Lux Vivens (Living Light)
The Music of Hildegard von Bingen
Jocelyn Montgomery with David Lynch
Hildegard von Bingen
Hildegard von Bingen was a Benedictine abbess who lived from 1098-1179. She was the tenth child of the German nobleman Hildebert and his wife Mechthild. A well-loved cult figure, Hildegard`s 900th birthday is being celebrated around the world in 1998. Hildegard experienced mysterious religious visions at a young age, prompting her parents to entrust their child to the abbess Jutta von Spondheim at age eight. She received a brought education which, hand in hand with studies of the Bible and its illustrations, she developed into her own visionary theology. Her first work, Scivias (Know the Ways), earned her the title of German prophetess. Pope Eugene III confirmed her gift at the Council of Trier in 1147. Upon Jutta von Spondheim`s death, Hildegard was unanimously elected to replace her mentor as abbess of Disibodenberg. After eleven years there, she decided to separate the nun`s convent from the monk`s monastery, and Hildegard built a new convent in Bingen- Bingerbruck with her twenty fellow nuns. She lived and worked there until her death. Hildegrad was a prolific writer and theologian, a scientist and herbalist, and considered by some to be an early feminist. Her works include Liber Meritorum (Book of Merits of Life), Physica (Natural History), Divinorum Operum (Book of Divine Works) and Causae et Curae (Medical Science). Her theological texts were, along with those of Bernhard von Clairvaux, the acknowlegded religious authority of the West. Her historical and scientific works were characterized by wisdom rooted in personal experience. Hildegard`s extensive knowledge of herbs, in particular, earned her many followers. Yet beyond all this, Hildegard was an incredibly blessed musician. Though she had no formal training, her visions led her to compose some of the most extraordinary musical works of the period. With a characteristic spiritually marked with a touch of the secular, it is her music above all which contains the secrets of the visionary Hildegard von Bingen.
Jocelyn Montgomery
From her earliest childhood days, Jocelyn Montgomery was drawn to the musical life. Her granfather was a Scottish fisherman and fiddlemaker, and she was deeply influenced by him during frequent family trips to his village on the North Sea coast. She grow up in London primarily, though her recognizable talent gained her an acceptance to the Purcell School of Music in Harrow, Middlesex by
the time she was ten years old. She spent six years there, cultivating her musical interests on the beautiful Georgian campus among the apple orchards. At sixteen, Jocelyn moved to Saint Paul`s Girl`s School in Hammersmith, where she continued her formal vocal training. She also studied violin under the tutelage of the well-known Hungarian master, Susanne Rosza. After she finished school, Jocelyn spent a year or two busking in London, performing at various weddings or social engagements. She did some modeling and indie film acting to make extra income, and she even appeared in videos by pop icon Dave Stewart and then-unknowns The Verve. Jocelyn continued her classical pursuits, spending two years studying composition in London. She did some work with the medieval troubadour group Sinfonie, and she credits them with intoducing her to the work of Hildegard von Bingen, the seeds for a solo project were firmly planted. Then 1996, Jocelyn`s natural abilities and hard work came to fruition when she was awarded a fellowship by the Arts Foundation. The income she was provided allowed her to focuss exclusively on her vocal talent. She spent another year in London, before marrying and moving to Los Angeles. It is a rare artist these days that gets discovered by chance, but that is exactly what happened after Jocelyn`s relocation. While singing on a walk in the Hollywood Hills, her voice fell upon the right pair of ears. She was signed to Mammoth records and in the studio within weeks, working with the noted filmmaker David Lynch as her producer. The result of this collaboration is Lux Vivens (Living Light), interpretations of the works of Hildegrad von Bingen. It is Jocelyn`s debut solo album, and certainly not her last. Some things are just meant to happen.
David Lynch
David Lynch was born in Missoula, Montana. He attended the Corcoran School of Art in DC, the Boston Museum School, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts and the American Film Institute Center for Advanced Film Studies. His first feature-length film, Eraserhead, earned him widespread critical and cult acclaim. His first mainstream success, Elephant Man, was nominated for two Academy Awards /Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay). Yet it was Blue Velvet which cemented David`s status as a respected filmmaker and won him the National Society of Film Critics Award for best Film of 1986. A noted eccentric at an early age, David was once described by the New York Times as "sort of a psychopathic Norman Rockwell" for his peculiar style of marrying the bizarre with the seemingly benign. His trademark signature reached a wider audience during the two seasons of his television series Twin Peaks, which also spawned the full-length film Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me. He honed his musical creativity during this time working with the composer Angelo Badalamenti. In 1990, at the age of 44, David won the Palm D`Or for Best Film at 43rd International Film Festival in Cannes, France for the film Wild at Heart. His latest feature film, Lost Highway, was released in 1997. Recently, David opened up his own recording studio to continue pursuing his musical interests. Lux Vivens (Living Light) is the first album he has produced there.