This is the record that started the Hildegard craze back in 1982--and you need only listen to Emma Kirkby glide and soar through Columba aspexit (the opening hymn) to understand why. Gothic Voices performs the music very simply, either alternating soloists and unison choir over a drone or using a single unaccompanied voice. The singers render Hildegard's extravagant poetic imagery and melody not with the rhythmically fluid, ecstatic approach favoured by Sequentia, but with equalist rhythm and a calm, meditative quality. Gothic Voices' straightforward approach is less likely to send you into a rapturous trance than is Sequentia's, but in the hands of such fine singers as Kirkby, Margaret Philpot, and Emily van Evera, Hildegard's extraordinary texts and melodies are captivating--and clear enough to linger in the memory as melodies rather than just sensations. This record is still a bestselling title - try it and find out why.

Songlist: Columba aspexit, Ave, generosa, O ignis spiritus, O Ierusalem, O Euchari, O viridissima virga, O presul vere civitatis, O Ecclesia

With this recording New York City's Voices of Ascension and Conductor Keene celebrate the 900th birthday of one of the most remarkable creative spirits of the Middle Ages, the Abbess Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179). Although some musicians embellish Hildegard's single line chants with additional parts, the Voices of Ascension's approach is to present the inspired poetry and music of this mystic visionary "pure," without any contemporary additions. We are hearing, in these 14 haunting pieces, the Women of the Voices of Ascension, a mixed-voice choir on all their other excellent recordings. Soloists Kathy Theil, Michele Eaton, Alexandra Montano and Allessandra Visconti are particularly wonderful on cuts like "O virga ac diadema," "Vos Flores Rosarum," "Et Ideo," "O Pastor animarum,""Caritas Abundat," "Ave, generosa" and "O Jerusalem, aurea civitatus." All beautiful, soaring a cappella. This is simple, powerful music that touches and speaks to us across more than 8 centuries, in a way that its composer could never have imagined.

Songlist: O virga ac diadema, O viridissima virga, Vos Flores Rosarum, O Ecclesia, Columba aspexit, Et Ideo, O Euchari columba, O Pastor animarum, O clarissima mater, Caritas Abundat, O presul vere civitatis, Ave, generosa, Unde Quocumque, O lerusalem, aurea civitatis