This is an arrangement of a modern motet by artist
Cheryl Lynn Helm (b. 1957 and user:
https://musescore.com/user/482661) of an antiphon by
the Saint Hildegard of Bingen, O.S.B. (1098 – 1179),
also known as Hildegard von Bingen, Saint Hildegard,
and Sibyl of the Rhine, was a German writer, composer,
philosopher, Christian mystic, Benedictine abbess,
visionary, and polymath. Elected a magistra by her
fellow nuns in 1136, she founded the monasteries of
Rupertsberg in 1150 and Eibingen in 1165. O...(+)
This is an arrangement of a modern motet by artist
Cheryl Lynn Helm (b. 1957 and user:
https://musescore.com/user/482661) of an antiphon by
the Saint Hildegard of Bingen, O.S.B. (1098 – 1179),
also known as Hildegard von Bingen, Saint Hildegard,
and Sibyl of the Rhine, was a German writer, composer,
philosopher, Christian mystic, Benedictine abbess,
visionary, and polymath. Elected a magistra by her
fellow nuns in 1136, she founded the monasteries of
Rupertsberg in 1150 and Eibingen in 1165. One of her
works as a composer, the Ordo Virtutum, is an early
example of liturgical drama and arguably the oldest
surviving morality play.
She wrote theological, botanical and medicinal texts,
as well as letters, liturgical songs, and poems, while
supervising brilliant miniature illuminations. Although
the history of her formal recognition as a saint is
complicated, she has been recognized as a saint by
parts of the Roman Catholic Church for centuries. On 7
October 2012, Pope Benedict XVI named her a Doctor of
the Church.
Hildegard's most significant works were her three
volumes of visionary theology: Scivias ("Know the
Ways", composed 1142-1151), Liber Vitae Meritorum
("Book of Life's Merits" or "Book of the Rewards of
Life", composed 1158-1163); and Liber Divinorum Operum
("Book of Divine Works", also known as De operatione
Dei, "On God's Activity", composed 1163/4-1172 or
1174). In these volumes, the last of which was
completed when she was well into her seventies,
Hildegard first describes each vision, whose details
are often strange and enigmatic; and then interprets
their theological contents in the words of a "voice
from heaven."
The ten visions of this work's three parts are cosmic
in scale, often populated by the grand allegorical
female figures representing Divine Love (Caritas) or
Wisdom (Sapientia). The first of these opens the work
with a salvo of poetic and visionary images, swirling
about to characterize the dynamic activity of God
within the scope of his salvation-historical work.
This work "O Virtus Sapientiae" ("O strength of
Wisdom") introduces the famous image of a human being
standing astride the spheres that make up the universe,
and detail the intricate relationships between the
human as microcosm and the universe as macrocosm.
The English Lyrics read:
O strength of Wisdom who, circling, circled, enclosing
all in one lifegiving path, three wings you have:
one soars to the heights, one distils its essence upon
the earth, and the third is everywhere.
Praise to you, as is fitting, O Wisdom.
Although originally written for Chorus (SATB), I
created this arrangement for Clarinet Quartet (Bb
Clarinet (3) & Bass Clarinet).
SHEET MUSIC