Anonymous 4
1000: A Mass for the End of Time (Medieval Chant and Polyphony for the Ascension) (Harmonia Mundi)
Tired of the new millennium already? Ten measures into the new album by Anonymous 4, the extraordinary New York-based quartet of women singers who specialize in a cappella medieval music, and you’ll be rested and serene. The 14 selections, mixing plain chant and pre-Renaissance polyphony, are all distinctly ethereal and profoundly otherworldly in their sound. What’s more, they’re all performed with crystalline clarity, perfect balance and blend. From the mysterious, arching opening lines of the “Judicii signum,” a processional hymn, to the hushed, reverential closing verses of the “Cives celestic patriae,” Anonymous 4 make every line and phrase its own. All of these anonymous works tend toward the same kind of slender line and pale color, whether secular or sacred; none is much longer than eight minutes, while most are much shorter. But all are articulated with optimal musicality.
![Illinois is now home to a federally recognized tribal nation after the U.S. Department of the Interior placed portions of the Shab-eh-nay Reservation into trust, according to a statement Friday from the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation. The federal government illegally auctioned off 1,280 acres of the Prairie Band’s reservation land 175 years ago. At the time, Chief Shab-eh-nay had been traveling from his home reservation in DeKalb County to visit his family in Kansas, the Nation said. “We have been asking for this recognition and for what is rightfully ours for nearly 200 years, and we are grateful to the U.S. Department […]](https://www.chicagotribune.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/CTC-L-Potawatomi-Nation-land.jpg?w=575 "Illinois is now home to a federally recognized tribal nation after the U.S. Department of the Interior placed portions of the Shab-eh-nay Reservation into trust, according to a statement Friday from the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation. The federal government illegally auctioned off 1,280 acres of the Prairie Band’s reservation land 175 years ago. At the time, Chief Shab-eh-nay had been traveling from his home reservation in DeKalb County to visit his family in Kansas, the Nation said. “We have been asking for this recognition and for what is rightfully ours for nearly 200 years, and we are grateful to the U.S. Department […]")
