Founded in 1977 in Cologne by Barbara Thornton and Benjamin Bagby, Sequentia set out in the early 1990s to document the entire catalog of Hildegard Von Bingen's music. They've completed the Hildegard cycle, and this eight-CD box collects the results in a solid, handsome cube--perfect for the bookshelf. The beauty of the music is undeniable and has wowed listeners since Canticles of Ecstasy set an international community of listeners on a path of discovery in 1994. The big bonus now is that you can skip over the periods of wowed seduction that will follow the inaugural listen, and take in the entire collection of single- and double-CD issues Sequentia has devoted to Hildegard's music. The recordings (and obviously the repertoire) are not particularly new, of course, but Sequentia has taken Hildegard to places no previous interpreter reached. Firstly, the group has been absolutely methodical with Hildegard, reaching always for the goal of a large collection of CDs by the 900-year anniversary of the composer's birth. Second, they've refined and perfected their take on Hildegard since first presenting this music almost 20 years ago. They've found smoother lines of execution--not to make the music in any way easier for listeners but rather in better proportion to Hildegard's philosophically well-proportioned vantage on music, spirituality, and life. Thus we have the collection of spiritual songs, Symphoniae, which relay earthly and celestial being to the polyphony of multiple voices and musical threads woven into the songs. We also have the breathlessly beautiful two CDs of Ordo Virtutum, a not-uncommon near-operatic corollary to medieval morality plays. This collection allows both newbies and committed fans the opportunity to work their way through hours and hours of musical bliss.