Because music is a form of art, people can express the same theme or idea in divergent ways. One can first see references to music in religious texts dating back thousands of years ago. A Kyrie is a musical depiction of a prayer and means "Lord have mercy". They are very simple and often have the same words repeated at a slightly different pitch. These female composers lived very different lives and yet have both contributed to the growth of female artist. When analyzing Hildegard von Bingen 's Kyrie which was written in the early 1,000s and Libby Larsen 's Kyrie which was written from 1991-1992, one can see many similarities considering they were written hundreds of years apart.
Hildegard von Bingen was born in 1098 and was one of ten children, thus tithing her to the church at the age of eight (Dunbar, 2016, p. 30). During this period, women were disregarded and only men were educated both academically and musically. Bingen was never given the proper materials to compose music and yet today her work is considered by many to be brilliant. Although there are many theories as to why Bingen was able to compose such remarkable work, she claims that her work was "marked by the inspiration of God to give 'musical forms to divine mysteries '" (Dunbar, 2016, p. 31). Hildegard von Bingen received many visions that came directly from God and she turned those visions into art. Her musical output consisted of chant that differed greatly from any other male composer of her time. She