Anonymous 4 made its reputation through a series of best-selling albums of medieval European music in the 1990s. But the female vocal quartet also premiered contemporary music by composers like Sir John Tavener, Steve Reich, and Richard Einhorn. (Actually, the latter two were commissioned by WNYC.) And in recent years, its members -- Ruth Cunningham, Marsha Genensky, Susan Hellauer and Jacqueline Horner-Kwiatek -- have been looking at a different sort of early music: early American folk hymns, spirituals, and the like.

With this year marking the 150th anniversary of the end of the American Civil War, and coincidentally marking the end of Anonymous 4 -- it has been announced this will be its last touring season -- the quartet has joined forces with folk singer, fiddler, and banjo player Bruce Molsky to perform songs that would’ve been popular in the States in 1865. A surprising number of those songs are still sung today, although with some surprising differences. “Aura Lee,” for example, would become famous almost 100 years later as Elvis Presley’s “Love Me Tender,” and “Listen To The Mockingbird” has somehow been reinvented as a lighthearted, comic song.

Hear how the original version sounded as A4 and Bruce Molsky perform it, and several other excerpts from the album, 1865: Songs of Hope and Home from the American Civil War, in the Soundcheck studio.

Interview Highlights:

Jacqueline Horner-Kwiatek, on the legacy of Civil War songs:

The Civil War isn’t apart of my personal history. But I think the songs resonate now as they did then. A lot of these concepts and the emotions being expressed are timeless. They’re definitely important songs now and then.

Susan Hellauer, on Bruce Molsky coming from a folk tradition not tied to scores:

Bruce was teaching me clawhammer banjo several years ago. And my first lesson was scheduled and I said, "Should I bring a music stand?" And he said to me after a little bit of silence, "You mean to put your banjo on?" And that’s when I discovered I was going to be learning how to play the banjo without looking at any notes. And I have to say that revolutionized everything I did and thought about music since then.

Bruce Molsky, on combining sheet music and folk:

I feel that we met in the middle in a really nice way. Folk music is all about feelings and spirit. It feels good to do it.

On surprises throughout Anonymous 4’s career:

Hellauer: The biggest surprise was the very beginning. That people wanted to hear 4 girls from New York singing medieval polyphony. I still remained shocked about that and after every new program that was developed, I kept saying, now what am I going to do? I’ve run out of ideas and that was 29 years ago.

Marsha Genensky: Being able to turn to Americana which was my first love. I grew up wishing I had been born just a little bit earlier so I could have been along there with Joan Baez. So it was a coming full circle to me and a huge surprise. It allowed us to do collaborations with some pretty wonderful people including our new best friend Bruce.

Ruth Cunningham: When English Lady Mass just took off when we gave that little cassette tape to Harmonium...and they took a chance on us.

Horner-Kwiatek: Being asked to join the group because I’m not one of the original members and I was singing primarily new music. I auditioned because I thought it would be really cool to do this, I thought it was like, really me? It was really fun to get to join such a wonderfully well established and highly regarded group and discover this music that I really didn’t know anything about. I discovered I quite like a lot of it.

Set List:

• "Hard Times Come Again No More"
• "Home Sweet Home"
• "Listen To The Mockingbird"
• "Shall We Gather At The River"