Breath On Me Breath Of God

"A feather on the breath of God", Sequences and hymns by Abbess Hildegard of Bingen was a surprise best seller on its release in the early 1980s and it went a long way to ensuring the long term viability of the then fledgling Hyperion label. Performed by Gothic Voices directed by Christopher Page, guest soprano Emma Kirkby has prominent billing on the booklet but in fact the stand out soprano duties are more often undertaken by group member Emily Van Evera. The disk stands the passage of time since its' recording flawlessly and it is hard to think of a better performance of this repertoire. Hildegard was born on the cusp of the 11th and 12th centuries and spent all of her adult life in holy orders but she is most remarkable for her music and poetry, some of it inspired by visions. Her music illustrates the first opening out and expansion of basic plainchant but retains the profound spirituality and communication of that form. The commercial success of the disk no doubt owed much to a fashionable new age chill out mentality prevalent at the time but that was incidental to the production of the disk which did not forsee such success and was made without any concession to it. The music is primarily acapella but some tracks benefit from Robert White playing reed drones and Doreen Muskett playing symphony, which I think is a kind of hurdy gurdy.