Capable women, doing things the world around them doesn't expect them to do. Not a modern concept.
In the 11th century, Hildegard of Bingen showed the world that its picture of women, the frame within which women might operate, was too small. A woman skilled in medicine, a musician, composer, an intellectual, a mystic, a leader. All in a time when women, and women in the Church, were less than their male counterparts.
Or so it was believed. Ah well, society can't be right all the time, I suppose.
"The Origin of Fire" is only one of the CDs we have of Hildegard's music. It's a CD I particularly like, possibly because of the inclusion of some Gregorian Chant - but then, I'm partial to that. As I am to the performers, Anonymous 4.
There's a very good movie, "Vision", that takes the viewer through the life of Hildegard von Bingen. It shows a very human person, but an extraordinary one for all that.
