O Viridissima
Item
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Score title
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O Viridissima
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Composer
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Judith Weir
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Program note
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O Viridissima is a realisation/recomposition of Hildegard of Bingen’s monodic hymn, O Viridissima Virga (‘O greenest branch’). Hildegard’s melody (slightly ornamented) is heard throughout, on violin, cello or both, whilst simultaneously undergoing registral and timbral variations. Towards the end a simple tonality emerges from the pitches of the melody.
Hildegard’s text (not heard in this composition) centres round Mary’s fertility translated to the world of nature. In her penultimate line, Hildegard makes the surprisingly dark remark ‘Eve rejected these things’; at this point in my realisation, the low bass registers of cello and piano are heard for the first time. Immediately after, the music briefly floats off into the stratosphere, echoing Hildegard’s closing words, ‘Now let there be praise to the highest’.
Judith Weir
Judith Weir