I must have been 18 when I heard a tape of this recording at the house of my girlfriend. I don’t think she put it on, but probably her father did. He was a very serious man in my view, a bit austere. In a way this music fit him. My impression of him might be influenced by the situation: the couple went through a divorce at the time, but had to live together for the next months for some reason. The family must have been going through hell.
Much later, when I started studying Medieval History, I discovered who Hildegard von Bingen was. At one point I was asked to translate some of her poems from the Latin. They were really complicated to translate, because every word had extra meaning. Meaning that in our modern minds is mostly lost. Some of that poetry is put to music, and reconstructed here. Emma Kirkby is the real start here, with a voice that is light, but has strength enough to carry these mystical songs from the past.