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Joan Szymko
Joan Szymko Music
Viriditas
Joyful, ecstatic, and filled with awe at the wonder of creation.
SSAA a cappella
The tone throughout this piece is joyful, ecstatic, and filled with awe at the wonder of creation. In her compositions and writings, Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) dares us to “enjoy the ecstasy of God.” The composer imagines that the words (as translated by Gabrielle Uhlein) set here were received by Hildegard in one of her visions. The opening measures of “Viriditas” sound as the perpetual, pulsing praise of the Creator by creation. The first-person narrator of the text is the voice of viriditas— of greening. Hildegard believed that this greening moistens and cracks open the most hardened of hearts, calling forth compassion. (“the yearning for good”)
Composer’s Notes
The opening measures of “Viriditas” sound as the perpetual, pulsing praise of the Creator by creation. I have interpreted the first person narrator of the text as the voice of Hildegard’s viriditas— greening. The tone throughout this piece is joyful, ecstatic, and filled with awe at the wonder of creation.
-Joan Szymko
Text
I am the one whose praise
echoes on high.
I adorn all the earth.
I am the breeze that nurtures all things
green.
I encourage bolloms to flourish
with ripening fruits.
I am led by the spirit to feed
the purest streams.
I am the rain
coming from the dew
that causes the grasses to laugh
with the joy of life.
I call forth tears.
I am the yearning for good
from “Meditations with Hildegard of Bingen” by Gabriele Uhlein, Copyright 1983, Bear & Co. Used by permission of Bear & Co.
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