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Hildegard's songs evoke an erotic and embodied devotion to a Divinity imagined as sensuous, relational, immanent and often female. These songs, written for use in her predominantly female community, are part of Hildegard's educational program to guide the spiritual development of the women in her Benedictine monastery. Hildegard's theology of music proposes that the physical act of singing enables humans to experience connection to the Living Light (Hildegard's most common address for the voice of the Holy Presence in her visions, lux vivens), and to embody this Divinity in their midst. Her songs express, in dense poetic texts set to widely-ranging chant-like melodies, her rich imaging of the fecund presence of the Divine. The singers are thus encouraged to imagine themselves in relationship with the Holy One, the Living Light, through the physical act of singing these evocative songs. This dissertation analyses four of Hildegard's songs, representing a small cross section of her musical oeuvre. The analysis elucidates the way in which the music affectively conveys the meaning and significance of the texts. Carefully incising the "flesh" from the structural "bones" of the melodies reveals underlying organising configurations which pervade the songs and deliver the texts in a distinctive manner. Hildegard professed herself to be musically uneducated because she lacked a knowledge of music notation, although she admitted to extensive experience in singing Divine Office. However, she clearly claims to be the oral composer of her songs, arranging late in her life for music scribes to notate her melodies. My analysis unravels the influence of the oral composer as it intersects with the influence of the musically trained scribes who neumed her texts. Hildegard wrote that the "words symbolize the body, and the jubilant music indicates the spirit" (Scivias 3:12:13). She claims that the music conveys the meaning of the texts with affective power, and my analysis shows ways in which the oral composer endeavors to achieve this goal. Her texts, conveyed by her melodies and thus intimately entwined with the words they deliver, are powerfully persuasive forces in the spiritual education of the women in her monastery. This dissertation uncovers significant insights which can inform the communal practice of worship of the Divine, especially where song forms part of that worship, and particularly in regard to the imagining of Divinity in ways which can nourish the diversity of all humans, all creatures, and all creation. The work of feminist theologians is brought into dialogue with Hildegard's imagery and educational purpose, thus making available ways of imagining the Divine which are especially important for contemporary women, who have suffered from being excluded from the imago Dei. Thus the dissertation unearths a rich lode of female, and creatural embodied images, which threads its way though the millennia, but now needs to be mined to uncover images that might work for contemporary Christians seeking multiple imaging of the Divine to touch the deep feminist, ecological and liberative yearnings of many hearts and spirits.

Hymns are handed down from generation to generation, from country to country, and from church to church. In every time in history, hymns and songs are needed that are new for that time and generation – hymns through which the timeless message can be voiced in a new and unique way. The historical binding, as well as the ecumenical tie, are thus indispensable features for the church, her liturgy and her music. In the processes of creating new hymns and liturgical forms, the una sancta ecclesia always needs to be in focus. In this study the ecumenical and liturgical movements of the twentieth century, their goals, and the influence they exerted on liturgical renewal and hymn singing, are investigated. The ecumenical meaning of new hymns and liturgical forms is evaluated in terms of these goals. To determine the functionality of new hymns, a theoretical grounding for the various functions of hymns is given. Renewal in the form of contemporary material, new styles and ecumenical-liturgical forms is reflected in the Liedboek van die Kerk (2001), the new hymnal for the Afrikaans-speaking churches. The hymnal is discussed with regard to the content, and the processes of compilation. The versification of the psalms, fundamentalist views, and the resistance to transformation in the processes of canonization, also comes under scrutiny. Documentation, motivation and report of about sixty new hymns and liturgical forms in the Liedboek van die Kerk (2001) are given. Hymns, songs and liturgical forms are researched from hymnological perspectives, by relevant musical and textual analysis, and by exploring their origin, history, working history, and liturgical function. The functionality of the hymns is assessed, and their hymnological, liturgical, contextual and ecumenical significance determined, with regard to the theoretical grounding in the preceding chapters. The conclusion is that ecumenicity is a sine qua non for the hymns and songs of a new generation. History and tradition, but also the contemporary church as a whole, should co-determine processes. The future of liturgical singing depends on the way in which theological, liturgical, hymnological, ecumenical and anthropological fields of tension could be kept in balance. Balance thus needs to be found between functionality, ethics, and aesthetics; between tradition and creativity; historical fidelity and contemporary embodiment; individualism and community; between the individual church and ecumenism; quality and popularity; between Christian/confessional identity, and general religiosity; between orthodox expressions of faith, and the poetical-symbolical shifting of boundaries. Boundaries are exceeded through the singing of hymns – boundaries of language, of confession, of time and space, and boundaries between individuals and groups. Liturgical singing can be the singing of believers of all times and all places only by preserving the traditional ecumenical heritage on the one hand, and on the other hand, through ecumenical cooperation when creating new hymns and forms – thus the one faith in many languages, the audible sign of the una sancta ecclesia. / Thesis (DMus)--University of Pretoria, 2005. / Music / DMus / Unrestricted