Anonymous 4
The female vocal quartet called Anonymous 4 is one of the most popular and respected small vocal groups specializing in early music. The group has attained the elusive combination of popularity and respect through its unique blend of creativity and scholarly/historical depth.
The name "Anonymous 4" comes from a scholarly convention for designating anonymous medieval writers and scribes with numbers; working with a particular manuscript by the scribe known as Anonymous 4, they found it an ideal name for their new quartet when they formed in 1986. Its purpose was to experiment with the sound of medieval music (both chant and polyphony) as sung by higher voices. Its original members included Marsha Genensky, Susan Hellauer, Johanna Marie Rose, and Ruth Cunningham. Jacqueline Horner replaced Cunningham in 1998, and in 2007, Cunningham returned, replacing Rose. The group's four members are singers with considerable beauty of tone, range, and flexibility.
Anonymous 4 is renowned for the depth of its scholarship. Hellauer does the primary music research, and when needed prepares the group's repertory by transcribing it into modern notation from original sources. Genensky is in charge of language research and the study of literary sources, and adapting readings for their concerts. The teamwork results in concerts that avoid presenting the music in a vacuum. Anonymous 4's programs are innovative and entertaining, relating the music to its time and milieu through narrative and poetry interwoven with the music. Sometimes they fill out groups of chants or fragmentary pieces of polyphony with music of their own composition in order to make convincing wholes, but the new music they create is done accurately enough to blend seamlessly with the medieval originals.
Beyond such historical considerations, the group's astonishingly beautiful and pure vocal blend has made it one of the leading acts in classical music recording. Despite being involved in what may seem a narrowly specialized academic area of music, they had sold about a million copies of their recordings on the Harmonia Mundi label by the turn of the 21st century. Among these are On Yoolis Night, a medieval Christmas album that won the prestigious French Diapason d'Or award. Their first disc, An English Ladymass, was CD Review's Classical Early Music Disc of the Year, and their fourth, The Lily and the Lamb, was Classic CD's Disc of the Year for 1996. Tower Music reported that the group's 11,000 Virgins, with music by Hildegard von Bingen, was one of the Top 100 Independent Label releases in 1997-1998. Other significant albums include Voices of Light, Richard Einhorn's contemporary oratorio-soundtrack to Carl Dreyer's classic 1928 film The Passion of Joan of Arc (1995). The group turned to early American religious traditions with its albums American Angels (2003) and Gloryland (2006).
Anonymous 4 took a break from full-time touring and recording after its 2003-2004 season, doing only a few special appearances and recordings, but in 2013 they began touring again, with a new album released in early 2014 (Marie et Marion) and a new project featuring music of the American Civil War period with Bruce Molsky. However, the return did not last long; the group announced its full retirement at the end of the 2015-2016 season.
© Rovi Staff /TiVo
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3 Decades of Anonymous 4: 1986 – 2016
Classical - Released by harmonia mundi on 9 Sep 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Second Circle
Classical - Released by harmonia mundi on 11 Sep 2001
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Hildegard von Bingen: 11,000 Virgins - Chants for the Feast of St. Ursula (Anonymous 4)
Classical - Released by harmonia mundi on 1 Jan 1997
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Miracles of Compostela: Medieval Chant & Polyphony for St. James from the Codex Calixtinus (Anonymous 4)
Classical - Released by harmonia mundi on 14 Nov 2005
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Origin of Fire - Music and Visions of Hildegard von Bingen (Anonymous 4)
Classical - Released by harmonia mundi on 7 Feb 2005
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
On Yoolis Night - Medieval carols & motets (Anonymous 4)
Classical - Released by harmonia mundi on 20 Sep 1993
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Marie et Marion (Motets et chansons du XIIIe siècle français tiré du Codex de Montpellier)
Secular Vocal Music - Released by harmonia mundi on 7 Apr 2014
24-Bit 88.2 kHz - Stereo -
Legends of St. Nicholas - Medieval Chant & Polyphony (Anonymous 4)
Classical - Released by harmonia mundi on 1 Jan 1999
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Wolcum Yule
Classical - Released by harmonia mundi on 14 Mar 2005
24-Bit 88.2 kHz - Stereo -
1000: A Mass for the End of Time - Medieval Chant and Polyphony for the Ascension (Anonymous 4)
Classical - Released by harmonia mundi on 12 Sep 2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
1865: Songs of Hope and Home from the American Civil War
Classical - Released by harmonia mundi on 18 Jan 2015
24-Bit 88.2 kHz - Stereo -
Christmas Music from Medieval Hungary (Anonymous 4)
Classical - Released by harmonia mundi on 11 Sep 2001
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
David Lang: Love Fail
Classical - Released by Cantaloupe Music on 27 May 2014
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Secret Voices
Classical - Released by harmonia mundi on 11 Oct 2011
24-Bit 88.2 kHz - Stereo -
The Lily & The Lamb - chant & polyphony from medieval England (Anonymous 4)
Classical - Released by harmonia mundi on 22 Aug 1995
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Love's Illusion - Music from the Montpellier Codex (13th-Century) (Anonymous 4)
Classical - Released by harmonia mundi on 1 Nov 1998
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
An English Ladymass (Anonymous 4)
Classical - Released by harmonia mundi on 1 Jan 1992
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Second Circle - Love Songs of Francesco Landini (Anonymous 4)
Classical - Released by harmonia mundi on 11 Sep 2001
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Gloryland (Anonymous 4)
Folk - Released by harmonia mundi on 12 Sep 2006
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
A Lammas Ladymass - 13th and 14th Century English Chant and Polyphony (Anonymous 4)
Classical - Released by harmonia mundi on 1 Sep 1998
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Four Centuries of Chant (Anonymous 4)
Classical - Released by harmonia mundi on 21 Dec 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo