As singer and lover of medieval chant this unique course offers you the opportunity to stay in Hildegard’s own special spiritual environment and work on her songs with experienced teachers. Your day will be filled with intensive study of the chant of Hildegard the great mystic, visionary, healer and composer. Additionally, as guests of St. Hildegard’s Abbey in Eibingen you are welcome to join in prayer with the Sisters. Course hours are therefor outside the morning and evening prayers of the monastic ‘hours’ and Holy Mass. For Hildegard, beauty and spirituality were inextricably linked. In her musical oeuvre the Symfonia Harmoniae Celestium Revelationem we hear an echo of the ‘angelic choirs’ manifesting in our human dimension. In this course we explore Hildegard’s spirituality through the embodied experience of singing; through opening ourselves as channels for the grace that flows through her work, we are witness to the transformation of ‘ordinary singing’ to the spiritually audible realms of rapture. 

Each day will comprise four sessions of mainly intensive singing of a selection of Hildegard’s songs where we become familiar with the music and develop the capacity of our voices which modal chanting asks of us. Besides the intensive focus on singing Hildegard’s chant from her original manuscripts, we will also introduce modal voice technique as well as vocal and musicological underpinnings including an investigation of neumes, bourdon and overtones.

This course will be taught primarily through English with German translation where necessary. In case of necessity, Dutch and French explanations can also be provided. Our working space is at the Wallfahrtstkirche (Pilgrim Church) which centres around her shrine and where her spirit is very much present.

Upon receipt of your registration you will receive a selection of chant which we encourage you to prepare in advance of the course. 

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