Anonymous 4
Anonymous 4 | |
---|---|
Anonymous 4 in October, 2012 | |
Background information | |
Genres | A cappella, Medieval |
Years active | 1992 | –2016
Labels | Harmonia Mundi, Sony Classical Records |
Associated acts | Bruce Molsky, The Mountain Goats |
Website |
www |
Members | Marsha Genensky, Susan Hellauer, Ruth Cunningham, Jacqueline Horner-Kwiatek |
Past members | Johanna Maria Rose |
Anonymous 4 are an American female a cappella quartet, based in New York City. Their main performance genre is medieval music, although they have also premiered works by recent composers such as John Tavener and Steve Reich.
The name of the group is a pun on the name used to refer to an anonymous English music theorist of the late 13th century, Anonymous IV, who is the principal source on the two famous composers of the Notre Dame school, Léonin, and Pérotin.
Anonymous 4 have performed in cities throughout North America, and have been regulars at major international festivals. They decided to make the 2003–2004 season their last as a full-time recording and touring ensemble, but have continued to tour and make recordings while pursuing individual projects. The CD 1865, which features songs from the Civil War with Bruce Molsky on guitar, fiddle, banjo, and vocals will be their last recording together, as the ensemble will be disbanding for good by the end of the 2015–2016 season.[1]
The group collaborated with The Mountain Goats on their 2012 album Transcendental Youth as well as with Christopher Tin in 2009 on his album Calling All Dawns, and in 2014 on The Drop That Contained the Sea.
Lineup
The group currently comprises Marsha Genensky, Susan Hellauer, Ruth Cunningham, and Jacqueline Horner-Kwiatek. The original lineup included Johanna Maria Rose but not Jacqueline Horner-Kwiatek. In 1998, Cunningham left and was replaced by Jacqueline Horner-Kwiatek. In 2008, Cunningham returned to the group in place of Johanna Maria Rose. Genensky grew up in California in the foothills of the Santa Monica Mountains; Hellauer was born and raised in the Bronx, New York; Cunningham was brought up in Millbrook, New York; Rose grew up in the village of Grand View-on-Hudson; and Horner-Kwiatek is from Monkstown, County Antrim, in Northern Ireland (she won her Green Card in the Diversity Immigrant Visa program, commonly known as the "Green Card Lottery").
Discography
Name | Date | Label | Format |
---|---|---|---|
An English Ladymas | 1993 | Harmonia Mundi | CD |
On Yoolis Night | 1993 | Harmonia Mundi | CD |
Love's Illusion | 1994 | Harmonia Mundi | CD |
The Lily and the Lamb | 1994 | Harmonia Mundi | CD |
Voices of Light | 1995 | Sony Classical Records | CD |
Miracles of Sant'Iago | 1996 | Harmonia Mundi | CD |
A Star in the East | 1996 | Harmonia Mundi | CD |
Portrait of Anonymous 4 | 1997 | Harmonia Mundi | CD |
11,000 Virgins: Chants for the Feast of St. Ursula | 1997 | Harmonia Mundi | CD |
A Lammas Ladymass: 13th and 14th Century English Chant and Polyphony | 1998 | Harmonia Mundi | CD |
Legends of St. Nicholas | 1999 | Harmonia Mundi | CD |
1000: A Mass for the End of Time | 1999 | Harmonia Mundi | CD |
The Second Circle: Love Songs of Francesco Landini | 2001 | Harmonia Mundi | CD |
La bele Marie: Songs to the Virgin from 13th-Century France | 2002 | Harmonia Mundi | CD |
Darkness into Light | 2003 | Harmonia Mundi | CD |
Wolcum Yule | 2003 | Harmonia Mundi | CD |
American Angels | 2004 | Harmonia Mundi | CD |
The Origin of Fire: Hildegard von Bingen | 2005 | Harmonia Mundi | CD |
Gloryland | 2006 | Harmonia Mundi | CD |
Four Centuries of Chant | 2009 | Harmonia Mundi | CD |
The Cherry Tree | 2010 | Harmonia Mundi | CD |
Secret Voices: Chant & Polyphony from the Las Huelgas Codex, c. 1300 | 2011 | Harmonia Mundi | CD |
Marie et Marion | 2014 | Harmonia Mundi | CD |
love fail | 2014 | Canteloupe | CD ( A work composed for the group by David Lang using texts by such writers as Lydia Davis ) |
1865 | 2015 | Harmonia Mundi | CD |
References
- ↑ "Anonymous 4: Breaking Up Is Hard To Do (But They're Doing It)". National Public Radio. 2014. Retrieved 2012-11-06.
External links
- Official website
- Anonymous 4 discography at MusicBrainz
- Discography at SonyBMG Masterworks
- Two entries (first, second) on AllMusic