Scivias – Know the Ways by Adam Scime

“Scivias – Know the Ways is inspired by a collection of writings with the same title by medieval mystic, poet, and composer Hildegard von Bingen. Hildegard was an astonishingly brilliant woman during an age when such talent and sensitivity were suppressed. Exerting a tremendous influence on the Western Europe of her time, Hildegard was an extraordinary woman who stood out from the corruption, misery, and ruin – both temporal and spiritual – of the twelfth century. Perhaps her most influential collection of mystic writings, Scivias, is a three part work that attempts to develop Hildegard’s views on the universe, the structure of humanity, birth, death, and the nature of the soul. Hildegard would regularly receive inexplicable hallucinatory experiences during which a barrage of vivid images would enter her mind. These visions are comprised of extremely striking, and wildly creative imagery. As a devout Christian, Hildegard used scripture as a vehicle to justify what she believed to be visions from God. As a composer I was extremely inspired by these visions due to their inescapable relation to music. In fact, many of these visions are music when considering the metaphorical nature of the imagery, an attribute that comes as no surprise given Hildegard’s predilection for composition. Leaving Hildgard’s frankly loose Christian justifications aside, my inspiration for the the piece is taken only from the visions themselves in an attempt to represent Hildegard’s striking imagination through my own approach to sound design.”

Recording & Editing By Kelley Mitchell – Supported by a Metcalf Foundation Internship Grants