O Magna Res (2019)
A cappella SSSAAA sextet; ca. 3 min.
The composer writes: Hildegard von Bingen (1098 – 1179) was a woman of many talents: she was a magistra, a philosopher, a scientist, a poet and a composer. An extensive body of her sacred songs was collected in a cycle called the Symphonia armoniae celestium revelationum (The Harmonic Music of Celestial Mysteries). The collection also contains several texts for which Hildegard’s music has been lost, and “O Magna Res” is one of these.
“O Magna Res” could be described as a miniature chronology of the Christian spiritual world. It begins with God alone, proceeding to His creation of life, and then to the fall of humanity. As in many of Hildegard’s texts, “O Magna Res” contrasts the Virgin Mary with Eve. Finally, with the birth of Christ (for which the “dawn” is a poetic metaphor) comes the redemption of Woman, and her beneficent influence on the world.
Score available from the Canadian Music Centre or Sheet Music Direct.
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TEXT
O magna res
que in nullo constituto latuit,
ita quod non est facta
nec creata ab ullo,
sed in se ipsa permanet.
O vita
que surrexisti in aurora,
in qua magnus rex sapientiam
que in antiquo
apud virum sapientem fuit
misericorditer manifestavit,
quia mulier per foramen antiqui perditoris
mortem intravit.
O luctus! Ach meror! He planctus,
qui in muliere edificati sunt!
O aurora, hec abluisti
in forma prime coste.
O feminea forma, soror Sapientie,
quam gloriosa es,
quoniam fortissima vita
in te surrexit,
quam mors nunquam suffocabit.
Te Sapientia erexit,
ita quod omnes creature
per te ornate sunt,
in meliorem partem
quam in primo acciperent.
TRANSLATION
(by Barbara Newman)
O greatness
that lay hidden in nothing created
so that it was neither made
nor created by anyone
but abides in itself.
O life,
you who arose to the dawn,
in which the great king
mercifully revealed the wisdom
that belonged to the wise man of old:
because a woman, through the ancient destroyer's opening,
entered into death.
O grief!
Ah sorrow!
Alas, the mourning
that were built in the woman!
O dawn, you washed them away
in the form of the primal rib.
O feminine form, sister of Wisdom
how glorious you are,
for in you has arisen
the mightiest life
that death will never stifle.
Wisdom has exalted you
so that all creatures
are adorned through you
in a better fashion
than they received in the beginning.
The composer writes: Hildegard von Bingen (1098 – 1179) was a woman of many talents: she was a magistra, a philosopher, a scientist, a poet and a composer. An extensive body of her sacred songs was collected in a cycle called the Symphonia armoniae celestium revelationum (The Harmonic Music of Celestial Mysteries). The collection also contains several texts for which Hildegard’s music has been lost, and “O Magna Res” is one of these.
“O Magna Res” could be described as a miniature chronology of the Christian spiritual world. It begins with God alone, proceeding to His creation of life, and then to the fall of humanity. As in many of Hildegard’s texts, “O Magna Res” contrasts the Virgin Mary with Eve. Finally, with the birth of Christ (for which the “dawn” is a poetic metaphor) comes the redemption of Woman, and her beneficent influence on the world.
Score available from the Canadian Music Centre or Sheet Music Direct.
WATCH & LISTEN ...
TEXT
O magna res
que in nullo constituto latuit,
ita quod non est facta
nec creata ab ullo,
sed in se ipsa permanet.
O vita
que surrexisti in aurora,
in qua magnus rex sapientiam
que in antiquo
apud virum sapientem fuit
misericorditer manifestavit,
quia mulier per foramen antiqui perditoris
mortem intravit.
O luctus! Ach meror! He planctus,
qui in muliere edificati sunt!
O aurora, hec abluisti
in forma prime coste.
O feminea forma, soror Sapientie,
quam gloriosa es,
quoniam fortissima vita
in te surrexit,
quam mors nunquam suffocabit.
Te Sapientia erexit,
ita quod omnes creature
per te ornate sunt,
in meliorem partem
quam in primo acciperent.
TRANSLATION
(by Barbara Newman)
O greatness
that lay hidden in nothing created
so that it was neither made
nor created by anyone
but abides in itself.
O life,
you who arose to the dawn,
in which the great king
mercifully revealed the wisdom
that belonged to the wise man of old:
because a woman, through the ancient destroyer's opening,
entered into death.
O grief!
Ah sorrow!
Alas, the mourning
that were built in the woman!
O dawn, you washed them away
in the form of the primal rib.
O feminine form, sister of Wisdom
how glorious you are,
for in you has arisen
the mightiest life
that death will never stifle.
Wisdom has exalted you
so that all creatures
are adorned through you
in a better fashion
than they received in the beginning.
