocal facility, and vocal weight.^[3]

Within the category of contraltos are three generally recognized subcategories—coloratura contralto, lyric contralto, and dramatic contralto—that usefully describe the voice type in general terms. Note, however, that they do not always apply with precision to individual singers; some exceptional dramatic contraltos, such as Ernestine Schumann-Heink and Sigrid Onégin, were technically equipped to perform not only heavy, dramatic music by the likes of Wagner but also florid compositions by Donizetti.

Coloratura contralto[link]

Coloratura contraltos—who have light, agile voices ranging very high for the classification and atypically extensive coloratura and high sustaining notes—specialize in florid passages and leaps. Given its deviations from the classification's norms, this voice type is quite rare.

Lyric contralto[link]

A lyric contralto voice is lighter than a dramatic contralto but not capable of the ornamentation and leaps of a coloratura contralto. This class of contralto, lighter in timbre than the others, is the most common today and usually ranges from the G below middle C (G₃) to the G two octaves above middle C (G₅).

Dramatic contralto[link]

The dramatic is the deepest, darkest, and heaviest contralto voice, usually having a heavier tone and more power than the others. Singers in this class, like the coloratura contraltos, are rare. They typically sing in a range from the G below middle C (G₃) to the A above middle C (A₄).^[4]

Contralto roles in opera[link]

True operatic contraltos are rare, and the operatic literature contains few roles written specifically for them. Contraltos sometimes are assigned feminine roles like Angelina in La Cenerentola, Rosina in The Barber of Seville, and Olga in Eugene Onegin, but more frequently they play female villains or assume trouser roles originally written for castrati. A common saying among contraltos is that they may play only "witches, bitches, or britches."^[5]

Examples of contralto roles in the standard operatic repertoire include the following:.^[5]

^* indicates a role that may also be sung by a mezzo-soprano.

See also[link]

• Fach
• List of contraltos in non-classical music
• List of operatic contraltos

References[link]

1. ^ ^{a b} McKinney, James (1994). The Diagnosis and Correction of Vocal Faults. Genovex Music Group. ISBN 978-1-56593-940-0. 
2. ^ ^{a b} Appelman, D. Ralph (1986). The Science of Vocal Pedagogy: Theory and Application. Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-253-20378-6. 
3. ^ Stark, James (2003). Bel Canto: A History of Vocal Pedagogy. University of Toronto Press. ISBN 978-0-8020-8614-3. 
4. ^ The New York Times guide to essential knowledge ^{[Full citation needed]}
5. ^ ^{a b} Boldrey, Richard (1994). Guide to Operatic Roles and Arias. Caldwell Publishing Company. ISBN 978-1-877761-64-5. 

Further reading[link]

• Coffin, Berton (1960). Coloratura, Lyric and Dramatic Soprano, Vol. 1. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.. ISBN 978-0-8108-0188-2. 
• Peckham, Anne (2005). Vocal Workouts for the Contemporary Singer. Berklee Press Publications. ISBN 978-0-87639-047-4. 
• Smith, Brenda (2005). Choral Pedagogy. Plural Publishing, Inc. ISBN 978-1-59756-043-6. 

External links[link]

Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Contralto.

Eula Beal (January 25, 1919 – July 29, 2008) was an American contralto. During her relatively short touring career, she performed with distinguished collaborators not only in concert on the US West Coast but also in Concert Magic, a 1947 film billed as "the first motion picture concert." ^[1]

Beal was born in Riverside, California. Touring the United States as a concert contralto in the 1940s, she appeared with orchestras including the Phoenix Symphony^[2] and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. With the latter ensemble, she performed in two works by Gustav Mahler: his Eighth Symphony, under Eugene Ormandy at the Hollywood Bowl,^[3] and Kindertotenlieder.^[4] Beal's operatic appearances included impersonations of Erda in Wagner's Siegfried and the innkeeper in Boris Godunov with the San Francisco Opera during the 1948 season. She also sang at Radio City Music Hall and the Tanglewood Festival with the Boston Pops.^[5]

Beal's present fame rests on her participation in Concert Magic, an unscripted film presenting, as the title would suggest, a classical concert. Beal was the sole vocalist; instrumentalists included pianists Adolph Baller, Jakob Gimpel, and Marguerite Campbell; violinist Yehudi Menuhin; and an orchestra billed as "Symphony Orchestra of Hollywood" under the baton of Antal Dorati. Interspersed with purely instrumental selections, Beal performed the Bach-Gounod "Ave Maria"; Franz Schubert's "Erlkönig" and "Ave Maria"; Tchaikovsky's "None but the lonely heart"; and "Lord, Have Mercy on Me" from the St. Matthew Passion of Johann Sebastian Bach.^[1]

Beal married well known-aerial photographer William Garnett in 1941 and remained his wife until his death in 2006, bearing him three sons. After but a decade on the concert circuit, she opted to abandon her full-time performing career to devoting her time to her family. Nonetheless, she remained sporadically active in northern California, where she and Garnett made their home; besides providing music at local funerals and churches, she performed with the San Francisco Symphony, the Santa Rosa Symphony, the Napa Symphony, and a local Napa, California choral group. She died in Napa in 2008.^[5]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Eula Beal on imdb
• Eula Beal sings None but the lonely heart by Tchaikovsky on YouTube
• Eula Beal sings Bach aria with Yehudi Menuhin on YouTube
• Eula Beal sings Ave Maria on YouTube
• Soundtracks for Concert Magic (1948)

This article about a United States singer is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. v t e

Karen J. Clark
Member of the Minnesota House of Representatives from the 61A district
Incumbent
Assumed office January 6, 1981
Preceded by	Linda Berglin
Personal details
Born	(1945-07-23) July 23, 1945 (age 66) Fort Sill, Oklahoma
Political party	DFL
Spouse(s)	Jacquelyn
Residence	Minneapolis, Minnesota
Profession	College instructor
Religion	Roman Catholic

Karen J. Clark (born July 23, 1945) is a Minnesota politician, and a member of the Minnesota House of Representatives. A Democrat, Clark represents District 61A, which includes portions of the city of Minneapolis in the Twin Cities metropolitan area including portions of the Phillips, Ventura Village, Seward, and Lyn-Lake neighborhoods.^[1] She is the longest serving openly lesbian member to serve in a state legislature in the United States.^[1]

Service in the Minnesota House[link]

First elected in November 1980, Clark is serving her sixteenth term in the Minnesota Legislature. She is currently a member of the Capital Investment, the Jobs and Economic Development Finance, and the Redistricting committees. Since first being elected, she has chaired the Governmental Operations Subcommittee for Jobs Creation and Unemployment Issues, the Economic Development and Housing Subcommittee for Job Development and Training, the Economic Development Subcommittee for the Community Stabilization and Development Division, the Housing Committee, the Economic Development and International Trade Subcommittee for the Housing and Housing Finance Division, and the Finance Subcommittee for the Housing Policy and Finance and Public Health Finance Division.^[2]

Advocacy for LGBT rights[link]

Clark is a lesbian,^[3] and is one of three openly gay members of the Minnesota Legislature, along with Senator D. Scott Dibble and Rep. Susan Allen, both Minneapolis Democrats. After the Minnesota House voted on May 21, 2011, to place a gay marriage amendment referendum on the ballot in the 2012 general election, she and Dibble released a joint statement condemning the referendum. The referendum will have voters decide whether a legal marriage will be restricted to heterosexual couples.^[4]

Following the May 2011 House vote on the gay marriage amendment referendum, Clark stated: "It’s a sad day for the State of Minnesota. Tonight, we’ve moved one step closer to discriminating against Minnesotans simply based on who they love. This amendment won’t help a single family in Minnesota, and this vote is absolutely heartbreaking to thousands of people and families across our state. History will not look back kindly on this day or the people who voted for discrimination. The Minnesota I know is a place of inclusion, tolerance and love, and I truly believe the people of this great state will not vote to enshrine discrimination in our constitution..."^[5]

Background, education and career[link]

Raised on a farm in southwestern Minnesota, Clark attended public schools in Edgerton, graduating from Edgerton High School in 1963. She earned her B.S. in nursing at the College of Saint Teresa in Winona. She later attended the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, earning her Master of Public Administration degree in 1996.^[1]

Clark has been an instructor at the University of Minnesota since 1985. She previously worked as public health nurse, VISTA nurse-organizer and an OB-GYN Nurse Practitioner. She is a member of the adjunct Faculty of the Department of Human Relations at St. Cloud State University, of the University of Minnesota’s Women’s Studies Department, of the Macalester College Women’s Studies Department, and of the College of St. Catherine Graduate School of Holistic Health. She is a member of AFSCME. She is active in numerous South Minneapolis neighborhoods on issues relating to housing, health, human-rights, labor, women's rights, peace, and affordable high-quality child care for all.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Karen Clark at Minnesota Legislators Past & Present
• Rep. Clark Web Page
• Rep. Clark Campaign Web Site

St. Hildegard von Bingen, O.S.B.
Illumination from the Liber Scivias showing Hildegard receiving a vision and dictating to her scribe and secretary
Sibyl of the Rhine
Born	1098 Bermersheim vor der Höhe, County Palatine of the Rhine, Holy Roman Empire
Died	17 September 1179(1179-09-17) (aged 81) Bingen am Rhein, County Palatine of the Rhine, Holy Roman Empire
Honored in	Roman Catholic Church (Order of St. Benedict), Anglican Communion, Lutheranism
Canonized	10 May 2012 (equivalent canonization), Vatican City by Pope Benedict XVI
Major shrine	Eibingen Abbey Germany
Feast	17 September

Saint Hildegard of Bingen, O.S.B. (German: Hildegard von Bingen; Latin: Hildegardis Bingensis) (1098 – 17 September 1179), also known as Saint Hildegard, and Sibyl of the Rhine, was a German writer, composer, philosopher, Christian mystic, Benedictine abbess, visionary, and polymath.^[1] Elected a magistra by her fellow nuns in 1136, she founded the monasteries of Rupertsberg in 1150 and Eibingen in 1165. One of her works as a composer, the Ordo Virtutum, is an early example of liturgical drama and arguably the oldest surviving morality play.^[2]

She wrote theological, botanical and medicinal texts, as well as letters, liturgical songs, and poems, while supervising brilliant miniature Illuminations.

On 10 May 2012, Pope Benedict XVI extended the liturgical cult of St. Hildegard to the universal Church,^[3] in a process known as "equivalent canonization".^[4] On 27 May 2012, the Pope announced that, on 7 October 2012, he will declare St. Hildegard to be the 35th Doctor of the Church.^[5]

Biography[link]

Hildegard's date of birth is uncertain. It has been concluded that she may have been born in the year 1098.^[6] Hildegard was raised in a family of free nobles. She was her parents' tenth child, sickly from birth.^[7] In her Vita, Hildegard explains that from a very young age she had experienced visions.^[8]

Monastic life[link]

Perhaps due to Hildegard's visions, or as a method of political positioning, Hildegard's parents, Hildebert and Mechthilde, offered her as a oblate to the church. The date of Hildegard's enclosure in the church is contentious. Her Vita tells us she was enclosed with an older nun, Jutta, at the age of eight. However, Jutta's enclosure date is known to be in 1112, at which time Hildegard would have been fourteen.^[9] Some scholars speculate that Hildegard was placed in the care of Jutta, the daughter of Count Stephan II of Sponheim, at the age of eight, before the two women were enclosed together six years later.^[10] There is no written record of the twenty-four years of Hildegard's life that she was in the convent together with Jutta. It is possible that Hildegard could have been a chantress and a worker in the herbarium and infirmarium.^[11]

In any case, Hildegard and Jutta were enclosed at Disibodenberg in the Palatinate Forest in what is now Germany. Jutta was also a visionary and thus attracted many followers who came to visit her at the enclosure. Hildegard also tells us that Jutta taught her to read and write, but that she was unlearned and therefore incapable of teaching Hildegard Biblical interpretation.^[12] Hildegard and Jutta most likely prayed, meditated, read scriptures such as the psalter, and did some sort of handwork during the hours of the Divine Office. This also might have been a time when Hildegard learned how to play the ten-stringed psaltery. Volmar, a frequent visitor, may have taught Hildegard simple psalm notation. The time she studied music could also have been the beginning of the compositions she would later create.^[13]

Upon Jutta's death in 1136, Hildegard was unanimously elected as "magistra" of the community by her fellow nuns.^[14] Abbot Kuno of Disibodenberg, also asked Hildegard to be Prioress, which would be under his authority. Hildegard, however, wanted more independence for herself and her nuns and asked Abbot Kuno to allow them to move to Rupertsberg.^[15] This was to be a move towards poverty, from a stone complex that was well established to a temporary dwelling place. (New York: Routledge, 2001), 6. When the abbot declined Hildegard's proposition, Hildegard went over his head and received the approval of Archbishop Henry I of Mainz. Abbot Kuno did not relent, however, until Hildegard was stricken by an illness that kept her paralyzed and unable to move from her bed, an event that she attributed to God's unhappiness at her not following his orders to move her nuns to Rupertsberg. It was only when the Abbot himself could not move Hildegard that he decided to grant the nuns their own monastery.^[16] Hildegard and about twenty nuns thus moved to the St. Rupertsberg monastery in 1150, where Volmar served as provost, as well as Hildegard's confessor and scribe. In 1165 Hildegard founded a second monastery for her nuns at Eibingen.

Visions[link]

Hildegard says that she first saw "The Shade of the Living Light" at the age of three, and by the age of five she began to understand that she was experiencing visions.^[17] She used the term 'visio' to this feature of her experience, and recognized that it was a gift that she could not explain to others. Hildegard explained that she saw all things in the light of God through the five senses: sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch.^[18] Hildegard was hesitant to share her visions, confiding only to Jutta, who in turn told Volmar, Hildegard's tutor and, later, secretary.^[19] Throughout her life, she continued to have many visions, and in 1141, at the age of 42, Hildegard received a vision she believed to be an instruction from God, to "write down that which you see and hear."^[20] Still hesitant to record her visions, Hildegard became physically ill. The illustrations recorded in the book of Scivias were visions that Hildegard experienced, causing her great suffering and tribulations.^[21] In her first theological text, Scivias ("Know the Ways"), Hildegard describes her struggle within:

But I, though I saw and heard these things, refused to write for a long time through doubt and bad opinion and the diversity of human words, not with stubbornness but in the exercise of humility, until, laid low by the scourge of God, I fell upon a bed of sickness; then, compelled at last by many illnesses, and by the witness of a certain noble maiden of good conduct [the nun Richardis von Stade] and of that man whom I had secretly sought and found, as mentioned above, I set my hand to the writing. While I was doing it, I sensed, as I mentioned before, the deep profundity of scriptural exposition; and, raising myself from illness by the strength I received, I brought this work to a close – though just barely – in ten years. [...] And I spoke and wrote these things not by the invention of my heart or that of any other person, but as by the secret mysteries of God I heard and received them in the heavenly places. And again I heard a voice from Heaven saying to me, 'Cry out therefore, and write thus!'^[22]

Hildegard's Vita was begun by Godfrey of Disibodenberg under Hildegard's supervision. It was between November 1147 and February 1148 at the synod in Trier that Pope Eugenus heard about Hildegard’s writings. It was from this that she received Papal approval to document her visions as revelations from the Holy Spirit giving her instant credence. (New York; Routledge, 2001) 5.

Before Hildegard’s death, a problem arose with the clergy of Mainz. A man buried in Rupertsburg had died after excommunication from the Church. Therefore, the clergy wanted to remove his body from the sacred ground. Hildegard did not accept this idea, replying that it was a sin and that the man had been reconciled to the church at the time of his death.^[23]

On 17 September 1179, when Hildegard died, her sisters claimed they saw two streams of light appear in the skies and cross over the room where she was dying.^[24]

Works[link]

Hildegard's musical, literary, and scientific writings are housed primarily in two manuscripts: the Dendermonde manuscript and the Riesenkodex. The Dendermonde manuscript was copied under Hildegard's supervision at Rupertsberg, while the Riesencodex was copied in the century after Hildegard's death.

Mutterschaft aus dem Geiste und dem Wasser (Motherhood from the Spirit and the Water), 1165

Music[link]

Attention in recent decades to women of the medieval Church has led to a great deal of popular interest in Hildegard, particularly her music. In addition to the Ordo Virtutum, sixty-nine musical compositions, each with its own original poetic text, survive, and at least four other texts are known, though their musical notation has been lost.^[25] This is one of the largest repertoires among medieval composers. Hildegard also wrote nearly 400 letters to correspondents ranging from Popes to Emperors to abbots and abbesses;^[26] two volumes of material on natural medicine and cures;^[27] an invented language called the Lingua ignota;^[28] various minor works, including a gospel commentary and two works of hagiography;^[29] and three great volumes of visionary theology: Scivias, Liber vitae meritorum ("Book of Life's Merits" or "Book of the Rewards of Life"), and Liber divinorum operum ("Book of Divine Works").^[30]

	"O frondens virga" From Ordo Virtutum
Problems listening to this file? See media help.

One of her better known works, Ordo Virtutum (Play of the Virtues), is a morality play. It is unsure when some of Hildegard’s compositions were composed, though the Ordo Virtutum is thought to have been composed as early as 1151.^[31] The morality play consists of monophonic melodies for the Anima (human soul) and 16 Virtues. There is also one speaking part for the Devil. Scholars assert that the role of the Devil would have been played by Volmar, while Hildegard's nuns would have played the parts of Anima and the Virtues.^[32]

In addition to the Ordo Virtutum Hildegard composed many liturgical songs that were collected into a cycle called the Symphonia armoniae celestium revelationum. The songs from the Symphonia are set to Hildegard’s own text and range from antiphons, hymns, and sequences, to responsories.^[33] Her music is described as monophonic; that is, consisting of exactly one melodic line.^[34] Hildegard's compositional style is characterized by soaring melodies, often well outside of the normal range of chant at the time.^[35] Additionally, scholars such as Margot Fassler and Marianna Richert Pfau describe Hildegard's music as highly melismatic, often with recurrent melodic units, and also note her close attention to the relationship between music and text, which was a rare occurrence in monastic chant of the twelfth century.^[36] Hildegard of Bingen’s songs are left open for rhythmic interpretation because of the use of neumes without a staff.^[37] The reverence for the Virgin Mary reflected in music shows how deeply influenced and inspired Hildegard of Bingen and her community were by the Virgin Mary and the saints.^[38]

The definition of viriditas or ‘greenness’ is an earthly expression of the heavenly in an integrity that overcomes dualisms. This ‘greenness’ or power of life appears frequently in Hildegard’s works.^[39]

Recent scholars have asserted that Hildegard made a close association between music and the female body in her musical compositions.^[40] The poetry and music of Hildegard’s Symphonia is concerned with the anatomy of female desire thus described as Sapphonic, or pertaining to Sappho, connecting her to a history of female rhetoricians.^[41]

Writings[link]

"Universal Man" illumination from Hildegard's Liber Divinorum Operum, 1165

Mysticism[link]

In addition to her music, Hildegard also wrote three books of visions, the first of which, her Scivias ("Know the Way"), was completed in 1151. Liber vitae meritorum ("Book of Life's Merits" or "Book of the Rewards of Life") and Liber divinorum operum ("Book of Divine Works", also known as De operatione Dei, "On God's Activity") followed. In these volumes, the last of which was completed when she was about 75, Hildegard first describes each vision, then interprets them through Biblical exegesis.

The narrative of her visions was richly decorated under her direction, with transcription assistance provided by the monk Volmar and nun Richardis. The book was celebrated in the Middle Ages, in part because of the approval given to it by Pope Eugenius III, and was later printed in Paris in 1513.

Herbal medicine[link]

Hildegard also wrote Physica, a text on the natural sciences, as well as Causae et Curae. Hildegard of Bingen was well known for her healing powers involving practical application of tinctures, herbs, and precious stones.^[42] In both texts Hildegard describes the natural world around her, including the cosmos, animals, plants, stones, and minerals.

She combined these elements with a theological notion ultimately derived from Genesis: all things put on earth are for the use of humans.^[43] She is particularly interested in the healing properties of plants, animals, and stones, though she also questions God's effect on man's health.^[27] One example of her healing powers was curing the blind with the use of Rhine water.^[44]

Alphabet[link]

Alphabet by Hildegard von Bingen, Litterae ignotae, which she used for her language Lingua Ignota

Hildegard also invented an alternative alphabet. The text of her writing and compositions reveals Hildegard's use of this form of modified medieval Latin, encompassing many invented, conflated and abridged words.^[8] Due to her inventions of words for her lyrics and a constructed script, many conlangers look upon her as a medieval precursor. Scholars believe that Hildegard used her Lingua Ignota to increase solidarity among her nuns.^[45]

Significance[link]

During her lifetime[link]

Maddocks claims that it is likely Hildegard learned simple Latin, and the tenets of the Christian faith, but was not instructed in the Seven Liberal Arts, which formed the basis of all education for the learned classes in the Middle Ages: the Trivium of grammar, dialectic, and rhetoric plus the Quadrivium of arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music.^[46] The correspondence she kept with the outside world, both spiritual and social, transgressed the cloister as a space of female confinement, and served to document Hildegard’s grand style and strict formatting of medieval letter writing.^[47]

Contributing to Christian European rhetorical traditions, Hildegard “authorized herself as a theologian” through alternative rhetorical arts.^[47] Hildegard was creative in her interpretation of theology. She believed that her monastery should not allow novices who were from a different class than nobility because it put them in an inferior position. She also stated that ‘woman may be made from man, but no man can be made without a woman.'^[24]

Hildegard's preaching tours

Due to church limitation on public, discursive rhetoric, the medieval rhetorical arts included: preaching, letter writing, poetry, and the encyclopedic tradition.^[48] Hildegard’s participation in these arts speaks to her significance as a female rhetorician, transcending bans on women’s social participation and interpretation of Scripture. The acceptance of public preaching by a woman, even a well-connected abbess and acknowledged prophet does not fit the usual stereotype of this time. Her preaching was not limited to the monasteries; she even preached publicly in 1160 in Germany. (New York: Routledge, 2001, 9). She conducted four preaching tours throughout Germany, speaking to both clergy and laity in chapter houses and in public, mainly denouncing clerical corruption and calling for reform.^[49]

Many abbots and abbesses asked her for prayers and opinions on various matters.^[50] She traveled widely during her four preaching tours.^[51] She had several rather fanatic followers, including Guibert of Gembloux, who wrote frequently to Hildegard and eventually became her secretary after Volmar died in 1173. In addition, Hildegard influenced several monastic women of her time and the centuries that followed; in particular, she engaged in correspondence with another nearby visionary, Elisabeth of Schönau.^[52]

Hildegard communicated with popes such as Eugene III and Anastasius IV, statesmen such as Abbot Suger, German emperors such as Frederick I Barbarossa, and other notable figures such as Saint Bernard of Clairvaux, who advanced her work, at the behest of her abbot, Kuno, at the Synod of Trier in 1147 and 1148. Hildegard of Bingen’s correspondence with many people is an important element of her literary work because this is where we can see her speaking most directly to us.^[53]

Beatification and canonization[link]

Hildegard was one of the first persons for whom the Roman canonization process was officially applied, but the process took so long that four attempts at canonization were not completed, and she remained at the level of her beatification. Hildegard's name was nonetheless taken up in the Roman Martyrology at the end of the sixteenth century. Her feast day is 17 September. Numerous popes have referred to Hildegard as a saint, including Pope John Paul II^[54] and Pope Benedict XVI.^[55] On 10 May 2012, Pope Benedict XVI extended the liturgical cult of St. Hildegard to the universal Church^[56] in a process known as "equivalent canonization".^[57] Hildegard’s parish and pilgrimage church in Eibingen near Rüdesheim houses her relics.

Hildegard of Bingen also appears in the calendar of saints of various Anglican churches, such as that of the Church of England, in which she is commemorated on 17 September.

20th-century interest[link]

Hildegard has also become a figure of reverence within the contemporary New Age movement, mostly due to her holistic and natural view of healing, as well as her status as a mystic. She was the inspiration for Dr. Gottfried Hertzka's "Hildegard-Medicine", and is the namesake for June Boyce-Tillman's Hildegard Network, a healing center that focuses on a holistic approach to wellness and brings together people interested in exploring the links between spirituality, the arts, and healing.^[58] Hildegard's reincarnation has been debated since 1924 when Austrian mystic Rudolf Steiner lectured that a nun of her description was the past life of Russian poet Vladimir Soloviev,^[59] whose Sophianic visions are often compared to Hildegard.^[60] Sophiologist Robert Powell writes that hermetic astrology proves the match,^[61] and artist mystic Carl Schroeder claims to be in the lineage of Hildegard^[62] with the support and validation of reincarnation researchers Walter Semkiw and Kevin Ryerson.^[63]

In recent years, Hildegard has become of particular interest to feminist scholars.^{[citation needed]} Her reference to herself as a member of the "weaker sex" and her rather constant belittling of women, though at first seemingly problematic, must be considered within the context of the patriarchal church hierarchy. Hildegard frequently referred to herself as an unlearned woman, completely incapable of Biblical exegesis.^[64] Such a statement on her part, however, worked to her advantage because it made her statements that all of her writings and music came from visions of the Divine more believable, therefore giving Hildegard the authority to speak in a time and place where few women were permitted a voice.^[65] Hildegard used her voice to condemn church practices she disagreed with, in particular simony.

In space, she is commemorated by the asteroid 898 Hildegard.

Bibliography[link]

See also[link]

Anglicanism portal

• Bibliography of Hildegard of Bingen
• Discography of Hildegard of Bingen

Hildegard has been portrayed on film by Patricia Routledge in a dramatized BBC biographical documentary called "Hildegard Von Bingen In Portrait: Ordo Virtutum."

The film Vision - From the Life of Hildegard von Bingen, directed by Margarethe von Trotta, premiered in Europe in 2009 and in the United States in 2010. Hildegard is played by Barbara Sukowa.

Notes[link]

References[link]

Further reading[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Hildegard von Bingen

• Hildegard Center for the Arts, A Faith Based Fine Arts Center in Lincoln Nebraska
• International Society of Hildegard von Bingen Studies
• A Hildegard FAQ Sheet
• Hildegard Von Bingen
•  "St. Hildegard". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913. 
• Hildegard of Bingen Documents, History, Sites to see today, etc.
• Works by or about Hildegard of Bingen in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Source
• Discography
• Biography and Prayers of Hildegard
• Another discography
• Church of St. Hildegard in Eibingen, Germany with information about Hildegard von Bingen and the Eibinger Hildegardisshrine
• The Reconstruction of the monastery on the Rupertsberg
• Free scores by Hildegard von Bingen in the Werner Icking Music Archive (WIMA)
• Free scores by Hildegard of Bingen in the Choral Public Domain Library (ChoralWiki)
• Free scores by Hildegard of Bingen at the International Music Score Library Project
• Young, Abigail Ann. Translations from Rupert, Hildegard, and Guibert of Gembloux. 1999. 27 March 2006.
• McGuire, K. Christian. Symphonia Caritatis: The Cistercian Chants of Hildegard von Bingen. 2007. 14 July 2007.
• * From Katya Sanna's blog
• Women's Biography: Hildegard of Bingen, contains several letters sent and received by Hildegard.
• "Brooklyn Museum: Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art: The Dinner Party: Place Setting: Hildegarde of Bingen", describes the Hildegarde Place Setting in Judy Chicago's work called "The Dinner Party".

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Clara Butt with her husband Robert Kennerly Rumford

Land of Hope and Glory sung by Clara Butt in 1911

Dame Clara Ellen Butt, DBE (1 February 1872 – 23 January 1936), sometimes called Clara Butt-Rumford after her marriage, was an English contralto with a remarkably imposing voice and a surprisingly agile singing technique. Her main career was as a recitalist and concert singer.

Early life and career[link]

Clara Butt was born in Southwick, Sussex. Her father, Henry Albert Butt, was a sea captain who had been born in 1848 in Saint Martin, Jersey, Channel Islands. He married Clara Hook in 1869. She was born in Shoreham, the daughter of Joseph Hook, another mariner. (See the relevant British Census returns for 1861 and 1871.)

In 1880, the Butt family moved to the port city of Bristol in England's West Country, and Clara was educated at South Bristol High School, where her singing ability was recognised and her talent as a performer encouraged. At the request of her headmistress, she was trained by the bass Daniel Rootham (father of composer Cyril Rootham) and joined the Bristol Festival Chorus, of which Daniel Rootham was musical director. Butt won a scholarship to the Royal College of Music in January 1890. During her fourth year of vocal lessons at the college she spent three months studying in Paris at the expense of Queen Victoria. She also studied in Berlin and Italy.

She made her professional début at the Royal Albert Hall in London in Sir Arthur Sullivan’s cantata The Golden Legend. This took place on 7 December 1892. Three days later, she appeared as Orfeo in Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice at the Lyceum Theatre. Then music critic Bernard Shaw wrote in The World that she ‘far surpassed the utmost expectations that could reasonably be entertained’ (14 December 1892).

She returned to Paris and undertook further studies with Jacques Bouhy (the teacher of two other deep-voiced female singers with international reputations, Louise Homer and Louise Kirkby Lunn). Later, she polished her skills in Berlin with the famous retired soprano Etelka Gerster. The French composer Camille Saint-Saëns heard her, and wanted her to study his opera Dalila, but due to laws then extant forbidding the representation of biblical subjects on the British stage, nothing came of it.

Soon she had acquired an excellent reputation for her vocal attributes back home in England, which was reinforced by her physical presence on the concert platform: she was 6 feet 2 inches tall. She made many gramophone recordings, often accompanied by the (uncredited) pianist Lilian Bryant. Among Butt's recordings are several recordings of Arthur Sullivan's song "The Lost Chord",^[1] and her friend Fanny Ronalds, in her 1916 will, bequeathed the original manuscript of the song to Butt.^[2] She was primarily a concert singer and only ever appeared in two opera productions, both of Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice, mounted in 1892 and 1920. Britain's leading composer of the era, Sir Edward Elgar, composed his song-cycle Sea Pictures for contralto and orchestra with Clara Butt in mind as the soloist, and she sang at the first performance of the work at the Norwich Festival on 5 October 1899, with the composer conducting. Butt's only recording from Elgar's monumental song cycle was Where corals lie.

20th century[link]

On June 26, 1900 she married the baritone Kennerly Rumford and, thereafter, would often appear with him in concerts. The couple eventually had three children, two sons and a daughter. Besides singing in many important festivals and concerts, she was honoured with royal commands to appear before Queen Victoria, King Edward VII, and King George V. She made tours of Australia, Japan, Canada, the United States and to many European cities.

During World War I, she organised and sang in many concerts for service charities, and for this she was appointed Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 1920 civilian war honours. That year she sang four performances of Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice at Covent Garden, with Miriam Licette, under the baton of Sir Thomas Beecham.^[3] According to The Times she 'played fast and loose with the time and spoilt the phrasing' and it appears not to have been a success. It was her only appearance in grand opera.

Butt's three sisters were also singers. One, Ethel Hook, became a famous contralto in her own right, made some solo recordings, and in 1926 appeared in an early sound film made in the Lee De Forest Phonofilm sound-on-film process.

In later life, Clara Butt was dogged by tragedies. Her elder son died of meningitis while still at school, and the younger one committed suicide. During the 1920s, she became seriously ill with cancer of the spine. She made many of her later records seated in a wheelchair. She died in 1936, age 63, at her home in North Stoke, Oxfordshire, reportedly as a result of an accident she had suffered in 1931. It is not clear how ill she was with the spinal cancer at the time of her death. Her voice can still be heard on CD transfers of her 78-rpm recordings.

Reputation[link]

Sir Thomas Beecham once said, jokingly, of Butt that: "On a clear day, you could have heard her across the English Channel".

Indeed, not all serious musicians admired her booming contralto voice, which can be mistaken for a man's on some recordings, or her rather 'populist' approach to her art. In his autobiography, conductor Sir Adrian Boult recounts an anecdote about two young music students going for a bicycle ride one afternoon. After a while they stopped and sat making idle conversation on a piece of grass. One rider looked at his bicycle and mused 'I am going to call it Santley because it is a Singer'. (Sir Charles Santley, a veteran baritone, was the most noted British singer of the day, and Singer was the maker of the bicycle.) The other responded 'I am going to call mine Clara Butt because it is not.' He then noticed as they rode home that a frosty atmosphere had developed. He realised the reason for the frostiness when, a short time afterwards, he read in the press that his "companion," Robert Kennerly Rumford (1870-1957), was engaged to Clara Butt.

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Ainger, Michael (2002). Gilbert and Sullivan – A Dual Biography. Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-514769-3. 
• Biography, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
• Andrea Suhm-Binder's biography page
• Winifred Ponder, Clara Butt - Her Life-Story, London: George Harrap, 1928. Reprinted, New York: Da Capo Press, 1978. ISBN 0-306-77529-8
• This article incorporates text from the public domain 1907 edition of The Nuttall Encyclopædia.

External links[link]

• Dame Clara Butt - The Complete Discography
• Butt, Clara at www.cantabile-subito.de