| O Bonifaci, lux vivens vidit te similem viro sapienti, qui puros rivulos ex Deo fluentes ad Deum remisisti, cum viriditatem florum rigasti, unde es amicus Dei viventis et cristallus lucens in benivolentia rectarum viarum, in quibus sapienter cucurristi. |
O Boniface, the Living Light caught sight that you were like a man of wisdom. The purest streams that flow from God you rendered back to God as you directed them upon the flowers’ viridity; so dear you are to God— Who Lives—a crystal gleaming with the goodwill of the righteous paths on which you wisely ran. |
Transcription and Music Notes
by Beverly Lomer
by Beverly Lomer
Mode: A
Range: E below the final to C two octaves above
Setting: Syllabic with some pneumatic segments and a long melisma at the end
Textually, this piece opens with the salutation, O Bonifaci. However, the opening concludes, not with the final, but with the pitch D, a non-standard choice in this mode. The second phrase, lux vivens vidit te, does conclude on the final (A). The most probable interpretation of this unusual way of treating the opening in performance would be to make a small separation (less than a comma) at the end of the first line. The impression would be then that the phrase is to be carried on until the end of line 2 of the transcription. Another option, which I have indicated with a tick barline, would be to complete the phrase with the word lux, thus ending it on A. Although this is awkward in terms of the text, it would allow the musical phrase to begin and end on the final.
Otherwise the phrasing is fairly straightforward. On page 2 of the transcription, I separated lines 1-2, but added a tick barline, as another option might be to combine them. On the one hand, the opening pitches of line 2 (lucens) are consistent with line 6 (ad deum) on page 1. On the other hand, the combined phrase of lines 1-2 (viventis et cristallus lucens) is repeated with slight variations in line 4 (rectarum viarum) and in the final melisma (p. 2, line 6).
On page one, line three, I have placed a bracketed C. The source is not clear because the ink has faded. It may be a punctum on the space for C or possibly even B. It could also not be a note at all. I find the two C’s together to be unusual, and might prefer it to either be absent or be interpreted as B. Performers should use personal preference.
There are quite a few signed B flats, but they are inconsistently applied, which is typical of Hildegard’s work. They appear in several instances at the cadence points, but cadences involving the same pitches in other locations are not signed with a flat. I have catalogued them here:
| Page 1 | |
|---|---|
| Line 2 | B natural |
| Line 4 | B natural |
| Line 5 | B flat |
| Line 6 | B flat |
| Line 7 | B natural |
| Page 2 | |
| Line 1 | B flat |
| Line 2 | B natural |
| Line 4 | B natural |
| Line 6 | B flat |
| Line 7, final cadence |
B natural |
Note: The segment in the final cadence that descends from F to A mirrors the one on line 7 of page one, where the flat is signed.
Because medieval singers knew when to sing a flat, it was never necessary to sign each one. But Hildegard’s usage is peculiar, where the natural appears first on a similar figure. We cannot really know what she intended, and we must also keep in mind that the strategies and protocols we use in modern transcriptions come in part from the preferences, experiences, intuition etc. of the editor. Hildegard often played loosely with the forms of her music, so perhaps the inconsistencies–things we want to “correct”--are in fact intentional. We therefore urge performers to follow their own intuition to create an effective performance.
Notes on the Musical Rhetoric
by Nathaniel M. Campbell
by Nathaniel M. Campbell
There are several melodic cells or phrases that Hildegard repeats with variation throughout this piece. Hildegard would use repeated motifs as both a practical tool to help with memorizing the melody and as a rhetorical device to connect ideas across the piece. Moreover, points where the musical and textual grammars are in tension with one another have a heightened rhetorical force.
As noted above, the phrase for ad Deum (p. 1, line 6) is repeated with an additional flourish on lucens (p. 2, line 2). This connects the water imagery of the first half of the piece with the light imagery in the second half and emphasizes the fact that the light with which Boniface gleams is God’s light itself, with Boniface serving as a crystal or lens through which both God’s light shines and we look back to God. That melodic cell is then embedded in the longer phrase of viventis et cristallus lucens (p. 2, lines 1-2), which is repeated with slight variations on rectarum viarum (p. 2, line 4) and in the final melisma on cucurristi (p. 2, line 6). This extends the point again by directing Boniface’s wisdom toward God both by water and by the pathways of righteousness.
Yet another melodic motif, which opens with the leap from the final to the fifth (A-E) and ascends to the octave a before settling back to E, ties together the qualities of Boniface’s wise sanctity. This phrase is used for cum viriditatem (“as [you directed them upon the flowers’] viridity”), in benivolentia (“with the goodwill”), and in quibus sapienter (“on which wisely [you ran]”). A variation of this motif also appears split across two phrases (the last two lines of the first page of the transcription), with the motif’s opening note of A on the final syllable of rigasti and the leap to the fifth (E) on the opening of the next phrase (unde es amicus Dei). The motif thus transgresses not only the textual grammar (as unde begins a new clause) but also seemingly the musical grammar (as rigasti returns its phrase to the final). Because the music resists a hard break between the sense units, I have changed Newman’s punctuation of the text to allow the relative adverb unde to connect the first and second halves of the antiphon more fluidly.
Furthermore Hildegard continues to transgress the textual grammar with the musical phrases in the lines that follow, as the adjective viventis (which begins a new musical phrase) is separated from the noun it modifies (Dei – “the living God”). A similar separation is repeated in the next line as cristallus returns to the final, leaving its adjective lucens as its own separate phrase. By highlighting the two adjectives, the musical rhetoric may be intended here to point back to the lux vivens (“Living Light”) at the opening of the piece. The overall effect is to collapse the separation between Boniface as God. The wise saint has become so holy in the path of righteousness that he becomes purely the medium through which God’s light passes undistorted.
Further Resources for O Bonifaci
- Hildegard of Bingen, Symphonia, ed. Barbara Newman (Cornell Univ. Press, 1988 / 1998), pp. 204 and 300.
- For a discography of this piece, see the comprehensive list by Pierre-F. Roberge: Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179) - A discography
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