Luminous Awakening (SATB)

My first setting of Hildegard von Bingen’s “Spiritus Sanctus Vivificans” used an English translation by a well-known translator of spiritual writings. I was deep in the throes of composition and under a tight deadline, so it somehow failed to register with me that a modern translation of Hildegard’s ancient words would be copyrighted material! Realizing that later, I felt pretty foolish – but not nearly as foolish as I would feel when, after months of haggling, the translator’s publisher offered me a “generous” non-renewable 5-year contract for an exorbitant fee.

I headed back to the drawing board to see if there was an easy remedy to this quandary, but I had no luck. Substituting the original Latin text into my setting was a fruitless endeavor, and neither of the other two English translations I dug up managed to capture the music’s sense of movement and grace.

I was close to giving up on the song altogether when I had a revelation: Why couldn’t I create my own translation? I had studied Latin for a few years in high school, and I have plenty of experience writing and adapting lyrics. When I created a word-for-word translation of Hildegard’s prayer and compared it with the three English versions, I understood immediately what qualities I wanted to invoke. Hildegard’s writing is about the Holy Spirit being not only a steadfast root but also a dynamic presence. My guiding principle for the translation became flow, an eternally moving and changing breath. As I immersed myself in Hildegard’s original words and crafted my own translation, I set out to make each word invite the listener into the next word, and the next, and the next.

-Elizabeth Alexander