
Hommage a Hildegard of Bingen (1098-1179) – The music of Hildegard has always amazed and inspired me. Well, EVERYTHING about Hildegard has amazed and inspired me—the things that she composed, wrote, built, and accomplished—especially in an age when women were completely oppressed. She is quite simply one of the greatest geniuses this world has ever produced, and it’s criminal that she’s not as well-known as other male geniuses from her time (or later). When I was thinking about this Hommage, I wasn’t sure how to approach it. Then, one day (July 11th, 2018), I was doing some completely unrelated work, and out of nowhere, the entire piece came to me all at once, as in a vision. Yeah, I know how that sounds, especially given Hildegard’s history, but that’s what happened. The piece was written in one afternoon.