Hildegard von Bingen

Artist: Garmarna
Label: Northside Records
Category: Music

Average customer rating:

Format: Enhanced
Media: Audio CD
Number Of Discs: 1

UPC: 021561606326
EAN: 0021561606326
ASIN: B00005NNON

Release Date: 2001-09-04

Related Categories:

General

| Folk | Styles | Music

Sweden

General

| International | Styles | Music

General

| New Age | Styles | Music

General

| Pop | Styles | Music

General

General

| International | Indie Music | Stores | Music

Scandinavia

Listmania:

Spiritual Music
Spiritual Music
Fiddle Examples in Some Great Songs
Albums I want to add to my collection, but can't afford
Truly Original World Music
To-Do List (My-crazy-uncle-ish Music)

Tracks:

Euchari
Viridissima Virga
Salvatoris
O Frondens Virga
Unde Quocompque
O Vis Aeternitatis
Virga Ac Diadema
Paso
Kyrie

Similar Items:

Vengeance
God's Musicians
Vittrad
Trä
Sjofn

Customer Reviews:

Emma, You're Divine.......2007-03-15

Emma joins the ranks of people like Nina Simone, Billie Holiday, and Liz Fraser (Cocteau Twins) here. Even if you're a stone cold atheist, you can hear god in the grain of her voice. There is a feeling of devotion so intense that it shades into the sensual. Those coming here from the Hildegard angle will no doubt be taken aback by the vintage trip-hop trimming and sawing violins, but they refresh the material and the listener's spirit. Organic, electric, Nordic, Latinate, mundane (ode to a leafy branch), and ethereal--it all hangs together remarkably well, & there are moments of pure transcendence. You also get to see the magical Emma perform one of the songs live. One only wishes they would record and tour the US more.

More Garmarna than Hildegard.......2005-08-15

I enjoyed this CD a great deal. I really did not get much of an impression of Hildegard merely by listening to it, however. It helped to read the English translations of the lyrics. Essentially, I see it as a Garmarna CD where someone else wrote the lyrics and some of the melodies.

Parts are great, parts are bad.......2003-05-30

This album is certainly quite innovative--parts of I absolutely love; parts which aspire to heights we never thought Garmarna was capable of--but at the same time, the bad songs on here are honestly some of Garmarna's worst. It's such a damn enjoyable album though that it's quite hard to feel bad about buying it... I guarantee SOMETHING on here will be exremely enjoyable, but cannot guarantee that everyone will like every song, as I could with God's Musicians (if you liked one song from that, you almost definitely would enjoy the entire album).

The songs are sung in Latin, with Emma Hýrdelin's voice singing them with her Swedish accent. The basic premise is taking ancient poems (written by the German nun Hildegard von Bingen) and setting them to modern techno-backed orchestrations.

Our first glimpse of this is on "Euchari". Some fans may remember "Euchari" from the Vengeance album; they performed the song on there as well. However, the Hildegard version is extraordinarily good in comparison. The fiddles, rush of air, thumping and clicking beat, and Emma's voice just go well together. I think this is unquestionably the best song on the album.

Other songs, such as Salvatoris, O Frondens Virga and Viridisssima Virga are also extraordinary in their mix of old and new; but it is the other "potentials"--the songs that seem like they should have been cut out when the band was deciding which to include-- that threaten to ruin the album. Notice I said threaten, not "they ruin the album"--because they don't. Hildegard von Bingen is STILL GOOD. It jus could have been much better without technofied Unde Quocompque or the completely immemorably Kyrie. The use of Latin on the album is undoubtedly seductive and powerful; it is only in the arrangement of some songs that any flaws are noted, and they really aren't too big of a problem. However, on the whole I think this album will satisfy most Garmarna fans that enjoyed Vengeance, and may garner Garmarna a few new fans, too.

This is NOT pretentious new-age...and it ROX!!.......2003-03-24

As soon as I heard the song "Viridissima Virga" from a compilation album of artists on their label, and read about the album, I Knew i had to get this album.
Some may think that it's a silly or useless idea doomed to fail, or they just don't get it because their minds aren't open; think again!
Listening to this (thinking outside the religious content), transports one back in time in a subtle way because it brings out the music and makes you relate to it with its stunningly, surprisingly funky and beautiful arrangments! It combines the music (written in latin) of this 11th century nun with funky techno and traditional Swedish instruments in the arrangements! (the original tunes have been kept). and, once again, these new arrangements along with Emma Hýrdelin's striking voice, only serve to bring out these songs into further dimensions.
This should definitely be purchased!
TYhere's nothing wrong with making music more beautiful;)

my kind of reverence.......2002-10-21

There are some surprisingly tough reviews of this CD here. Criticizing her pronounciation of the Latin lyrics!? I don't think that Garmarna intended to "recreate" any sort of authentic version of von Bingen's music. Rather this music is very much in the spirit of re-interpretation. I generally don't like techno or electronic dance music in general because I am bored by it, but to add the machinery and some of the conventions of that form to medieval plainsong certainly brings out the best in the former.

I will not even bother to argue whether it brings out the best in the latter because purists might burst a blood vessel and I certainly haven't listened to enough more reverential interpretations to really judge. I believe that the purpose of projects like these is to interest a broader audience in more traditional interpretations of historical musical forms. Once a fan of pop music or even of neo-traditional Swedish music hears this album, if they have not heard von Bingen's music before, they will most assuredly be moved to seek it out. And for that the more dogmatic of von Bingen appreciators should thank Garmarna.

Music CD:

Music CD

Music CD

Music CD

I Celebrate Life!

Best of Grim Reaper ~ Grim Reaper

Theodore: An Alternative Music Sampler ~ Various Artists

Mahala Rai Banda ~ Mahala Rai Banda

Fool's Mate ~ Peter Hammill

Stranger in Your Eye

Best of Back to the Root (Book One) ~ Back to the Root

Slow Flux

Re: Joyce ~ Musical

Music CD 48