Sunday Tribune

Just because Michael McGlynn writes and performs music in a style that dates back to the art's earliest forms, do not think he doesn't have opinions about the modern pop scene.

"When I hear something beautiful, it's a rarity," McGlynn said. "There's so much junk being perpetrated by the industry and then the industry is moaning, 'Oh, people have stopped buying records.' Well, the reason they stopped buying records is most of what's being produced is utter rubbish."

McGlynn found his musical salvation at an early age in medieval and classical pieces, composed centuries ago in his native Ireland. Approximately 15 years ago that interest drove the development of his choir, Anuna.

McGlynn prizes Anúna's originality above all else. He and the group have performed all over the world, from Dutch church halls to French amphitheaters and Moroccan palaces.

Reviews are mixed -- not that the group receives poor reviews, but often reviewers can't fit the group into one fixed category.Often pop music writers are sent to review the shows even though Anúna's works chart in the United Kingdom's classical charts and the CDs are stocked in the Irish sections of England's music stores.

Anúna comes to St. Paul's By-The-Sea Episcopal Church Sunday as part of the Beaches Fine Arts Series. Although the performances mix secular and spiritual music, churches do seem to suit the choir best. The show requires a lot of movement and the resulting experience draws comparisons to dance music.

This is also Anúna's first tour of the United States, but many fans of the late '90s show Riverdance may remember the group from the multimillion-selling video. McGlynn was quick to point out that Anúna was part of Riverdance for only one week, and people should not come to this show expecting that type of performance.

McGlynn felt a kinship with Riverdance's early incarnation, in that it was a combination of bright young talent embracing its Irish artistic heritage and bringing it into the future. He decided to move on when Riverdance became a more commercial than artistic endeavor.

Anúna performs at 3 p.m. Sunday at St. Paul's By-The-Sea Episcopal Church as part of the Beaches Fine Arts Series. The church is located at 1150 Fifth St. N. in Jacksonville Beach. Admission is free, doors open at 2:15 p.m., seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. For more information, call 270-1771 or on the Internet at Jacksonville.com, keywords: beaches fine arts.

"It was something culturally that the best people in the country were all involved in," McGlynn said. "It had the finest musicians, the finest singers, the finest dancers, the best of what Ireland could produce in that vein. And when it went from being simply that to a commercial enterprise -- which ,of course, if it was successful, it was going to have to be -- it's very difficult to keep your identity in that. To be honest, I really wasn't willing to let Anuna become absorbed in a gluttonous mass called Riverdance. Eventually Riverdance would collapse and we'd collapse with it."

McGlynn also passed on an opportunity to join Riverdance star Michael Flatley's subsequent show, The Lord of the Dance. McGlynn bristles at anything that may impede Anuna's independence, whether that means working with a large touring show, being under contract with a major record label or performing some of the ancient pieces in accepted academic method.

Early on, Anúna did perform traditional Irish music and was criticized for its modern interpretations and arrangements. McGlynn dismissed his critics and chose to continue his mission.

"I wanted my audience to understand their culture, their heritage and their tradition and to say, 'My God, we had people writing music in 1150 and it was beautiful,'" McGlynn said. "Even though it might not be exactly as it sounded, but nobody knows how it sounded. Everybody from 1150 is dead aren't they? Who's going to know?"

Working with such ancient forms of music presents some challenges as well. Anúna consists of both trained and untrained singers, but McGlynn attributes Anúna's unique sound to that mix. Personally, his biggest reward is hearing his music performed. He now writes virtually all of Anuna's music and several American choirs have performed his works.

"That to me is my voice. My songs are my voice," McGlynn said. "Anúna is that instrument that is used to do that, to project my voice. However, it is also something culturally very important to Ireland.

"It's the only group of its kind, there is nothing like it in Ireland," he continued. "We have classical music groups and then we have folk music groups and, of course, we have Bono and all that gang. We're stuck very firmly outside all of that. There is nothing like us anywhere."