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Boccadoro, Brenno

Ut gummi in longum protrahit : santa Ildegarda e l'umor nero della musica

2022 - Leo S. Olschki

P. 189-214

  • In the years following the publication of the monumental Saturn and Melancholy, St. Hildegard's writings have become an unavoidable chapter in melancholy studies. As is well known, Hildegard writes about medicine, music and can compose inspired para-liturgical melodies. However, it is difficult nowadays to cite a systematic study in this field that has ventured beyond the Herculean columns of humoral medicine to ascertain the hypothesis of a mutual involvement between harmonic theory, sound and melancholy.
  • Contrary to widespread prejudice, St. Hildegard's visionary inclination did not translate into an attitude of disdain for theoretical music as a liberal discipline, both with regard to harmony as a psychic dimension and to its sound incarnation. As far as we know, Hildegard is the first author in a long history to conceive of the melancholic spiritus as a sonorous wind (!) spread through the human body by the breath of Satan. And her writings contain the same theoretical principles of the musical grammar of the affections destined to triumph in 16th-century music. [Publisher's text]

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Rivista di storia e letteratura religiosa : LVIII, 2, 2022