ANON WAS A WOMAN : Enchanting chanting.

Praised by some critics as the "hottest vocal quartet" since the Beatles, the singing group Anonymous 4 has sold more than 1 million CDs of meditative medieval music on Harmonia Mundi. In the wake of best-selling Gregorian chant CDs that soothe today's overstressed audiences, Anonymous 4, in permanent residence at Manhattan's Corpus Christi Church, tour worldwide. Their sound is virginally pure yet sexy, girlish and yet offering maternal comfort. Unlike male singers of Gregorian, who often sound sober and somber, the singers of Anonymous 4 are always upbeat and determined, no doubt in part because of their individual skills and backgrounds. Marsha Genesky and Susan Hellauer have degrees in folklore and early music, respectively, while contralto Susan Hellauer's studies in musicology give the group its scholarly seriousness. Irish singer Jacqueline Horner recently replaced founding member (and trained flautist) Ruth Cunningham, who left the group to pursue a career in the use of music in healing. Indeed, the guest book on the group's Web site (www.anonymous4.com) features many accounts of the health-related benefits of the group's music.

Despite the music's beneficent powers, the group itself retains a lightness of touch that is welcome. Their name is a joke, borrowed from the name "Anonymous IV," which music professors use for an unknown thirteenth-century author of a music treatise. To purists, who complain that monastic music was written for male voices, Hellauer demurs: "While women were not allowed to sing in the cathedral, and therefore would not have been 'professional' soloists of sacred music, within the confines of their convents they would have sung chant, just as men did in their monasteries. Certainly, the virtuoso chant of the twelfth-century reformer and mystic Hildegard of Bingen would have been sung by the nuns in her charge. Both medieval chant and polyphonic manuscripts have survived in convents; from this we can infer that women sang polyphony as well." Hellauer emphasizes that the group's fans--some proudly call themselves "4-Heads"--may be "drawn to an ancient tradition of spirituality, which is the source of much of the music we sing. Many people these days seem to be seeking a connection to the world of the spirit, perhaps as a reaction to our overwhelmingly technological world."

Anonymous 4 concerts are usually based on a unified theme. They may have to do with a saint or a feast day, with a liturgical service or a literary idea. Although the group does not stress the liturgical significance of the music, preferring to attract a wide audience drawn to spiritual melodies, clearly the packaging and presentation of the works are inextricably linked with the greatest cultural accomplishments of the medieval church. And monastic-style discipline is needed to prepare the programs. According to Hellauer, "the fragmentary and scattered state of thirteenth- and fourteenth-century English polyphonic sources makes the creation of an edition a daunting task. There exists not even one substantial intact manuscript from which to work. Instead, there are hundreds of strips, scraps, paste-downs, and flyleaves to be found, matched, deciphered, and transcribed. Reconstructions, ranging from a few notes to an entire voice part, are often necessary." Despite these labors, the group's performances radiate a reassuringly enjoyable aura of confidence and authority.

Their records are equally spirited, such as Legends of Saint Nicholas, a Christmas album that is not just more of the same old ho-ho-ho: in these energetic songs, Santa Claus does not just reward good children, he beats evildoers with a stick! Anonymous 4's latest disc, 1000: A Mass for the End of Time, is a view of how, a millennium ago, people were anxious about apocalypse, but were able to cope in part thanks to angelic-sounding music. Another recording, 11,000 Virgins: Chants for the Feast of Saint Ursula, highlights the music of Hildegard of Bingen about the legendary fourth-century martyr and her companions.

Anonymous 4 first sang together fifteen years ago, and their debut disk An English Ladymass (1993) was the first recording of chant to rise to the Billboard classical bestsellers chart, where it reigned for nearly two years. Then came two more successes: a Christmas disk On Yoolis Night, and Love's Illusion, music of chivalry from medieval France. Ready to expand its horizons, the group has participated in modern composer Richard Einhorn's Voices of Light, an oratorio written to accompany the 1928 silent film, The Passion of Joan of Arc, directed by Carl Theodor Dreyer. It is available on CD from Sony, as well as on video and DVD. Recently Anonymous 4 collaborated with British composer John Tavener on his The Bridegroom, based on the parable of the wise and foolish virgins. Devotees of choral music are delighted with a new publication of four selections from the group's On Yoolis Night, just released by earthsongs (www.earthsongsmus.com). Now avid 4-Heads can remain anonymous at home or at concerts.

Benjamin Ivry writes often on music for Commonweal.