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Any list of “important female composers” begins with Hildegard of Bingen. But the more one experiences music by the 12th Century abbess, the more one realizes that any gender-based qualification is entirely superfluous. Ordo Virtutum, which translates as “The Play of Virtues,” is Hildegard’s most substantial composition and has the distinction of being the only music drama dating from the Middle Ages to have survived with the identity of its creator known. Hildegard wrote it for the 20 nuns of her religious order, who each sang the part of a virtuous trait—favorites like “Mercy,” “Hope,” and “Charity” as well as second-stringers like “World-rejection,” “Discipline,” and “Heavenly Love.” Ordo Virtutum tells the story of Anima, the Soul, who’s kidnapped by Satan (a spoken role for a man, performed with unctuous malignity by James K. Bass). She is ultimately returned to her sisters, who subdue the demon and assure Anima’s redemption. A dozen women of the Floridian chorus Seraphic Fire, led by Patrick Dupré Quigley, fully realize the compelling dramatic trajectory of Ordo Virtutum. The recording, from the acoustically admired Sauder Concert Hall at Goshen College, is atmospherically reverberant yet still presents timbral detail of the largely unison chant with gratifying clarity.
By Andrew Quint
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