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Acord: Hrotsvit and Hildegard
September 17, 2023 @ 11:00 am - 12:00 pm
This concert weaves together creative works by two remarkable self-proclaimed ‘strong voices’. In the C10th Hrotsvit (c.935-c.1000) played on her own Saxon name, describing herself as ‘Clamor Validus Gandesheimensis’. In the C12th, Abbess Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) wrote that her mission was to proclaim sacred truths with her ‘trumpet voice’. Although they never met or knew of each other, these women from aristocratic backgrounds had the good fortune to live in places and at a time when early Christianity had become established in Saxony and the Rhineland under the Benedictine rule, supported by cultural enrichment through Greek and Latin texts flooding into scriptoria via Constantinople. Both women took advantage of the opportunities that presented themselves for scholarship and spiritual creativity in a cloistered life: Hrotsvit took limited vows and enjoyed relative comfort as a secular canoness, while Hildegard was committed by her parents as a child
to a full monastic life, in which she achieved high status as a political and spiritual leader.
Although that all sounds rather sober, Hrotsvit had a quite spicy sense of humour as you will discover.
Sunday September 17, 11am
Kathleen Syme Library and Community Centre, 251 Faraday Street, Carlton
TICKETS: S20 (Concession $15) at door.