Hildegard von Bingen

Twelfth-century abbess whose soaring chants form the earliest large body of music by a named composer.

Core Principles & Analysis

• Roughly seventy of her chants survive — the largest attributed medieval repertoire.
• Her Ordo Virtutum is the earliest known morality play set to music.
• She was also a visionary, natural philosopher, and correspondent of popes and emperors.

Specifications & Metrics

• ERA: 1098 – 1179