Hildegard von Bingen, "Quia ergo femina" | Molly Wise, viola

This is my own arrangement and is available on my website: https://www.mollywiseviola.com/viola-... Join my monthly mailing list to keep up with my performances, recordings, announcements, and new arrangements: https://www.mollywiseviola.com/newsle... This version for viola represents my interpretation of the rhythm and phrasing from the original score, which used medieval neumatic notation. Recorded in the Patron's Lounge of the Brockman Hall for Opera at the Shepherd School of Music, Rice University. There are countless antiphons—sung melodies paired with pre-existing, repurposed Gregorian chant—in the ecclesiastical genre of the 12th century, most of which cannot be attributed to a known composer. In the case of Hildegard von Bingen, however, her huge body of work—text and music—is well-known and studied. In addition to composition, Hildegard was a philosopher, mystic, and medical practitioner. Her work gives a first-hand account of life and religion in her time, shaping and co-opting existing tropes and traditions to create art in her own voice. "Quia ergo femina mortem instruxit" is a psalm antiphon for the Virgin with the following translation: “For since a woman drew up death, a virgin gleaming dashed it down, and therefore is the highest blessing found in woman’s form before all other creatures. For God was made a human in the blessed Virgin sweet.” Hildegard’s text artfully connects Eve and Mary, offering an enlightened perspective of biblical womanhood, life, and death.