Feather on the breath.....

The white feathers floating on the surface of the River Kent were like little sails in the breeze, drifting upstream against the current. It put me in mind of this, the music of Hildegard of Bingen.

Many years ago, in the days before CDs, I bought the Hyperion LP of the peerless Emma Kirkby and Gothic Voices: Feather on the Breath of God.

Hildegard of Bingen was born in 1098, a visionary, and some say the greatest woman of her times. "Listen there was once a king sitting on his throne. Around him stood great and beautiful columns ornamented with ivory, bearing banners of the king with great honour. Then it pleased the king to raise a small feather from the ground, and he commanded it to fly. The feather flew, not because of anything in itself but because the air bore it along. Thus am I, a feather on the breath of God."