Search - Anonymous 4 :: 11,000 Virgins: Chants for the Feast of St. Ursula

Approaching perfection...

FrKurt Messick | Bloomington, IN USA | 10/12/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The music on this CD comes from the great Hildegard of Bingen, one of the towering female figures from the Middle Ages. Hildegard is not only one of the few women whose name has come down to us from the Middle Ages, but one of the few composers of any sort whose name survives together with his or her compositions. Hildegard was a sort of Renaissance woman before the Renaissance, whose fame spread in her lifetime such that she was advisor of monarchs and popes, as well as a significant creative and mystical figure.



Between 1150 and 1160, she composed and collected poetry and musical works under the title 'Symphony of the Harmony of Celestial Revelations'. Much of her music was monophonic in nature, and tied to the liturgy. The Anonymous 4 in their performance sometimes add polyphonic embellishments and vocal drones to chants and psalmody.



Hildegard's abbey possessed relics of St. Ursula, and Hildegard wrote many pieces in honour of the saint to be performed by the women of her abbey. This particular recording of women's voices doing these pieces is therefore quite natural and back to the original intent of Hildegard's compositions.



Hildegard's style is unique, as are the vocal talents of the Anonymous 4 - the combination here is something that approaches perfection.



-- Liner Notes --

This text accompaniment to this disc is very full, so much so that the booklet is not contained within the jewel case, but rather within a slipcover in which both the CD/jewel case and the booklet reside. The liner notes include a description of the work, a brief piece about the quartet, and the lyrics of the songs both in original language and in translation - all repeated in English, German, and French sections.



-- Anonymous 4 --

Contrary to the implication of their name, the Anonymous 4 are not anonymous. This is a vocal quartet made up of Ruth Cunningham, Marsha Genensky, Susan Hellauer, and Johanna Rose at the time of this recording (Ruth Cunningham will later go on to a solo career early, and another member will join - Jacqueline Horner). They came together as a formal group in 1986, and have been ensemble-in-residence at St. Michael's Church in New York City, giving concert series in New York as well as throughout North America. They have been featured a number of times on national media in North America as well as Germany. They then went on to yet more success, eventually performing more that 1000 concerts worldwide.



Their specialty is working with chant, monophonic and polyphonic music, and working with medieval texts. According to one source, 'The group takes its name from an anonymous 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.'



The group ended a touring career of nearly two decades in 2004.

"

Excellent interpretation

Laqueus contritus est | Arkansas | 01/16/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"As I have said in previous reviews about Anonymous 4, the group does perhaps the best interpretation of the ancient Chants that I have heard. This CD is no exception. It is arranged, as is fitting, into a semi-liturgical format, which means that each chant is serving a real function similar to that which it would have done in its own time. The voices are beautiful; the chants are beautiful. What more could you ask? I would caution, though, if you have ZERO appreciation for antiquity and the austerity of the original chants, this CD will not be for you. It has no instrumetation and interprets the neumes quite simply, letting St. Hildegard's beautiful words and melody make their mark without a whole lot of funny business. Thank goodness.

As a member of a chant schola, the only problem with CD's like this is that I achingly wish that this chant could be used in services more regularly, and in its proper place. It's a tragedy that such music is left out of the Divine Office and Mass."