Ирландиялық хор өнері: дәстүр мен жаңашылдықтың үйлесімі

Irish choral ensemble, led by Michael McGlynn

An Uaithne featured a number of traditional music arrangements done by McGlynn as part of their repertoire. He has stated: "One of the misapprehensions about my music is that I am not actually concerned with saving Irish traditional music; I am not a traditionalist. The only exposure I had [to traditional Irish song] was during my year at Coláiste na Rinne in Dún Garbhán. The songs that I set are not from a specific collection; they are more impressions of the songs I remembered." McGlynn also created new compositions that could be perceived as arrangements of Irish songs but were, in fact, new melodies composed to traditional texts. These works are not arrangements and they became a feature of An Uaithne's repertoire and continue to be part of the Anúna canon. McGlynn has stated: "People just assume that I have just found a “living” version. In fact I have done what has made solo traditional music so viable: I have created a new version. I take the songs and reinterpret them in a new way. My priority is always to create a choral version that works." McGlynn supports this in his blog:
I can now hear two types of singer on the recording. There are large, plummy voices favoured by the classically trained singers I had gathered around me for An Uaithne, but now I can hear the “others” – early music singers, traditional singers and untrained singers. There is a fight going on. The performances are rough, but hugely energetic. Many of the more classical singers or choral groupies are stuck to the inadequately learned sheet music, while the new people are singing without music and without affectation. The genesis of the choir's vocal sound derives from a number of different sources including Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares, although he has stated that Anúna are not an expression of their culture in the same way as the Bulgarian choir because, when creating Anúna, there was no point in his pretending that there had been a culture of part singing in Ireland. McGlynn has stated: "What I have done is to try to always create an accessibility using the concept of fragility in the voice to allow the audience to access music that otherwise they might find overtly and harmonically complex or technically demanding to listen to." The vocal timbre of the group has changed over the last thirty years according to McGlynn, "In 1994 Anúna was embryonic and restrained by the capacity of the singers to actually perform the material. I wrote for the instrument I had available to me, and the material both suffers and benefits from this restriction. Today I don't have those same restrictions, with members drawn from all over the world. Anúna now contains some of the finest choral singers on the planet, so I am gradually becoming used to the idea that I can stretch my voice as a writer considerably more than in the past." The ensemble works on a project to project basis and draws from a pool of available singers who are located in many countries. The performers use specific performance techniques collectively titled the "Anúna Technique".

McGlynn formed the choir An Uaithne in 1987, after involvement with college choirs at both University College Dublin and Trinity College Dublin, and the semi professional RTE Chamber Choir. Founder members included Monica Donlon, and Garrath Patterson. The choir's earliest concerts featured medieval Irish and European music, contemporary choral pieces by Irish composers and Irish folk arrangements. In 1991, An Uaithne officially became Anúna, a stylised non phonetic rendition of the Irish an uaithne proposed by Monica Donlon's mother, Paula Donlon. Both albums were licensed by the Irish label Celtic Heartbeat and released in 1995 The album Anúna achieved a Billboard World Music chart placing at number 11 in 1995. They featured on the CD Riverdance: Music from the Show and on the DVD Riverdance: the Show. They sang the opening choral section entitled "Cloudsong" with a solo by soprano Katie McMahon. Anúna won an Irish National Entertainment Award for Classical music in 1994. In 1995, they released Omnis, followed by Deep Dead Blue in 1996. The latter gained an international release on the Gimell/Polygram label in 1999 and was nominated for a Classical Brit Award in 2000. The group left Riverdance in 1996. In 1997 Anúna released the CD Behind the Closed Eye, an orchestral collaboration with the Ulster Orchestra, Northern Ireland's leading symphony orchestra. The choir appeared at the World Sacred Music Festival in Morocco in 1998 (returning in 2002). In 1999 Anúna performed at the first ever Irish Prom at the BBC Proms in the Royal Albert Hall in London.

In 2010, Anúna adopted the name "Anúna, Ireland's National Choir" as their official title and inaugurated an Education and Outreach programme. The group performed again with the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland in July 2010, with Finnish violinist Linda Lampenius. The programme included a number of new pieces and arrangements including the nine minute McGlynn fantasia based on the songs of Thomas Moore, "The Last Rose". In June 2010, Anúna collaborated on a new CD and DVD project with The Wiggles, entitled It's Always Christmas With You! and released in 2011. In September 2010, Anúna recorded an arrangement by Michael McGlynn of "Away in a Manger" with ex Celtic Woman soloist Órla Fallon for her Christmas PBS special, which also featured David Archuleta and another ex Anúna and Celtic Woman soloist Méav Ní Mhaolchatha. The special was filmed in Dublin, Ireland. No fewer than five of the soloists who have been featured on Celtic Woman since 2005 (Órla Fallon, Méav Ní Mhaolchatha, Lynn Hilary, Éabha McMahon, Tara McNeill and Deirdre Shannon) have been members of Anúna. On 27–29 January 2011, Anúna joined Irish musical pioneers Clannad for three concerts at Dublin's Christ Church Cathedral for the Donegal group's fortieth anniversary celebrations. They collaborated on five tracks, "Dúlamán", "Caislean Óir", "Theme from Harry's Game", "In a Lifetime" and "I Will Find You". Anúna also performed a version of "Media Vita" as they came onstage, integrating musical elements of "Caislean Óir". Anúna made their Chinese debut in June 2011 touring a number of cities. In Beijing they performed at the Beijing Poly Theater and in Shanghai at the Shanghai Oriental Art Center. In July 2011 the National Concert Hall in Dublin presented the first Anúna International Summer School. The event took place between 5 and 9 July, and featured a team of international facilitators including Matthew Oltman, then musical director of Chanticleer. In September their album Christmas Memories débuted at 95 in The Billboard 200. To finish the year, Anúna visited Japan, a trip which included concerts and workshops. This tour also included a high profile visit to the area affected by the tsunami of 2011 and Fukushima. In April 2012, Anúna participated in the premiere of Philip Hammond's Requiem for the Lost Souls of the Titanic at St Anne's Cathedral, Belfast. To celebrate their 25th anniversary in June 2012 Anúna released their new album Illumination, a fifteen track CD and, in May, featured on the soundtrack to the video game Diablo III. Blizzard Entertainment's audio director, Russell Brower says "Working somewhat against conventional expectations, Hell is a beautiful and seductive sound, provided by Dublin's uniquely astounding choral group ANÚNA". As of February 2014, the game has sold 15 million copies across all platforms. The soundtrack was nominated for a BAFTA award in 2013. In October, the choir gave a workshop at the Shanghai Conservatory and, in November, they hosted a series of public choral workshop events across the Netherlands. 2013 marked the first concert performances and workshops in Canada for the group. In 2015 Anúna sold out Beijing's National Centre for the Performing Arts. In 2017, as part of their 30th Anniversary year, Anúna performed as part of a collaborative project entitled "Takahime", in front of a sold out audience on February 16 at Tokyo's Orchard Hall. It included a performance of Yokomichi Mario's adaptation of W. B. Yeats "At the Hawk's Well" entitled "Takahime", directed and scored by McGlynn and Gensho Umewaka (a Japanese National Treasure), who said of the collaboration with Anúna, “I think Celtic choral music and Noh are similar in both being abstract arts So we have no need to hesitate and can just make all the creative sparks we wish." The performance featured a full cast of Noh actors and musicians, with Umewaka in the role of The Hawk. On July 30, 2017, the choir performed at the Francis Ledwidge memorial event at Richmond Barracks in Dublin, with McGlynn commenting "When I discovered Ledwidge for the first time through the academic work of Inchicore poet Liam O'Meara, it was like finding a kindred spirit" and "Over the last two decades I have taken his poetry around the world as Anúna has toured. Each new setting I make of his texts yields more and more layers of meaning, more subtlety and nuance. Ledwidge remains one of my greatest poetic inspirations." In November 2017 Anúna released a video, created by Michael McGlynn, of the piece "Shadow of the Lowlands" composed by Yasunori Mitsuda. Speaking of his first encounter with Anúna through their album "Deep Dead Blue", Mitsuda says "I felt that ANÚNA was a new type of chorus that I'd never heard before. My attention was drawn to the lead singer, Michael McGlynn, and I dreamt about making music with ANÚNA one day. After 20 years, my dream came true through the making of the game Xenoblade Chronicles 2". "Shadow of the Lowlands" is one of four that features on the soundtrack of the Nintendo Switch video game Xenoblade Chronicles 2. In February 2018 the group won the Outstanding Ensemble category of the Annual Game Music Awards 2017 for their contributions to the game. In April Anúna joined Mitsuda on stage in April for a series of full concert performances of music from Xenogears to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the release of the video game. In November 2022, the group released a digital only Christmas themed album, recorded in Dublin. In December 2022, the group's leader announced that a pair of performances on December 3 would be their final public performances in Ireland, saying "After 35 years it has become increasingly apparent that ANÚNA doesn't have a place within the Irish music community." and is currently a choral clinician and educator, most recently giving a series of workshops at Dublin's National Concert Hall in 2009/2010. John McGlynn is a tenor with Anúna and an Irish singer songwriter. He is also Michael McGlynn's identical twin brother. His distinctive guitar style features on many of Anúna's albums. Originally an architect by trade, he currently acts as a director of the choir, touring in that capacity throughout Europe and the US. He released his solo album Songs For A Fallen Angel in 2000 and has formed a trio entitled Sweet June. His arrangements and original songs appear on a number of Anúna releases. "If All She Has Is You" appears on the Celtic Origins album and concert DVD and has been covered by Celtic Woman soloist Lynn Hilary on her debut solo album. Other arrangements and original pieces include "The Fisher King", "Buachaill ón Éirne", "Siúil a Rúin" and "O Come All Ye Faithful". He features as a soloist on the albums Christmas Songs, Invocation, Anúna, Deep Dead Blue, Christmas Memories, Celtic Origins and Cynara. He appears as a soloist on the DVDs Invocations of Ireland, Celtic Origins and Christmas Memories.