Hildegard von Bingen: Canticles of Ecstasy
Although Hildegard von Bingen's music has been around for 900 years--and recordings of her  music for decades--it seems that only now, as we approach the turn of another millennium, the time is right  for the world to pay attention. In this first-rate traversal of her music--the most popular of several volumes  released by the early-music ensemble Sequentia--we hear music that resulted from Hildegard's legendary  visions, which often included song texts that she subsequently collected and dispensed to her religious  community of women. As rendered here by the voices and instruments of Sequentia, her music invokes an  unobscured sense of mystery, conforming to Hildegard's belief that music was our bridge to the harmonies  of the heavens. Whether or not we're experiencing that "heavenly harmony" here, the simple,  direct, beautifully turned melodies, sung by pure, finely tuned, warm-colored women's voices, often eerily  accompanied by an instrumental drone, is heavenly enough.--David Vernier