Painting by Julia Dokter
Wednesdays, October 14 - November 18, 2026
18:30 - 20:30 Amsterdam | 11:30a - 1:30p Chicago (12:30 - 2:30p October 28)
Led by Medieval and Renaissance music specialist, Marsja Mudde. Designed for ICA students who have completed the Hands On with Hildegard lecture series.
This autumn, the Hildegard Study Days take a new form. We will work intensively with three Hildegard chants, each one more challenging than the previous, and approach each chant from two complementary directions.
+ Track A - Noteworthy Notation | manuscript → voice | read more...
+ Track B - Interdisciplinary Interpretation | words → music → meaning | read more...
2-hour sessions on Wednesdays, October 14 - November 18, 2026
-
O quam mirabilis est (antiphon for the Creator) | Track A: Oct. 14 + Track B: Oct. 21
-
O splendidissima gemma (antiphon for the Virgin Mary) | Track A: Oct. 28* + Track B: Nov. 4
-
O dulcis electe (responsory for Saint John) | Track A: Nov. 11 + Track B: Nov. 18
* use calendar to double check start time for October 28 in your time zone (due to 1-week discrepancy between American and European time changes)
Sessions hosted live, online, via Zoom. Maximum of 4 active participants per session, with additional auditor seats available. Read how it works...
To facilitate environment of trust and collaboration, study days are not recorded.
For requirements and tuition: click here.
"I’m doing a Hildegard sing this fall, by popular demand, and I would not have attempted it without the information in this course. Marsja is skilled at connecting vocal technique to the performance and meaning of Hildegard’s music. I have more freedom as a soloist and a better connection to our ensemble because of her teaching."
Erika Singer ~ founder of The Laetare Project, Washington D.C.
Track A - Noteworthy Notation:
Sensing and Sounding the Scribbles | manuscript → voice
Oct. 14, Oct. 28, and Nov. 11
For singers and teachers who want to become more confident
and perceptive readers of Hildegard's Hufnagel notation.
We will begin with the manuscript itself. Participants are encouraged to closely examine the original notation for the chant at hand. Manuscript copies and lyrics with a translation are provided beforehand.
What exactly is expressed in the Hufnagel neumes on staves? What can the placement, shape and context of a written, neumatic sign, combined with its assigned text, indicate to the singer in the physical preparation of one's vocal instrument? And ultimately, what difference does all of this make when we actually sing from the manuscript?
These live sessions are highly practical. We will look closely at a manuscript, work through challenging passages together, and practice until the written notation becomes familiar enough that the music can live freely in the voice.
Along the way, Marsja will offer insights on modal singing technique from Center Cantus Modalis: methods for comprehending the modality, vocal gesture and the relationship between notation, sound and bodily experience.
The goal is not simply to arrive at the right notes. It is to make the manuscript sound through the singer.
Track B - Interdisciplinary Interpretation
words → music → meaning
Oct. 21, Nov. 4, and Nov. 18
For those especially interested in the text, theology, musical meaning, and interpretive possibilities of Hildegard's chants.
In this track, we will explore the same chants, but through an interdisciplinary interpretation which seeks to uncover the very heart of Hildegard's songs.
Before each B-session, participants will receive a handout combining manuscript, transcription into standard notation, translation/s, and a few questions to ponder. You are invited to spend some time with the text and music beforehand – not to find the “correct” interpretation, but to notice what you experience, what associations and questions might be called to mind, and what the music seems to be expressing with the words (or perhaps the other way around – what the words seem to be expressing with the music).
In these live sessions, we will weave these individual dimensions together, into one continuous whole. We will look at the language, imagery, musical gesture, modality, theology, and structure of the text, exploring how they interact.
In a way, these sessions will become a Lectio Divina of Hildegard’s music: a slow, attentive, close reading, in which the meaning emerges through encounter between word and sound.
6 live sessions | 3 chants | 2 perspectives
1 increasingly deep encounter with Hildegard
Come and read.
Come and sing.
Come and drink from an epic and timeless wellspring of words and music.
Who can participate...
Hildegard Study Days are intended for singers, chant practitioners, teachers, musicians and others with a serious interest in Hildegard’s music.
You do not need to be an academic or a specialist in medieval notation. Curiosity, willingness to look closely, and a desire to discover what happens when we take Hildegard’s music seriously on its own terms are more important.
The three assigned chants will slightly increase in difficulty, so that the skills acquired in one A+B pair of sessions become the foundation for the next. However, it will still be possible to attend a single session.
How it works...
Each chant will be studied twice:
A: Manuscript → voice
B: Words → music → meaning
Choose your path:
-
3 × A – Notation Track
For singers and teachers who want to become more confident and perceptive readers of Hildegard’s notation.
-
3 × B – Interpretation Track
For those who are especially interested in text, theology, musical meaning and the interpretative possibilities of Hildegard’s chants.
-
A + B – One Chant, Deeply
Follow one complete chant from manuscript to voice to meaning.
-
A B A B A B – Complete Series
Follow all three chants through the complete process and experience how the different approaches begin to inform one another.
2 participation methods
All Hildegard Study Days are fully live via Zoom, and are not recorded. Each session requires a minimum of 2 "active participants".
There are 2 ways to participate:
-
active participant: Receive one-on-one coaching from Marsja, and have opportunity to ask questions. Maximum of 4 active participants per Hildegard Study Day.
-
auditor*: Auditors may ask questions at end of session, but will not participate in one-on-one coaching with Marsja.
*Auditor seats become available once the minimum of 2 active participants is reached for the respective session.
Marsja Mudde
is a specialist in Medieval and Renaissance music and an accomplished soprano based in the Netherlands. From the start of her singing studies at the Fontys Conservatory in Tilburg, she has specialized in the Middle Ages and Renaissance with Dr. Rebecca Stewart, head of the Early Vocal Ensemble Music department. After a very successful graduation concert on Saint Michael and All Angels, she followed many more specialization courses at the master level. She has immersed herself in, among other things, the Paris Notre Dame repertoire, Hildegard von Bingen, music of the Tracento, the early Renaissance polyphony (primarily French and Dutch), and Modern Devotional and Gregorian chant music from all European regions.
During her studies and since then, she has performed extensively at home and abroad with Ensemble Trigon, Ensemble Cantus Modalis, Ensemble Per Sonorem Vocis, her own Ensemble Anime Beatitudinis Cantando, and others. She has given concerts and workshops in South Korea, Georgia, Germany, Portugal, France and Belgium. She is currently fundraising for the completion of the animated, visual narrative dimension of her own ensemble's multi-sensory concert program, Sia laudato, San Francesco: medieval songs for (and by) Saint Francis of Assisi, in honor of the 800th anniversary of the Canticle of the Sun.
Marsja has maintained a thriving singing teaching practice since 2005, which attracts students from all over the Netherlands due to her specialization. She teaches and assists at the Center Cantus Modalis training center, which annually organizes several masterclasses for professional singers on Renaissance and early Baroque composers and their work. She also participates in scientific research and publications at the Center. She is preparing a tutorial on the specific techniques a singer needs to perform medieval and renaissance repertoire and other modal oriented music, in collaboration with Dr. Rebecca Stewart.
Hildegard von Bingen
Marsja regularly performs the music of Hildegard von Bingen from manuscript facsimiles bearing the original Hufnagel notation, and teaches chironomy based on the same. For her own Ensemble Anime Beatitudinis Cantando, she has designed and staged Vita Hildegardis Bingensis, a seven scene concert program devoted to the music and life of Hildegard and her nuns in the 12th century monastery at Rupertsberg. With Dr. Rebecca Stewart, she co-wrote the chapter Hoewel ik notatie, noch zingen geleerd had, written interview-style with Hildegard, using quotes and contemporary references to help fill in “her” answers, plus additional commentary by the authors. The chapter was published in the Dutch book Zicht op Hildegard (2020, edited by Hans Wilbrink).
As a guest tutor at the Hildegard von Bingen chant week at the 2026 Utrecht University Summer School, she shared her expertise in medieval vocal technique, Hufnagel notation, musical memorization strategies, and interdisciplinary approaches to interpreting medieval music.
Marsja's website is https://marsjamudde.nl/en/ .
Requirements
Successful completion of Hands On with Hildegard Lecture Series. Tuition for the 2 recorded Lectures = $150 USD register here
Participant must already be familiar with the sound of Hildegard's music. (Ability to read music is encouraged, but not necessary.)
Technical Requirements
A desktop computer, laptop, or tablet (the larger the screen the better) equipped with videocamera (no cell phones, please), and Zoom app installed. Reliable access to high-speed internet is a must. Students take personal responsibility for furnishing their own functioningtechnology, and for proper use thereof.
Study Day Tuition
Active participants: one Hildegard Study Day (2 hours) $125 USD*
Maximum of 4 active participants per Hildegard Study Day.
*Receive a $25 USD reduction in tuition for each additional Hildegard Study Day when registering for more than one Hildegard Study Day at once.
Auditors: $80 USD per Hildegard Study Day (2 hours)
Opportunity to enroll as an auditor will be granted when a minimum of 2 active participants for the Study Day has been reached. Auditors will be given opportunity to ask questions, but will not participate in one-on-one coaching with Marsja. To facilitate an environment of trust and collaboration, auditor agrees to keep videocamera on at all times.
Your tuition payment reserves your seat, and may be made via PayPal, Venmo, credit card, or check.
Ask your parish whether funding is available for continuing education.
Tuition may also be tax deductible for professional (compensated) musicians.