Cal Poly Early Music Ensemble: 'Mission Milestones'

The Cal Poly Early Music Ensemble, under the direction of music Professor Thomas Davies, will present “Mission Milestones” at 8 p.m. Friday, May 24, in Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa.

Music Professor Craig Russell, an expert in California Mission music, will join the ensemble and discuss the works to be performed.

The program will explore some of the core repertoire from California's Mission Period in commemoration of the 300th anniversary year of the birth of Father Junípero Serra. Russell… Show more reconstructed the music from original manuscripts.

Featured will be the “Misa del quarto tono” (Mass in mode 4) that Serra and his fellow friars used during Lent and Holy Week. “The charming and ‘classical-sounding’ pieces ‘¡O qué suave!’ and ‘O Rey de corazones’ were communion pieces used outside the mission in the open air and were almost certainly used at the founding of the San Luis Obispo mission, as they were used at the founding of other missions in both Baja and Alta California,” Russell said. “The processional ‘Lauda Sion Salvatorem’ was also used during founding days and attracted the First Nations peoples of California through its catchy melody and accompaniment to the friars’ and soldiers’ ‘parade.’”

The program will conclude with Ignacio de Jerusalem’s Mass in F, the composer’s most pastoral-sounding work. “This piece surely resonated with the local populace through its catchy tunes and its ‘naturalness,’” Russell said. “Few things were prized more than ‘nature’ and ‘being natural’ at that time."

The 16 members of the Cal Poly Early Music Ensemble will be joined by several student and professional instrumentalists, including harpist Jennifer Sayre. Russell will join the instrumentalists on Baroque guitar.

Show less