Musical Style and Other Projects
As a musical group Enya represents a partnership between three people: Enya herself, who composes and performs the music; Nicky Ryan, who produces the albums; and Roma Ryan, who writes the lyrics in various languages, except Irish, in which Enya will render the lyrics herself. Enya performs all percussion, instruments, and vocals in her pieces unless specified. Although there are certain pieces where acoustic instruments are featured, almost all sounds of her pieces are created by a synthesiser. Her trademark sound is achieved by layering her voice as many as 80 times.
Her signature sound uses simple arrangements with extensive multi-tracking vocals. The vocals are performed individually, and are then layered together to form a virtual choir, although all the voices are Enya herself. Enya's vocal range is mezzo-soprano. In "Cursum Perficio" of the album Watermark, Enya reaches a C an octave below middle C. Later in the piece, she sings a high A-flat above the treble clef.
On the album Amarantine Enya sings in Japanese and Loxian, a language invented by Roma Ryan. The vocabulary is formed by Enya singing the notes to which Roma provides the phonetic writing. There is no official syntax for Loxian. While most of her songs are sung in English, some of Enya's songs are sung entirely in Irish or Latin. Enya has also sung songs written entirely or partially in Welsh, Spanish, French, and even languages created by J. R. R. Tolkien. Enya has performed several songs relating to J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, including 1991's "Lothlórien" (instrumental), and 2001's "May It Be" (sung in English and Quenya), and "Aníron" (in Sindarin)—the latter two, which she composed, appearing in Peter Jackson's movie The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and its soundtrack album. "May It Be" was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song.
Enya's performances are "semi-live", using playback music and singing. She has given live performances on various television shows, events and ceremonies (her most recent appearance was in Gaoth Dobhair in the summer of 2005, which coincided with a tribute event to the Brennan family that took place in Letterkenny), but she has yet to do a concert. She does not classify her music as belonging to the New Age genre. When asked what genre she would classify her music as belonging to, she would reply, "Enya".
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