At the River with Anonymous 4

While I may not get to heaven, I do have some sense for what it will sound like if I do. That’s because I had the good fortune to attend a concert a couple of weeks ago by Anonymous 4.

In nearly three decades of recording and performing, the group has focused primarily on medieval music, much of it based on their own historical scholarship. Within the past years they’ve widened their repertoire to include other forms of music, including American folksongs, shape note tunes and gospel songs.

If you’re curious about their name, it’s actually a bit of an insider’s musical joke. Many music treatises from the Middle Ages were anonymous, and later scholars identify them as Anonymous 1, Anonymous 2, etc. Anonymous 4 gets the credit for compiling one of the most important of these medieval treatises, and there are four singers, so it’s a natural fit.

Halfway through the concert at Grinnell College, I turned to my son and whispered, “You do realize, don’t you, that they subsist solely on a diet of butterfly wings and fairy dust?” Honestly, if you could have heard their harmonies on a single “Amen,” you would have repented of every unkind thought you’ve ever had.

Here’s “Shall We Gather At the River” from their album American Angels – Songs of Hope, Redemption, & Glory.