Aftermath

Hildegard’s reception, musical and otherwise, is traced in this chapter. After her death, Theoderic of Echternach completed her Vita, and possibly a series of Eight Readings for her feast day. Gebeno of Eberbach excerpted her works in the Pentachronon, and official canonization procedures began in 1228 (though the process concluded only in 2012, followed by Hildegard’s recognition as a Doctor of the Church). Rupertsberg was destroyed in 1632 and Eibingen dissolved in the early nineteenth century; the Abtei Sankt Hildegard was created in the early twentieth century. Revival of the music began in the mid-nineteenth century, with the first complete edition published in 1969. But only in 1982, with recordings from Sequentia and Gothic Voices, did Hildegard’s music really begin to reach a broad audience.