Artistic Excellence in Worship

Congratulations to Ellen Marguerite Siebel-Achenbach on receiving The Sandra Burt Prize in Gender and Social Justice for her project on “Sisters of Wisdom: Female Hymnists of the Middle Ages.” Ellen graduated from the University of Waterloo in 2023 with a double major in Visual Culture and Medieval Studies and minors in both Fine Arts Studio and Church Music and Worship (CMW). She recently finished her master's degree in Art History at the University of Toronto. 

"Ellen's intellectual curiosity and enthusiasm made her a joy to work with in courses and in her research on medieval chant,” reflected Professor Kate Steiner, who teaches CMW courses at Conrad Grebel University College. "She brought a wealth of knowledge, creative ideas, graciousness, and intellectual humility to the analysis and discussion of issues of art, music, religion, and politics." 

“I have always been interested in musical history and particularly fell in love with late medieval and Renaissance music as a teenager, as everyone does, ” Ellen shared. “I also developed a keen Catholic theological interest, often with a medieval and Humanist focus.”  Opportunities to study these subjects were limited in Elmira, where Ellen attended high school, so she took the Baroque Music course and several medieval religion courses in her first year of university. In the same year, she began a project  with Professor Steiner  on transcribing medieval chant leaflets in the University of Waterloo’s DRAGEN Lab (Medieval Digital Research in Arts and Graphical Environmental Networks Laboratory). Ellen summarized, “eventually, despite a lack of musical ability, this interest led me to the CMW program – I even joined the choir!”  

What really appealed to Ellen about the CMW program was its combined Christian and music history influences. To her, this reflected a fundamental aspect of Christian practice: the inseparability of faith and music. “Although I sometimes think that we may be distanced from this relationship in the modern world, historical composers took it for granted,” Ellen explained. “To understand their music, by extension, is to place it within a worship setting.” In her own research, Ellen is interested in how the music, visual culture, actions/movements, and spaces of worship act as a unified whole in Church experiences.  Ellen noted that the CMW program also introduced her to many modern worship practices, and how “they engage with the relationship between music and prayer, even if spatial and artistic emphasis is often absent.” 

Professor Maisie Sum taught Ellen in her Women and Music course and recalled being impressed by Ellen’s brilliance, curiosity, and humility. “She showed up to every class –well-prepared and eager to learn,” Professor Sum explained. “She was ready to dig deeper into each week’s topics through sharing her ideas and listening to those of her peers, and her depth of understanding was evident during class discussions.” During the GSJ Awards Luncheon, Professor Sum remarked:  “In her final creative project, Ellen was able to crystallize her learning – not only in my course, but also across her programs and interests – such as her love for artifacts, details in the tangible, pleasure in working with the hands, and the value placed on the concrete and transformative experiences this potentiates. She created an exhibition that was hand-drawn with intricate details of each room (in which the hymnists would have composed), its artifacts, and a representative hymn. Her drawings, descriptions, and musical analysis brought to life an imaginary world — a sonic resonance, a sense of ‘being there,’ in a particular time and space, with four female medieval hymnists she calls ‘Sisters of Wisdom.’” 

In an excerpt of her project, Ellen writes: “The exhibition aims to provide a full sensory experience for each hymn by reproducing it in its original context. […]  Although the original spaces of the four hymnists [Kassia, Heloise of Paris, Hildegard von Bingen, and Elisabeth Cruciger] no longer survive, the proposed exhibition rooms [imagined in the project] highlight key architectural and devotional features for each historical period and Christian tradition.” 

Through her research, Ellen is continuing to examine this multi-faceted relationship and the ways in which craft and intangible heritage fit into it. In the medieval and Renaissance periods, sound defined architecture. Her hope is to reactivate this interrelationship in modern restoration projects, as well as theorizing medieval perceptions of space. 

In the fall, Ellen will begin a program in heritage architecture restoration at the Willowbank School of Restoration Arts. She will also continue to develop her crafts skills with a stained- glass apprenticeship, woodturning/carpentry, and textile practice.  She intends to go on to do a PhD in intangible heritage study, focusing on the historical and modern resonance of craft, musical, theological, and spatial relationships.

By Natasha Forth