Hyperion"s A Feather on the Breath of God, featuring the music of Hildegard of Bingen, has been a perennial bestseller for nearly thirty years. The recording draws upon Hildegard"s large collection of music and poetry, the Symphony of the Harmony of Celestial Revelations - which she continued to enlarge and enrich throughout her life. It contains some of the finest songs ever written in the Middle Ages, and a number of the most elaborate, the Sequences, were recorded here for the first time. They are so profoundly motivated by Hildegard"s devotional life that it is hard to tell whether she is exploring music and poetry through spirituality or vice versa. The songs are conceived on a large - sometimes a massive - scale; it is in superabundance that Hildegard found herself both as poetess and composer. Profligacy of imagination relieved the intensity of her impressions whilst validating her as a visionary in the eyes of her contemporaries. The corresponding musical resources are immense, ranging from the most tranquil melody to an almost obsessive declamation at high pitch. Everywhere we sense a movement of the mind in music.