Choral music for women's voices

Amy Beach

When was the last time you heard a choral piece by Amy Beach? You'll have an opportunity to do just that when the Melodia Women's Choir of NYC performs Beach's "The Chambered Nautilus," a large-scale choral work set to a text by American poet Oliver Wendell Holmes. 

Melodia is a vibrant and vital force advocating music for women's voices through its commissions, residencies and performances. Since it was founded in 2003 by Jenny Clarke, the ensemble has performed a vast range of repertoire, from Medieval music of Hildegard of Bingen to world premieres by living women composers. When Melodia performs on November 13th (at West End Collegiate Church) and November 19th (at Church of the Holy Apostles) they will be performing music by Beach, Cecilia McDowell and the world premiere of Catherine Aks's "The Journey." Oh yes, Melodia also performs music for wormen's voices written by men, so works by Eric Whitacre, Gabriel Fauré, Giuseppe Verdi and Gustav Holst will also be on the bill.

Anonymous 4’s Susan Hellauer Shares Some Secrets

Anonymous 4 (photo by Chris Carroll)

See the first part of this interview on our website.

Click to sample and buy Secret Voices.

In the first part of a chat between Anonymous 4’s Susan Hellauer and Ariama editor Craig Zeichner, Hellauer talked about the group’s new album, Secret Voices. Hellauer then shared a look at some of Anonymous 4’s future projects and what the New York Yankees need for the 2012 season.

Ariama: Here you are now 25 years in with albums that have appeared on the Billboard charts. Do you ever imagine it would be this way?

SH: Oh God no! But you know what the great thing is? We were just a group of people who got together to do just what we wanted. We got together because we had some sort of passionate goal and you know that’s very lucky.

New Album Review: Anonymous 4 "Secret Voices"

Sample and buy the album!

The “secret voices” of the album’s title refers to Cistercian nuns (of mostly aristocratic birth) living at Las Huelgas, a convent near Burgos in south-central Spain. The “secret” was that these women were singing polyphony (music with two or more voices with independent melodies) despite an edict from church fathers forbidding the practice. The polyphonic music, as well as secular and other forms of sacred music, is found in the Codex Las Huelgas, a collection of European music spanning the entire 13th and early 14th centuries. Anonymous 4 sing music from the Codex on this new recording.