Lauren RabainoCal Poly’s Early Music Ensemble’s performance of “Masters of the Mission” will feature music that was widely heard in missions throughout California during its early history. The concert will take place on Jan. 24 at 8 p.m. in the Christopher Cohan Center.
The Early Music Ensemble consists of 15 students with significant singing experience. The chorus specializes in performing the technique and style of music written before 1750. Cal Poly music professor Craig Russell researched and reconstructed original pieces of music during the time he spent visiting California missions, several of which the ensemble will play.
“It’s like going into a kitchen and finding ingredients to make a recipe. I’m like a detective trying to find out what music sounded like in the California missions hundreds of years ago,” Russell said.
Cal Poly music professor Thomas Davies will conduct the performance. a”We come as close as we can to performing music as it might have been done at that time,” Davies said. “The joy the students have for being able to do something that they love to do is wonderful. After all of the rehearsing, the performance will be exciting.”
A small chamber, consisting of baroque guitar, violinists, cellists and harpists will accompany the Early Music Ensemble.
As a music scholar and California mission historian, Russell searched for possessions that were eventually located and now remain in consolidated centers throughout the state. When westward orchestra expansion in the United States disrupted the mission system, entire treasures including musical manuscripts, were either physically separated over time or vanished, he said.
The Santa Barbara, Santa Clara and San Fernando missions were some of the ones Russell frequented. He kept a detailed catalog of where specific parts to pieces of music were located and, after numerous visits to a variety of missions throughout California, found enough preserved elements of musical manuscripts to reconstruct some of the original written work.
The music of the time period encompasses several moods and styles. Songs to be performed at the performance include “Ya Se Heriza,” “Credo” from the “Misa En Sol” and “Agnus Dei” from the “Misa En Sol.” Music written by Fray Juan Bautista Sancho, recognized for bringing modern classicism to California missions, will also be performed.
“Since we didn’t grow up playing music during this time, we can’t experience the same feelings, since a large part of it has to be learned culturally,” Russell said. “But we can get a taste of what it would have been like. Having put this together and rehearsed it, I have a better understanding of what it means to be a Californian. Music is an audible photograph of what people value. This music is amazingly magnificent.”