The mystical poet and composer Suster Bertken (Bertha Jacobs) was born in Utrecht about 1426, entering the cloister of Utrecht Buurkerk in the mid-1450’s and remaining there until her death at about age 88. Her second book (“Suster Bertken’s Book That She Herself Has Made and Written Out”) contained the lyrics for eight strophic songs without musical notation. However, “Die Werelt hielt mi in hair gewout” (The World Held Me in Its Power), was reprinted with its melody intact in the Utrecht Liederbuch (ca. 1500) with the added comment: “these little songs have been done by Schwester Bertken, the recluse in Utrecht.” The “recluse in Utrecht” would seem to indicate that Bertken’s pious contemplative life and strict enclosure, if not her music, were well-known in Utrecht at the time.
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