Kassia - Byzantine Hymns from the first female composer of the Medieval Occident

Ensemble: VocaMe Album: Kassia - Byzantine Hymns from the First Female Composer of the Occident Video: Add MS 19352, XI secolo • About 290 years before the brilliant Hildegard of Bingen was born, Kassia was born in Constantinople, the oldest female composer of whom we have complete musical works today. Of Greek-Byzantine origin, she distinguished herself at an early age for her intelligence and beauty. Many chroniclers, a few years later than her such as Simeon Metaphraste, George the monk (also called George the sinner) and Leo the Mathematician, maintain that she participated in the Parade of Brides in which the Byzantine emperor Theophilus was supposed to choose his bride, delivering to the chosen one, as usual, a golden apple. Fascinated by Kassia’s beauty, the young emperor approached her and said: “Through a woman the basest passions are distilled (referring to Eve’s original sin).“ Kassia responded to him by saying, “But thro