The choir will be returning for the new season on Sunday, September 17. Rehearsal begins at 9 a.m. and will be held in the sanctuary. All who are interested in singing with us, or trying the choir out before making a full commitment to the group, are welcome to join us for rehearsal. This semester we will be singing many familiar favorites and working on new Christmas pieces from a variety of musical genres.
September 17 also marks the anniversary of the death of one of Christianity’s most prolific mystics and polymaths: Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179). Apart from her works on theology, medicine and botany, Hildegard is highly revered for her musical compositions. There are more surviving monophonic chants by Hildegard than any other Western composer of the Middle Ages. She was unique for composers of the period, having written both the melodies and the texts for her compositions. Professor Bruce Holsinger of the University of Virginia has noted that Hildegard’s melodies pushed the boundaries of musical compositions of the era. Her chants are highly melismatic (meaning that multiple notes are sung on one syllable) and contain recurring melodic units, a feature that we are familiar with today, but was outside the norm for twelfth century compositions. Even though Hildegard has been honored by Christians for centuries, she was not officially recognized as a saint by the Catholic Church until 2012.
-Cameron Shippee