Description

A cappella SSSAAA sextet; ca. 3 min.

The composer writes: Hildegard von Bingen (1098 – 1179) was a woman of many talents: she was a magistra, a philosopher, a scientist, a poet and a composer. An extensive body of her sacred songs was collected in a cycle called the Symphonia armoniae celestium revelationum (The Harmonic Music of Celestial Mysteries). The collection also contains several texts for which Hildegard’s music has been lost, and “O Magna Res” is one of these.

“O Magna Res” could be described as a miniature chronology of the Christian spiritual world. It begins with God alone, proceeding to His creation of life, and then to the fall of humanity. As in many of Hildegard’s texts, “O Magna Res” contrasts the Virgin Mary with Eve. Finally, with the birth of Christ (for which the “dawn” is a poetic metaphor) comes the redemption of Woman, and her beneficent influence on the world.