From Serra to Sancho

Music in the California missions was a pluralistic combination of voices and instruments of liturgy and spectacle of styles and functions-and even of cultures-in a new blend that was non-existent before the Franciscan friars made their way to California beginning in 1769. This book explores the exquisite sacred music that flourished on the West Coast of America when it was under Spanish and Mexican rule; it delves into the historical cultural biographical and stylistic aspects of California mission music during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The book explores how mellifluous plainchant reverent hymns spunky folkloric ditties classical music in the style of Haydn and even Native American drumming were interwoven into a tapestry of resonant beauty. Aspects of music terminology performance practice notation theory sacred song hymns the sequence the mass and pageantry are addressed. Russell draws upon hundreds of primary documents in California Mexico Madrid Barcelona London and Mallorca and it is through the melding together of this information from geographically separated places that he brings the mystery of California''s mission music into sharper focus. In addition to extensive musical analysis the book also examines such things as cultural context style scribal attribution instructions to musicians government questionnaires invoices the liturgy architectural space where performances took place spectacle musical instruments instrument construction shipping records travelers'' accounts letters diaries passenger lists baptismal and burial records and other primary source material. Within this book one finds considerable biographical information about Junípero Serra Juan Bautista Sancho Narciso Durán Florençio Ibáñez Pedro Cabot Martín de Cruzelaegui Ignacio de Jerusalem and Francisco Javier García Fajer. Furthermore it contains five far-reaching appendices: a Catalogue of Mission Sources; Photos of Missions and Mission Manuscripts (with over 150 color facsimiles); Translations of Primary Texts; Music Editions (that are performance-ready); and an extensive Bibliography.