THE MEXICAN CATHEDRAL MUSIC OF IGNACIO DE JERÚSALEM: LOST TREASURES, ROYAL ROADS, AND NEW WORLDS

Abstract

In 1769 Father Jun?pero Serra departed Mexico City on an overland journey through Baja California to San Miguel Bay (now called San Die go) where he founded the first of twenty missions that were to dot the California landscape. The missions became the spiritual, cultural, and musical centers of Spanish colonial society for the ensuing decades.Un fortunately, very little mission music from that period has survived. Most of the extant pieces are simple homophonic compositions for unaccom panied voices: works that delve into complex polyphony or orchestral writing are extremely rare. Until now, only one concerted Mass setting (i.e., a setting for voices and orchestra) from that period was known to exist ?the elegant Mass in G major by Ignacio de Jer?salem presently housed in the Santa Barbara Mission.1 But a serendipitous discovery at the San Fernando Mission last Ja nuary by John Koegel has just expanded the repertoire of concerted masses by a factor of four. In three uncataloged folders, he found the performance parts for three ?numbers? masses in which the various sec tions of the Ordinary are subdivided into separate autonomous sections that vary in tempo, meter, key, texture, and scoring. Two masses in F major and D-major are for single choir, and the third is a polychoral set ting, also in D-major. Each is written on a grandiose scale with many ly rical melodies, interesting touches in orchestration, and overall musi cal sophistication. The folders only contain performance parts: there are