Once, I was booked for a wedding that led to love at a crossroads. Back then, I lived in an easy-to-get-to Seattle neighborhood. I had a home studio that I used for teaching harp lessons at the back of my house, and I also had wedding couples visit me there for in-person consultations, which was a popular perk that people took me up on.
The week of the wedding arrived. Customarily, I do a check-in with my client 1-2 days before the event to confirm the details I cannot err on: arrival time, play time, and song details to name a few. I spoke with the bride, and everything was good to go!
Get ready for a Pink Floyd reference; we’re going to the harp side of the moon. Harp Escape vol. 12 is “A Saucerful of Secrets” by Pink Floyd. I started Harp Escape videos in 2019, before the pandemic hit our world, because even then, I thought we need the space to heal ourselves. Times have definitely gotten more complex and stressful, so I continue to make therapeutic harp music on YouTube.
Specifically, Harp Escape is relaxing music that provides an aural getaway. Harp Escape is created just for you to: get ready for bed, practice yoga, meditate, nap, read, and add quiet to your daily personal rituals.
Calming music of this nature has been scientifically proven to increase deep breathing, which in turn increases blood flow, decreases stress, and promotes deeper sleep. I prepared this song in the style and manner as I would play it at the therapeutic bedside, so this song is at a particularly slow tempo, and intended for deep relaxing. By finding inner peace, we get to outer peace.
Because my brain was at half-mast today with this cold, I tried unsuccessfully to write this blog several times. The funny thing about my version of the Pink Floyd song, I started to second guess myself that it was the correct song title.
I saved the video as “A Saucerful of Secrets” – a song by the same name from their 1968 album. My video has been up on YouTube since 2021 and is one of my least popular videos. I thought it might just be too obscure and atonal, both fair assumptions. Then I listened again to their song “Echos” on the album Meddle. They two songs sounded so similar. Had I put up the video with the wrong title? Did I have a cold back in 2021 too when I did all this work?
I’m really second-guessing myself in this foggy cold brain of mine. After re-listening to both songs, I do the know the correct answer, but if you want to chime up, let me know – is this song “Echos” from Pink Floyd’s album Meddle, or “A Saucerful of Secrets?”
Either way, I hope this volume of Harp Escape brings some intentional results of peace of mind and relaxation. If you want to know more about these videos, please subscribe to the Harp Escape YouTube channel.
We still hear Hildegard von Bingen’s music being played a millennium after her living on Earth. Most often, you can find her songs as the vocal motets she originally wrote them, meaning vocally. I wanted to play more of her songs, but I was surprised that sheet music for Hildegard’s music was not easy to find. I couldn’t even find a collection of Hildegard’s music as piano sheet music! This really astounded me because she was famous in her day! If she were alive today, she’d have an empire of healing herbs for sale, a retreat center, art, books, concerts, a YouTube channel, and more.
Transcribing Hildegard’s Music
I did some digging by visiting both Seattle Public Library and King County Public Library archives. I found a publishing house called simply: Hildegard Publishing. They put out transcriptions of Hildegard’s music in the 1980’s and 1990’s and helped make her songs more readable from the Medieval-written diamond-shaped neumes, to become lead sheet notation. They appeared as high vocal music: in treble clef with lyrics (in Latin). However, they still lacked meter, chord progressions, and harmonies. I decided to take a hand at what I thought was missing.
As I begin the project, several concepts in mind. First and foremost, I wanted to honor the work, inspiration, and format of the original compositions by Hildegard von Bingen. At her time, music was largely written as an antiphon, or single note voicing. Harmonies were either non-existent, or commonly heard as intervals of 4thsor 5ths. Therefore, the beginnings of all of these songs have this in mind.
Another element of these songs recognizes their inherent therapeutic nature. In keeping in line with that, I know that these songs work best in their simplest forms. Often therapeutic harpists who play at the bedside for someone unwell will have a small harp, or a folk harp. I wanted to make this music accessible for as many people as possible, so that if the goal was to play for people with physical, mental, or sleep ailments, the therapeutic harpist could do that with the harp size available to them. Lastly, I added what I thought were pleasing chord progressions.
Once I did a few of these pieces, I realized there was something there. I felt rather called to make these songs available to other musicians. In doing so, I found out that many of my students liked playing this music too, and audiences liked listening as well. I transcribed a few more songs (with the help of listening to recordings, finding other people’s arrangements, and experimenting with what I thought where pretty harmonies and melodies). Next, I reached out to Mel Bay Publications. My samples were approved and I had one year to complete the book, Songs of Hildegard von Bingen for Harp.
Disclaimer: I am not a Medieval scholar! I have never thought about going this route to writing historic music transcriptions before this project. It’s funny to me, because I just sort of learned as I was going along and the project kept going in a positive direction. So, I kept doing it!
I am happy to say that once I had the book in hand, I had several concerts, lectures, and workshops with Songs of Hildegard von Bingen. This spring, I was invited to join a conversation/panel at the National Nordic Museum called “Medieval Joy” moderated by a Seattle University history professor. Next, I led a workshop and played a concert at NW Folklife. In June, I performed at Folio, a library and cultural space in Pike Place Market. I pepper in her music at weddings and private events, and look forward to future concerts featuring Hildegard von Bingen’s songs.
For Harp Escape volume 10, I played Fly Me to the Moon, the well-known jazz standard by Bart Howard. Originally, Harp Escape vol. 10 was recorded during quarantine times for a feel-good relaxing offering of harp music. I did a mix of contemporary cover songs, traditional Irish, classical, and this jazz tune.
Many musicians, especially those who have taken music history classes and read sheet music, are aware of who Hildegard von Bingen was. I was first introduced to Hildegard’s music as a teenager by my organ teacher, when I was playing for mass. Fast forward a few years, and I went to university where I heard about her again (in music history). I even ended up writing a paper on her. Thirdly, I came across Hildegard’s music when I played harp in hospital and hospice as a Certified Clinical Musician.
Who Was Hildegard von Bingen?
Hildegard von Bingen lived from 1098-1179 in Germany during the Middle Ages, at a time when education and literacy were controlled by the Catholic Church. Hildegard was “given” as a tithing to the church, not an uncommon practice of the time. When she was 14, she was sent to live a life of religious devotion in Disibodenberg.
