VOICES OF LIGHT:

Making Medieval Music (and Marketing It, Too) (ALLAN KOZINN, October 18, 2002, NY Times)

The prospect of Anonymous 4 singing 18th- and early-19th-century American music may seem odd, but it is part of the group's gradual branching out. By the mid-1990's the singers were collaborating on Renaissance programs with Lionheart, an all-male vocal sextet. And in 1997 they sang their first contemporary work, Richard Einhorn's "Voices of Light," an inviting piece written as a soundtrack for Carl Dreyer's 1928 film, "The Passion of Joan of Arc." Anonymous 4 has performed the work in concert, with showings of the film, and has recorded it for Sony Classical. (The performance is also included on the Criterion Collection DVD of the Dreyer film.)

"The decision to do `Voices of Light' was unanimous," Ms. Rose said. "Richard invited us to the studio and played us the film music, and there was no question about it."

Ms. Genensky added, "The writing wasn't exactly medievalesque, but it used our kind of sound and our kind of feeling, so it felt very familiar to us."

"And," Ms. Hellauer said, "he was as easy to work with as a dead composer."

This is an interesting profile of the group. We can't overpraise the DVD of The Passion of Joan of Arc that features their performance. Posted by Orrin Judd at October 18, 2002 7:59 AM