The Fire and the Ecstasy: The Music of Hildegard of Bingen

170 Gulf Road,Chesterfield NH 03443

04 December, 2021

Description

Saint Hildegard of Bingen is the first identifiable composer in the western world. Hildegard lived in the 12th century and was a creative force. Also known as the Sibyl of the Rhine, she was, among many other things, a musician and composer. She bent the rules and traditions of the medieval church into new forms of musical expression. Her sublime, life-affirming music has been rediscovered in the last several decades. The Fire and the Ecstasy: The Music of Hildegard of Bingen will feature Ruth Cunningham and Melinda Gardiner, both harp and voice. This public concert is a part of the weekend workshop/retreat, Hildegard of Bingen: Magistra, Mystic, Musician, taking place this same weekend, December 3-4 at Hallelujah Farm Retreat in Chesterfield, New Hampshire. Ruth Cunningham is a classically trained musician, a sound healing practitioner, and a founding member Anonymous 4. She combines these skills to improvise music that connects people to the healing and spiritual power of music. She specializes in improvisational sacred music from varied spiritual traditions in both liturgical and concert settings. Her solo program Light and Shadow encompasses a mixture of music including several traditional chants from Western and Eastern traditions as well as Ruth’s own compositions and improvisations. The texts include Medieval Latin Marian texts, Sanskrit texts, prayers, and poems by Ruth’s sister Elizabeth Cunningham. She accompanies herself on Medieval harp, Renaissance flute and recorder, piano and shruti box. With Anonymous 4, she performed in concerts and festivals throughout the United States, Europe and the Far East and made twelve recordings with harmonia mundi and one, Voices of Light by contemporary composer Richard Einhorn, for Sony Classical. After leaving Anonymous 4 for a number of years to study music and healing, Ruth rejoined the group in 2007 and sang with them until the group disbanded in 2015. She was part of the women’s ensemble of Early Music NY and participated in their CD Music of Medieval Love . She has also performed and recorded with the Renaissance vocal ensemble Pomerium. She is a regular member of the professional choir at St Ignatius of Antioch in New York City. Ruth received a B. Mus. in Performance of Early Music from the New England Conservatory of Music and taught recorder and renaissance flute at the Amherst Early Music Workshops for sixteen years. She has also studied vocal improvisation with Rhiannon. Melinda Gardiner is a Registered Nurse and Certified Music Practitioner (CMP)® , with nearly 50 years of study, teaching and work in integrative healing and medicine. She completed Level I and Level II Sound and Tone Training with Don Campbell at the Institute for Music, Health and Education in 1993-1994, studied the traditional use of sound during her apprenticeship from 1980 to 1996 with Native American elder OhShinnah Fast Wolf, and intensively studied Gregorian chant with Father Columba Kelly at St. Meinrad’s Archabbey in Indiana in 2002. As a clinician, singer and harper, Melinda has been offering therapeutic music to patients in many settings since 1990. Melinda is a liturgical musician and cantor at Our Lady of Hope Church, Copake Falls, NY since 1984.