‘And behold! In the 43rd year of my earthly course, as I was gazing with great fear and trembling attention at a heavenly vision, I saw a great splendour in which resounded a voice from Heaven saying to me, ‘O fragile human, ashes of ashes, and filth of filth! Say and write what you see and hear.”
These are the words of 12th-century polymath Hildegard von Bingen (or Hildegard of Bingen), recalling the divine intervention that set her on the path to becoming one of history’s earliest and most influential composers.
