Anonymous 4 Transcript

February 23, 2008

Dr. Kent Gustavson: Welcome back to “Sound Authors.” On the fourth segment of each show we like to feature authors of sound. One legendary group is called the Anonymous 4. They’ve sold almost 1.5 million copies of their records worldwide. They’ve been all over the radio, TV; I’ve listened to them for many years. And now they’ve started to venture into Sacred Heart music, which is a personal passion of mine as well.My guest on this show is Marsha Genensky from the Anonymous 4. Welcome to the show.

Marsha Genensky: Hi there!

Dr. Kent: Am I saying your name correctly?

Marsha: It’s Ge-nen-ski.

Dr. Kent: Ge-nen-ski. Wonderful.

Marsha: It’s a challenge every time, isn’t it?

Dr. Kent: It certainly is. Now, what’s the origin of that name?

Marsha: It’s a Russian, or somewhere out there, Jewish name. The borders were constantly changing around the time when everybody was running away from all those countries in…

Dr. Kent: There’s a wonderful place to start because I know that you are very passionate about Sacred Heart music and you’re even part of a group. Obviously the last two records “Gloryland” and “American Angels”, gorgeous albums, feature that music. How did you end up singing that genre?

Marsha: Well, before there ever was an Anonymous 4, and that was a really long time ago, I was a graduate student in folklore at the University of Pennsylvania. Some of my peers at school and I just took it up. There were a few of them who were from Texas and they had some Sacred Hearts in Texas so we formed our own little group.That was the first place that I heard it. That was only months after I had made my first trip to rural Arkansas near the Ozarks where I had been studying secular folk songs. Sacred Heart music is mostly sacred. So, I got my taste of both and that was the end of me.

Dr. Kent: That’s wonderful. I have a PhD in Classical Composition but I’m obsessed secretly with Sacred Heart and Apocalypse music. So, an interesting thing about the two Anonymous four albums is that you’re very well known for Baroque music.

Marsha: We’re actually not well known for Baroque music we’re well known for medieval music, much, much older music.

Dr. Kent: Right.

Marsha: The oldest music that we have done is from around the year 1000.

Dr. Kent: Oh my!

Marsha: And then we go up in our recordings through the 14th century. And then we make a leap to the 20th and the 21st centuries with some contemporary compositions some of which we commissioned or were commissioned for us. And then we have this sort of left turn into American music some of which is purely traditional and some of which is thought of as traditional but actually we know the authors of the hymns and we know the composers of the tunes.

Dr. Kent: Now, I do know that in the 60s they were just starting to discover this music and Charles Seeger talked about… he was one of the first to talk about, the different harmony that exists in this music. It’s sort of eerily similar to that medieval music that the Anonymous four sings as well. Do you find that connection sometimes?

Marsha: I think that’s probably what brought me, the folky, who had heard Sacred Heart and other American kinds of music to medieval music because it sounded eerily familiar to me. So, when I found myself in New York after folklore school I found myself meeting up with these three other wonderful women who wanted to try singing medieval music with higher voices and a lot of the sounds are very, very similar.

Dr. Kent: I’d love to listen to a little bit of “Merrick.” Can you give us some background info on that one?

Marsha: Well, “Merrick” is a really fun tune. We don’t really know exactly where on earth it comes from. When I first found it, it was in four; one, two, three, four but I knew it had to swing in three. I didn’t want to go against whomever it was who had written it so I looked through thousands and thousands of pages of tune books at a special collections library at UCLA and I found the same tune in three. So, we’re going to sing it in three and this is an Anonymous four arrangement of the tune.

Dr. Kent: Wonderful! This is “Merrick”[music]

Dr. Kent: That’s a beautiful song “Merrick” from the Anonymous 4’s fairly new album called “Gloryland.” Tell me a little bit about the process that brought Darol Anger and Mike Marshall in. It’s wonderful to hear that in that connection of instruments with this a cappella sound.

Marsha: Yes, in fact Darol likes to joke that this is the first a cappella recording with instruments ever.

Dr. Kent: [laughs]

Marsha: We met Darol quite a long time ago on the “Garrison Keillor Show,” “Prairie Home Companion at Town Hall.” And he was then a member of the Turtle Island String Quartet. We really enjoyed meeting him and we thought some day we should really do something with him. And of course, we went our separate ways and years passed and he left the Turtle Island String Quartet and went on to other things.Then however many years later we had done our first American Music recording, “American Angels” which really was an a cappella recording. We were just pondering what to do differently to add a little spice for the new recording that turned out to be “Gloryland”. We thought let’s do this a cappella recording with instruments.I was living in the Bay area and he was right across the Bay. So I said, “Hmm!” like that and it started like that. Then when we met he said, “Well, let’s bring Mike into the picture” and so we did. It was really a great collaboration.

Dr. Kent: It’s really a brilliant sound. I’m a fan of in particular John Tavener and I find it fascinating that a group…I’m fascinated also about the secret harp, and I think it’s pretty interesting that a group would both premier a John Tavener piece, very beautiful Asperge but extremely difficult classical music and at the same time doing the folk music interpretations. How do you connect that in your mind?

Marsha: Well, we just do music. We don’t really think too much about [inaudible]. We hear something that we really are fascinated by than we like to pursue it. As long as it works for a girl group it’s great.

Dr. Kent: [laughs] Now what are you doing solo? I’m sure you are working on some projects as well?

Marsha: Well, each of us is working on separate projects. I’m actually continuing to work on more American projects. I actually have one going for the group. This is going to be a folksong project focused on themes of girls who are on their own for whatever reason. It’s going to be called “Lost Girls.” That’s for the whole group.In addition to that I’m just starting a new project with guitarist Scott Nygaard who’s actually been touring the “Gloryland” project with us along with Darol because Mike Marshall wasn’t available to tour with us. We’ve made new best friends with Scott. He and I and another person are starting a new project together, which we hope to start doing in the summer.

Dr. Kent: Wonderful.

Marsha: Amongst us we’ve got people teaching at University, teaching voice lessons, singing oratorio, doing sound healing, it’s really quite the gamut but much of it related to music.I guess the most off-the-beaten track thing that one of us is doing is Susan, who is another founding member of the group, in addition to all her singing stuff, is a volunteer EMT.

Dr. Kent: Wow, wow!

Marsha: She lifts heavy people and drives an ambulance and things like that.

Dr. Kent: [laughs] It’s a good gamut to run. Now the website is www.Anonymous4.com and there’s a whole bunch of fun sites there as well as all the information about many albums. They’ve sold so many copies. The two latest albums have this wonderful folklore but with the incredible sound of these four women. “American Angels” is the previous one and “Gloryland” is the newest one. It’s been a real pleasure having you on the show.

Marsha: Thanks for calling.

Dr. Kent: Let’s listen to a little bit of “Just over in the Gloryland”[music]

Dr. Kent: This is the incredible sounds of the Anonymous four with special guests Darol Anger and Mike Marshall on their latest album “Gloryland.” Visit www.Anonymous4.com.My other guest on the show today were Deborah Johnson with her new fiction book, and Ron Lipsman speaking a little bit about politics. Have a wonderful week; we’ll see you the next time. Checking out with Anonymous 4.

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