Dr. Jennifer Bain joins us on the Front Porch. She is just the expert to shed light on Hildegard of Bingen, the 12th century saint who Blandine, the protagonist of The Rabbit Hutch, is obsessed with. Linda was confused by the whole Hildegard thread throughout the book and wasn’t even sure she whether she was a real or fictitious person. (Hint: she’s real!). Jennifer is a professor of Musicology and Gender and Women's Studies at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Jennifer was the editor of and contributor to The Cambridge Companion to Hildegard of Bingen, published by Cambridge University Press. Jennifer’s research interests are wide-ranging, including the secular music of 14th-century poet and composer, Guillaume de Machaut, medieval music theory, digital chant research, the 19th- and 20th-century reception of Hildegard of Bingen, as well as issues surrounding the role of women in the production and composition of music. Jennifer tells us when she was an undergraduate music major, she only was exposed to ONE woman composer, Laurie Anderson. This experience piqued her interest, in grad school, in learning more about women composers which eventually led her to Hildegard of Bingen, who was the focus of her Master’s thesis. After obtaining her PhD, she had continued her research on Hildegard. Jennifer participates in the multidisciplinary Women and Gender Studies program through a variety of seminars, such as those she teaches on Hildegard. Jennifer describes Hildegard’s theological works, and her writings on botany and medicine. In modern day Germany, Hildegard medicine is still practiced and Hildegard’s abbey still sells some of her medicinal products, and wine. Linda and Nancy recount their visit to Halifax and their visit to the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic. Nancy remembered the museum explained the 1917 collision of a French cargo ship, loaded with explosives, with the Norwegian vessel in Halifax’s harbour. The explosion and fire killed at least 1,782 Haligonians and injured 9,000 others. The Museum also has a permanent exhibit about Titanic because all her recovered bodies were brought to Halifax. Jennifer thinks those are very good exhibits and recommends them to visitors. The Maritime Conservatory for the Arts building, where Jennifer has been many times and is not far from her home, is where the bodies from Titanic were taken. She also noted that Boston sent many medical professionals to assist Halifax, so ever since, Halifax has sent Boston a Christmas Tree to thank them. When Jennifer first moved to Halifax, one of her neighbors, an elderly woman, was a survivor of the explosion who carried a scar where her brow was cut by glass blown out of her home’s windows while she was taking a bath. Nancy reads from The Rabbit Hutch about why Blandine loved HIldegard: Because she is about a hundred people in one body. Hildegard of Bingen: prophet, composer, botanist, abbess, theologian, doctor, preacher, philosopher, writer, saint. Doctor of the Church. A veritable polymath. She didn’t ask anyone’s permission to be these things, to be everything, she just did it. She was always writing letters to male members of the clergy, telling them to get their act together. They weren’t blowing the trumpet of God’s justice, was the problem.” Jennifer tells us Hildegard actually did require permission and support but she thinks fascination with Hildegard is partially because it seems so unlikely that a woman could successfully pursue so many areas. Plus, she had a direct line to God. Author and ex-priest Matthew Fox has introduced many people to Hildegard. Jennifer tells us living in an abbey was a sort of advantage for a woman, probably giving her better chances to live a longer life, by not dying in childbirth. Hildegard was interested in educating the nuns in her charge. Hildegard gives all the credit to God for her success. Hildegard entered the church at 14 and likely received much of her education through the church and also at the home of Jutta von Sponheim. Hildegard would have learned Latin, given the Psalter which would have been sung many times during the day. Although Hildegard was fairly conservative theologically, but was critical of the church, itself. For people interested in scholarly grappling of Hildegard, Jennifer recommends The Cambridge Companion to Hildegard of Bingen, published by Cambridge University Press. For a more popular introduction to Hildegard, she recommends Fiona Maddocks’ Hildegard of Bingen and Honey Maconi’s Hildegard of Bingen (Women Composers). Jennifer also recommends a good German full-length film version of Hildegard’s life, Vision. Jennifer tells us she became the editor of The Cambridge Companion to Hildegard of Bingen after having published an earlier book about Hildegard with Cambridge. An editor invited her to edit the Companion. She said it has been a very positive experience working with scholars from many different areas of expertise. Nancy notes that Tess Gunty’s Blandine is obsessed with Hildegard and other female saints, but she feels like their experience is basically selfish. She’s not sure she even believes in God. Gunty writes of Blandine: So how, wonders Blandine, would a contemporary mystic challenge the plundering growth imperative, if that were her goal? She’d have to break out of her solitude. There’s no way to overthrow the system without going outside and making some eye contact. No matter how small your carbon footprint, you can’t simply forgo food and comfort and sex all your life and call yourself ethically self-sacrificial. In order for her life to be considered ethical, thinks Blandine, she must try to dismantle systemic injustice. Nancy asks Jennifer whether Hildegard did dismantle any systems of injustice. Jennifer observes that one of the appeals of Hildegard for feminists is that we’re looking for historical figures. Jennifer thinks a true feminist does dismantle systems of injustice. However, Hildegard emphasized she was a member of the weaker sex. On the other hand, Hildegard did feature women in her musical works, and she did mentor the women in her charge. Jennifer observes Hildegard was very limited in what she could really do within the church. Jennifer tells us Hildegard’s liturgical music was vocal with no instruments, in a style known as chant, or popularly Gregorian chant. There is no harmony, even. The music she wrote was for the days of particular saints, such as feast days. Feast days were the days saints died and were reborn in heaven. Her pieces are often longer than pieces written by her contemporaries and she was less tied to a rigid structure of exact stanzas, giving her pieces a more improvisational, too. Jennifer tells us she is working with another musicologist, Kate Helson, and computer scientist, Mark Daily, both from the University of Western. to do computational analyses to identify features unique to her compositions. She is also working on a project called The Digital Analysis of Chant Transmission (DACT) which invites people to submit fragments of chants they may have, creating a catalogue, and giving people information about their chants. The website is: DACT-chant.ca. They share stories at @DACTF through their Twitter (X). Nancy notes that she enjoyed finding and listening to O Eterne Deus by Hildegard, mentioned in The Rabbit Hutch.