Anonymous 4

This article is about the singing group. For the manuscript author, see Anonymous IV.

Anonymous 4
Anonymous 4 in October, 2012
Background information
Genres	A cappella, Medieval
Years active	1992 (1992)–2016 (2016)
Labels	Harmonia Mundi, Sony Classical Records
Members	Marsha Genensky, Susan Hellauer, Ruth Cunningham, Jacqueline Horner-Kwiatek
Past members	Johanna Maria Rose
Website	www.anonymous4.com

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.

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

External links

• Official website
• Anonymous 4 discography at MusicBrainz
• Discography at SonyBMG Masterworks
• Two entries (first, second) on AllMusic