Ars Chroralis Coeln / Maria Jonas HILDEGARD VON BINGEN Ordo Virtutum

Hildegard of Bingen's (1098-1179) visionary works and chants demonstrate an artistic synthesis the likes of which cannot be rivaled. Hildegard's ORDO VIRTUTUM is the earliest extant mystery play to survive in written form in Europe. Even today, Hildegard's love of giving artistic form to her ideas, as well as creating dramatic productions, is impressive -- like when she lets the Virtutes (the virtues), Anima (the soul), and the Diabolus (the devil) perform and sing: Hildegard's vision of a sounding divine order.

With our recording, we would like to document some of the characteristic features of our interpretation of ORDO VIRTUTUM, features which we have developed over many years of intense work in the field of medieval music:
- Lucia Mense (recorder and traverse flute) mimes the role of the devil, while improvising suitable music in both a medieval as well as contemporary manner.
- The devil speaks through Anima, the soul. Cora Schmeiser, an outstanding singer and performer, plays this double role.
- We are the first ensemble to utilize the concept of absolute pitch levels when singing ORDO VIRTUTUM: In the twelfth century, the notation of pitch was a rather new and innovative practice. The musical staff had just recently been invented. The only chromatic tone which could be notated within this system was b-flat. This led to a notated practice of relative pitch levels, which did not reflect the actual sounding tones. Through intense research, the director of the ensemble, Maria Jonas, was able to create a transcription which comes at least close to corresponding to the sound at that time. Therefore, in our recording, several songs from the ORDO will be heard for the first time as they may have sounded in Hildegard's time.

Tobie Miller BACH Solo

The music of J.S. Bach has followed me throughout my musical life as a sort of leitmotif. I grew up listening to and playing his music in so many different and varied forms - both original versions and adaptations - that it was a natural next step to adapt some of Bach's most beautiful solo works for my instrument. Bach's music is often described as "universal", and has been transcribed, adapted and adopted by and for numerous different instruments and musical genres. However, this is the first time that Johann Sebastian Bach's music has been recorded on the hurdy gurdy!

This project represents the culmination of many years of hard work, adapting and transcribing this music for my instrument, thinking outside the box, while still trying not to completely re-invent the wheel (pun intended). (Tobie Miller)