Anúna
| Anúna | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Background information | |
| Origin | Ireland |
| Genres | |
| Years active | 1987–present |
| Labels | Danú |
| Website | Anúna.ie |
| Members |
Michael McGlynn (Composer & Artistic Director) Sam Kreidenweis Dónal Kearney Jan Kuhar Zachary Trouton Nejc Rudel Aidan Gately Lucy Champion Andrea Delaney Sara Di Bella Monica Donlon Rachel Thompson Cait Frizell Rebekah Comerford |
| Past members |
Hozier Julie Feeney Lynn Hilary Méav Ní Mhaolchatha Éabha McMahon Eimear Quinn Orla Fallon Deirdre Shannon Tara McNeill |
Anúna is a choral ensemble based in Ireland. Founded in 1987 by Irish composer Michael McGlynn under the name An Uaithne, the group has recorded 17 albums, and achieved a high level of international success. Almost all of their repertoire is composed or arranged by McGlynn.
McGlynn formed the choir An Uaithne in 1987, with their earliest concerts featuring medieval Irish and European music, contemporary choral pieces by Irish composers and Irish folk arrangements. He has stated: "My interest in traditional song stemmed from my schooldays in Ring College in Dungarvan, and I also felt a need to explore and communicate my enthusiasm for medieval music, most particularly Irish medieval music, to the general public. The eclectic repertoire that characterises the music of Anúna was born in this way". McGlynn re-set and rearranged historical texts and reconstructions of medieval Irish music. These included the 12th century pieces "Dicant Nunc" and "Cormacus Scripsit", both of which come from Irish manuscripts and featured in the repertoire of An Uaithne. Other reconstructions including "Miserere Miseris" from the Dublin Troper and "Quem Queritis" from The Dublin Play continue to feature in the repertoire of Anúna. McGlynn has said: "I think that one of the purposes of Anúna has been to open the door of obscurity to some of the many medieval pieces that we've recorded".
An Uaithne featured a number of traditional music arrangements done by McGlynn as part of their repertoire. He has stated: "One of the misapprehensions about my music is that I am not actually concerned with saving Irish traditional music; I am not a traditionalist. The only exposure I had [to traditional Irish song] was during my year at Coláiste na Rinne in Dún Garbhán. The songs that I set are not from a specific collection; they are more impressions of the songs I remembered." McGlynn also created new compositions that could be perceived as arrangements of Irish songs but were, in fact, new melodies composed to traditional texts. These works are not arrangements and they became a feature of An Uaithne's repertoire and continue to be part of the Anúna canon. McGlynn has stated: "People just assume that I have just found a “living” version. In fact I have done what has made solo traditional music so viable: I have created a new version. I take the songs and reinterpret them in a new way. My priority is always to create a choral version that works."
The genesis of the choir's vocal sound derives from a number of different sources including Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares, although he has stated that Anúna are not an expression of their culture in the same way as the Bulgarian choir because, when creating Anúna, there was no point in his pretending that there had been a culture of part-singing in Ireland. McGlynn has stated: "What I have done is to try to always create an accessibility using the concept of fragility in the voice to allow the audience to access music that otherwise they might find overtly and harmonically complex or technically demanding to listen to."
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