Lingua Ignota
Media score
Lingua Ignota was commissioned by GNO for the Sibil•la Ensemble, perfomed at the Festival of Sacred Music, Athens, April 2025.
lingua ignota is a media score for ensemble (preferably 4-12 instruments) based on the 12th century language invented by Hildegard van Bingen. This secret language which consists of vocabulary with no known grammar, was apprently used by her and her followers as a mystical language The piece encodes the existing vocabulary, creating a dictionary of melodies.
The piece can be played from the media score itself, where each time the melodies will appear in different ways, or from a fixed score (a rendering of which is included here). A set of 7 melodies appear on a digital screen. Each instrument picks one line at a time and repeats it. The ensemble determine when to move onto another page. Octave transposition can be used when necessary. The score is in C (treble clef) so transposing instruments should transpose accordingly.
The score should be projected on a transparent gauze, with the musicians around it, or with a large monitor in portrait mode, so that all 7 lines are visible. It is meant as an intimate chamber work, so the musicians and audience could encircle the score and musicians in close proximity. The score also has a generated soundtrack which can be heard quietly in the background, and provides a harmonic bed for the piece. The piece can last any duration.
The piece should be played using the Processing file provided. In the future a JavaScript version will become availiable that can be played from the web.
There is a rendering of all 106 pages, in case, computer playback and projection is not possible. In this case, a choice can be made of which pages will be performed.