Front page	From the Event Guide archive! This article refers to an event which took place on, or until, 04 May 2006 Classical Interview – Anuna Anuna Nua Trish Murphy talks to composer Michael McGlynn, director of Anuna, whose new album ‘Sensation’ has just been released. Most people would associate vocal ensemble Anuna with the heyday of Riverdance, but they go a much longer way back and have come an equally long way since then. Founded in 1987 by composer Michael McGlynn, the choir has gone some way to redress what McGlynn sees as the appalling neglect of choral music in this country, and remains one of the few vocal ensembles where singers are nurtured and developed. “When I set up”, says McGlynn, “there was no-one doing early Irish music, and a large section of our singers didn’t know a single Irish song. But I think the thing that was most in my mind in 1987 was that most classical music performances, and particularly choral music performances bored me to tears. I would sit bored looking at choirs singing music which had no relationship to me and how I felt about life, and singing in as unattractive way as possible. So really what I did was I set something up which I would have wanted to go and see, and I desperately needed a way to express myself as a composer.” For McGlynn, an Anuna concert is also about the presentation – it’s a show, and as anyone who has been to one of their gigs will know, atmosphere is all important and Anuna have it in spade-loads, clad in flowing black robes as they weave in and out through the audience, singing their evocative and haunting songs. “The kind of music which we are performing would very much fall under the peripheries of music anyway, we do a lot of music which would be a thousand years old or within that time period, and then we jump up to very contemporary forms of music.” And although his music might be on the peripheries, he’s a bit miffed that he still isn’t taken seriously by the classical music establishment of his native land. “There are other countries where what I do would be considered part of the contemporary music world, in Ireland it was not and still is not. It’s fashionable classical music now, but when I was doing it, it wasn’t; music which is tonal and based on modes and based on drones and things like that has suddenly come into fashion. When we started it was very much to tie in with this idea of trying to express ourselves as Irish people, so there was a real cultural basis, which was how it lead into the involvement with the whole Celtic thing and Riverdance and all that, which sadly I think has made the whole thing over commercialised. Anuna, which had so much to offer has just been stampeded by shows like Celtic Underpants!” Does he regret Anuna’s involvement with Riverdance? “No I don’t think so, I regret the legacy it’s left, I regret the legacy it’s left on Anuna as well. When I set it up, one of the main reasons was that I wanted something that would affect Irish choral music, because it’s my passion, and I don’t know of any other country in Europe where it is worst served than in Ireland – despite the fact that there are choral directors out there totally obsessed with standards and singing, it’s just that the establishment doesn’t see it as being important. I hoped that Riverdance would come along, and by involving young singers in something like that, giving them an international exposure, it would increase and improve the lot for all singers singing chorally. But in fact what it did is get an awful lot of soloists in who know nothing about choral music. Financially it was good to be involved, and at the time my heart welled with pride, we were all so proud. But then after a while it was just how much money you could make, and I couldn’t wait to get out of it.” However, it did help to raise the choir’s profile internationally. “Among the choral fraternity, and that’s massive in some countries, we’re hugely well-known. In other countries they look at us and they go, we understand these elements because they’re part of our culture so our success has all been outside Ireland”. ‘Sensation’, the first album from Anuna in five years, has been something of a labour of love for McGlynn. “It’s very different from any other Irish album that I can think of. We’re so proud of it, because we have not been proud of our records very often in the past, we’ve always been working under huge pressure to record, and there’s always been Riverdance or a record contract or something.” This time around he’s used a large choir – over 30 voices are involved altogether – and some very fine instrumentalists, producing a combination of sounds that has definite echoes of the Hilliard Ensemble. “I don’t like to use a lot of instruments, because the sound of the group is so unusual compared to other choirs that really what people pay for is to listen to Anuna. What I wanted to do on this is to get instrumentalists to play things that they wouldn’t necessarily play normally, I’ve tried to make the instruments sound as different as we do from other choirs, and also to get the instruments to sound like voices.” So the opening track features the waif-like saxophone of Ken Edge, and other tracks have subtle contributions from percussionist Noel Eccles, harpist Andreja Mahlir and Maire Breathnach on violin and viola. The settings range from texts by Hildegard von Bingen, Arthur Rimbaud and John Henry Newman to traditional French, Irish and English pieces. As regards influences, “I think slow is the word”, says McGlynn. “I decided I wanted to make a record that I would like to listen to myself. It’s supposed to take you to another place, and the humanity of the voices is supposed to open a little doorway in you, make your brain stretch beyond yourself, trying to maybe open up a little door to spirituality without shoving it down your throat. It’s a spiritual record without being aggressively spiritual.” And audiences will get a chance to experience if for themselves when Anuna give their only concert in Ireland this year at St Ann’s, Dawson Street on Thursday 4th May. “An Anuna concert has very much become an experience where you sit and things happen around you, and it’s very important that we develop that further. These new pieces are much more sustained; we want to give people a bit of peace, and if I see someone nodding off at an Anuna gig, I’m so happy!” Anuna are at St Ann’s, Dawson Street on Thursday 4th May, 8pm. Tickets €20 from www.anuna.ie or at the door. ‘Sensation’ has just been released and is available from www.anuna.ie ß