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Refined gold from along the Royal Highway: musical training at the California Missions as a model for present-day pedagogy

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Refined gold from along the Royal Highway: musical training at the California Missions as a model for present-day pedagogy

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REFINED GOLD FROM ALONG THE ROYAL HIGHWAY:
MUSICAL TRAINING AT THE CALIFORNIA MISSIONS AS A MODEL FOR
PRESENT-DAY PEDAGOGY

by

Daniel Benjamin Keller

A Dissertation Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE USC THORNTON SCHOOL OF MUSIC
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF MUSICAL ARTS
(CHORAL MUSIC)

May 2012

Copyright 2012 Daniel Benjamin Keller
ii

EPIGRAPH

Todo esso he oido mil veces, y he acompañado cantando á los Pages y Muchachas.
([Herein] is all that I have heard a thousand times, and have sung with the boys and girls.)

—Felipe Arroyo de la Cuesta, “Lengua de California”

iii

DEDICATION

With love to Elizabeth (Libby) Anne and Brian Louis Keller.

iv

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This work would not have been possible without the assistance and support of the
following people and organizations:
For the use of their facilities, access to manuscripts, and access to and creation of
photographic images, the author offers his gratitude to the the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum
of Anthropology: Alicia Egbert, Media Collections Manager and Michael T. Black, Head
of Research and Information Systems; the Santa Bárbara Mission Archive-Library: Dr.
Monico Orozco, Director and Brian Burd, Photo Curator; the University of California,
Berkeley, Bancroft Memorial Library Public Services Department: David Kessler,
Registration Works Leader and Lee Anne Titangos, Instruction Manager and
Photoduplication Coordinator; the University of California, Berkeley, Hargrove Music
Library: John Shepard, Head Librarian and Angela Arnold, Circulation Supervisor; and
to the University of Southern California, Doheny Memorial Library Special Collections
Department: Melissa K. Hayes, Head and Rachelle Balinas Smith, Library Assistant
Manager.
For additional assistance in securing permission to reprint images, the author is
indebted to the American Folklore Society: Timothy Lloyd, Executive Director; the
American Museum of Natural History: Gregory August Raml, Special Collections and
Reference Librarian, and Mai Qaraman, Research Services Librarian, Department of
Library Services; the Bancroft Library: Susan Snyder, Head of Public Services; the
Church Music Association of America: Jeffrey Tucker, Director of Publications; Mission
San Luis Rey: Linda Gazi, Assistant Director; the San Luis Rey Band of California
v

Indians: Mel Vernon, Captain; Sunset Publishing: Haley Minick; and the Stanford
University Green Music Library, Deptartment of Special Collections: Ray Heigemeir,
Public Services Librarian, Jerry McBride, Head Librarian, and Mattie Taormina, Head of
Public Service and Processing Manuscripts Librarian.
For advice and editorial comments on this work, the author offers his appreciation
to the members of his Doctoral Dissertation Committee, Drs. Cristian Grases, Jo-Michael
Scheibe, Nick Strimple, and Sheila Woodward.
For information on the construction and operation of the California Native
Elderberry Flute, the author thanks Ben Cunningham-Summerfield, Elder of the
Mountain Maidu tribe and Antonio Flores.
For information regarding the acoustical properties of musical instruments the
author is indebted to the Ithaca College Physics Department: Dr. Luke Keller, Chair.
For patience, advice and support throughout the writing of this work and for
helping to proofread the final drafts the author offers his love and gratitude to his wife,
Dr. Kimberly Manner. For words of encouragement he offers his appreciation to his step-
daughter Laruen Perez. And for tolerance of too many nights at the computer and not
enough story time he offers his love and devotion to his children, Libby and Brian Keller.

vi

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Epigraph ii
Dedication iii
Acknowledgements iv
List of Tables viii
List of Figures ix
Abbreviations xi
Abstract xiv
Chapter 1: The Royal Highway 1
Overview and Methodology 3
Literature Review 4
Need and Contribution to the Field 32

Chapter 2: A Demanding Art 35
The Mission 35
A Diverse Repertoire 47
Comprehensive Skills 85

Chapter 3: A Musical People 89
A Diverse People 89
Reconstructing an Oral Tradition 92
A Skilled People 138
Chapter 4: An Innovative Approach 144
Where They Were 144
Where They Were Going 146
How They Got There 147
Chapter 5: Refined Gold 172
A Model Pedagogy 173
A Satisfied Audience 187
Application to the Present-day and Opportunities for Further Study 189
Bibliography 196
vii

Appendices
Appendix A 205
Appendix B 210
Appendix C 215
Appendix D 221
viii

LIST OF TABLES
Table 1: Chronological list of responses to the Interrogatorio 12
Table 2: The eight church modes 52
Table 3: Classes of melody 53
Table 4: Marcos y Navas’s description of the modes 54
Table 5: Marcos y Navas’s modal qualities 54
Table 6: Native American language groups associated with the
California missions 90
Table 7: Elder-flute pitch capabilities 217
ix

LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1: Cabot prayer board 57
Figure 2: Two settings of “Gloria” 60
Figure 3: Durán, “Victime Paschali: laudes” 68
Figure 4: Durán, “Alleluya” and “Veni Sancti Spiritus” 72
Figure 5: Juan Bautista Sancho, “Kyrie” 75
Figure 6: Maidu cocoon rattle 96
Figure 7: Luiseño dancers 98
Figure 8: Maidu split-stick clapper 99
Figure 9: Yokut bullroarer 101
Figure 10: Maidu bone whistle 104
Figure 11: Mohave flageolet 109
Figure 12: Pomo elder-flute 114
Figure 13: Yuman playing an elder-flute 115
Figure 14: Choris painting and detail 121
Figure 15: Arroyo de la Cuesta, “Lengua de California,” 44 131
Figure 16: Arroyo de la Cuesta, “Lengua de California,” 45 133
Figure 17: Two Diegueño songs 136
Figure 18: Musical hand of Marcos y Navas 157
Figure 19: Musical hand at mission San Antonio 158
Figure 20: Durán scales 162
Figure 21: Arroyo de la Cuesta, “Kyrie” and “Gloria” facsimile 210
Figure 22: Arroyo de la Cuesta, “Kyrie” and “Gloria” facsimile,
additional page 210
x

Figure 23: Arroyo de la Cuesta, “Gloria,” transcription 211
Figure 24: Narciso Durán, “Victime Paschali: laudes” facsimile, 108 213
Figure 25: Narciso Durán, “Victime Paschali: laudes” facsimile, 109 213
Figure 26: Narciso Durán, “Victime Paschali: laudes” transcription 213
Figure 27: Elder-flute dimensions 216
Figure 28: Elder-flute pitch equivalents 219

xi

ABBREVIATIONS
Formal titles
1
of the missions will be abbreviated to their common titles, as shown
in the left column below, preceeded in most cases by the word “mission” in English.
Purisima Misión de la Purísima Concepción de la Santisima Virgen
Maria
San Antonio Misión de San Antonio de Padua
San Buenaventura Misión de Glorioso Obispo Cardenal y Doctor Saráfico de
Iglesia San Buenaventura
San Carlos Misión de San Carlos del Puerto de Monterey (also known
as Mission Carmel)
San Diego Misión San Diego de Alcalá
San Gabriel Misión del Santo Príncipe el Arcángel San Gabriel de los
Temblores alias Proviscanza
San Fernando Misión de Señor San Fernando, Rey de España
San Francisco Misión de Nuestro Padre San Francisco (also known as
Mission Dolores)
San Jose Misión del Gloriosísimo Patriarca Señor San José
San Juan Bautista Misión de San Juan Bautista, Precursor de Jesucristo
San Juan Capistrano Misión de San Juan Capistrano de Sajivit
San Miguel Misión del Gloriosísimo Principe Arcangel Señor San
Miguel
San Luis Obispo Misión de San Luís, Obispo de Tolosa
San Luis Rey Misión de San Luís, Rey de Francia
San Rafael Misión del Gloriosísimo Príncipe San Rafeael Arcangel

1
As listed in Francis Weber, The California Missions: As Others Saw Them, 1786-1842 (Los
Angeles: Dawson’s Book Shop, 1972), unnumbered leaf between pages 24-25.
xii

Santa Barbara Misión de la Señora Santa Bárbara Virgen y Martír
Santa Clara Misión de Nuestra Madre Santa Clara
Santa Cruz Misión de Santa Cruz
Santa Ines Misión de la Nuestra Santa Inés (sometimes spelled Ynés),
Virgen y Martir
Solano Misión de San Francisco Solano (also known as mission
Sonoma)
Soledad Misión de María Santísima Nuestra Señora de la Soledad

Citations of primary sources will include abbreviations of or call letters from the
library or archive in which they are housed, and in some cases the abbreviation for
manuscript (MS, or MSS) or document (Doc.).
BANC Bancroft Memorial Library, University of California,
Berkeley
SBMAL Santa Bárbara Mission Archive-Library
Sc Orradre Library, Santa Clara University
WPA Works Progress Authority documents housed in the
Hargrove Memorial Library, University of California,
Berkeley

Pitch names will appear as capital letters, followed when necessary by a dash and
the word for the pertinent accidental, as in “B-flat.” Designation of octave register, when
relevant, will follow the convention of adding a superscript number after the pitch, where
middle-C to the B immediately above it is octave four, as in “C
4
.”
Musical score measures will appear as arabic numerals, preceded in most cases
with the word “measure(s)” or the abbreviation “m(m).”
xiii

Lengths will be measured in both inches and centimeters. Temperature will be
measured in both Fahrenheit and Celsius. These units may be abbreviated in sentence
case as follows:
In. Inches
Cm Centimeters
M Meters
°F Fahrenheit
°C Celsius

xiv

ABSTRACT
This study examines selected music of the California missions and assesses the
skills required to perform it. It further examines indigenous music of the region and
assesses the skills likely possessed by the musicians who performed it. It then surveys the
pedagogical methods and materials used by selected missionaries to train these
indigenous musicians to perform mission music. Finally, it proposes that these methods
form a model for music education that compares favorably with present-day standards.
1

CHAPTER 1: THE ROYAL HIGHWAY

Spanning six hundred miles from mission San Diego in the south to Mission
Solano in the north, el Camino Real (the Royal Way or Highway) connects the twenty-
one missions of Alta California, the northern-most Pacific coastal region of colonial
Spain, ca. 1769-1848. This highway was both a road for traveling missionaries, soldiers,
explorers, colonists, and Native Americans, and a conduit for trade and communication.
Along this path, Catholic missionaries attempted to convert Native Americans to
Christianity, creating large communities surrounding each mission.
Historians have recorded these events both as triumphs and tragedies, depending
on their point of view. From these sometimes conflicting portrayals, a discerning reader
may learn that while certain Native Americans may have benefited from their conversion,
attempts at large-scale (often forced) conversion of whole communities led to losses of
cultural identity and personal freedom, and in the case of military campaigns and
epidemic illnesses, the devastation of populations. Take, as an example of one of the less-
than-humane processes, the approach used by Jayme Escudé at mission Santa Cruz to
encourage the use of Spanish by Native American converts: “A suitable method to get
them to speak Spanish is the one we follow, namely, we exhort and threaten them with
punishment and in the case of the young we punish them from time to time.”
2

2
“What simple and easy means could be employed in order to induce them to speak and
understand Spanish? Also state the causes that have hindered them from doing so up to the present.” José
Señán, “Response to the Interrogatorio, April 30, 1814, question 8,” in Maynard Geiger, trans., As the
Padres Saw Them: California Indian Life and Customs as Reported by the Franciscan Missionaries 1813-
1815 (Santa Barbara, CA: Santa Bárbara Mission Archive-Library, 1976), 133-137 (hereafter cited as
2

In the midst of such turmoil, however, one activity largely succeeded in winning
the confidence of the Native Americans not by force, but through cultural exchange. This
was music. In music, the missionaries and Native Americans found common ground, for
both enjoyed a rich musical heritage. And among the many Padre-musicians that worked
in the missions, two stand out as having achieved some of the greatest successes in
music: Narciso Durán at mission San Jose, through his innovative adaptations of existing
repertoire and pedagogical methods, and Felipe Arroyo de la Cuesta at mission San Juan
Bautista, through his multi-lingual editions of both European and Native American
music.
One of Arroyo de la Cuesta’s principal works, his personal “Notebook,”
3
is a
collection of texts and songs in Spanish, Latin and several Native American languages,
gleaned from years of interaction with the indigenous peoples of California. Within the
“Notebook,” Arroyo de la Cuesta refers to these texts and songs as Oro Molido (Refined
Gold: literally, “milled” or “ground gold”). In doing so he captures the value of
assembling such meaningful treasures into one collection. The present work borrows this
idea by assembling into one volume examinations of mission music and indigenous
music and assessments of the skills required for the performance of both, along with an

Geiger, As the Padres Saw Them). The punishment alluded to was quite brutal at times, according to James
Sandos, “Between Crucifix and Lance: Indian-White Relations in California, 1769-1848,” in “Contested
Eden: California before the Gold Rush,” special issue, California History 76, No. 2/3, (Summer-Fall,
1997): 211 (hereafter cited as Sandos, “Between Crucifix and Lance”).

3
Felipe Arroyo de la Cuesta, “Felipe Arroyo de la Cuesta notebook, 1810-1819,” BANC MSS C-
C 60, Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, microfilm (hereafter cited as Arroyo de la
Cuesta, “Notebook”).
3

examination of the methods used in the missions to teach music, and their comparison
with present-day pedagogies.

Overview and Methodology
In order to prove the effectiveness of a model for music pedagogy, such as that
used at selected California missions, it must be established that its use leads students
from where they are to where they need to be. This work will attempt to do this in
reverse order. Chapter 2 will show where the Native American music trainees needed to
be in order to perform European-styled music. It will examine what skills were required
of mission musicians as they performed music for the daily offices, Masses, festivals and
devotions, the repertoire for which was drawn primarily from existing compositions from
Europe and the Spanish colonies and missions in Central and South America. Chapter 3
will show where they were by examining what musical skills they possessed prior to their
being trained, i.e. skills acquired through the performance of indigenous music. Chapter 4
will present a survey of the music education methods used by the missionaries (primarily
those of Durán and Arroyo de la Cuesta) to guide their students from where they were to
where these Padres thought they needed to be. And finally, chapter 5 will show that these
methods are worthy of comparison with the best practices of the present-day.
As evidence in support of the above, this work will draw from several types of
sources. For the most part, it will rely upon the written record in both primary sources,
such as musical treatises and scores, and the narratives of contemporaneous authors—the
missionaries, traveling merchants, military officers, explorers, colonists, and in one case,
4

a Native American convert, sent to Rome to become a priest—and secondary sources,
such as studies by historians and scholars. In addition, chapter 3 will employ information
from the archeological record and from present-day performance practices to corroborate
anecdotal evidence about Native American music, which had no written record of its
own, in an attempt to reconstruct a survey of that music and the skills needed to perform
it. The following is a brief review of the major sources used in this study.

Literature Review
Contemporaneous Manuscripts and Publications
Most manuscript sources pertaining to mission music are housed at libraries and
archives at the following institutions: California Historical Society; missions San
Antonio, San Carlos, San Juan Bautista, San Fernando, Santa Barbara (the Santa Bárbara
Mission Archive-Library), and Santa Ines, Stanford University’s Green Research Library,
University of California, Berkeley’s Bancroft and Hargrove Libraries; and Santa Clara
University’s Orradre Library. Musical scores consist of a combination of loose leaf
pages, notebooks and choir books. Most of the latter exist in multiple copies and editions.
In some cases, individual works (i.e., complete masses) for example, are spread amongst
5

multiple items.
4
Many of these resources have been photographed, photocopied and/or
are available on microfilm.
5

The Works of Narciso Durán
Narciso Durán was one of the most successful music educators in the California
missions. He believed that mission musicians should be taught every aspect of music in
order to receive the most benefit from it. He taught his trainees to read both prose and
music, to sing and play instruments, and to understand music theory. In order to
accomplish this task, he created or adapted techniques and repertoire, and sequenced
them in a way that would address the needs of his students. These methods are described
in great detail in the prologue of his most well-known work, known today as the Durán
“Choir book.”
6

Durán’s “Choir book” assembles chant and polyphonic music for the entire
church year, as well as pedagogical materials into one volume. It contains a lengthy

4
Due to the scarcity and expense of paper, scribes made use of every part of each page, sometimes
starting a work on a page with insufficient space for the entire work, and then continuing it on the next
available empty space or in another bound work. In many cases, portions of these “split” works are not
reflected in tables of contents, making them difficult to locate.

5
For a complete list of mission music resources and their locations, see Craig Russell, From Serra
to Sancho: Music and Pageantry in the California Missions (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009),
Appendix A, http://www.oup.com/us/companion.websites/9780195343274/appendix/appendices/appendix
_a/?view=usa (accessed December 28, 2011). The website username and password are provided in the print
edition.

6
Narcisso Durán, “Choir book in Gregorian form: ms., 1813 / by Fr. Narciso Duran for use of the
neophytes of Mission San Jose,” BANC MSS C-C 59, The Bancroft Library, University of California,
Berkeley (hereafter cited as Durán, “Choir book,” C-C 59). Concordances exist as “Durán Choirbook,”
Doc. 1, Santa Bárbara Mission Archive, Library (hereafter cited as Durán, “Choirbook,” Doc. 1); and
Narciso Durán, “Choirbook in the Hand of Narciso Durán,” Sc MS 4, Orradre Library, Santa Clara
University (hereafter cited as Durán, “Choirbook,” MS 4).
6

Prologo ad Lectorum, a treatise on performance practice and Durán’s methods of
composition and of teaching music, followed by several pages of tonal exercises. Of the
concordances available, those at the Bancroft Library and Santa Clara University are full-
sized performance editions (i.e., larger print editions that could be used simultaneously
by multiple singers). The Bancroft Library edition is available in microfilm on site, as
well as at the Santa Bárbara Mission Archive-Library (SBMAL). A smaller, study
edition, not large enough to be used by multiple singers at once, exists at SBMAL. It
contains most of the same musical repertoire as the others, but without the Prologo ad
Lectorum and pedagogical materials.
In the Prologo ad Lectorum,
7
Durán describes the use of solfège syllables and the
musical hand,
8
as well as Gregorian modes. He also describes his method for simplifying
existing music so that it can be more readily used by inexperienced musicians. For
example, he limits his scores to the F clef for all but a few examples and he limits the
tonal structure of most examples to the Gregorian mode 1. Such alterations to the canon
of liturgical music would in some circles have been tantamount to changing the liturgy
itself, but Durán justifies his alterations as a means to an end. The process documented in

7
A transcription and translation of the complete Prólogo ad Lectorem can be found in Narciso
Durán, “Preface to Durán’s Choir book, C-C-59 at The Bancroft Library,” From Serra to Sancho: Music
and Pageantry in the California Missions, Craig Russell, trans. (New York: Oxford University Press,
2009), Appendix C-1, http://www.oup.com/us/companion.websites/9780195343274/appendix/appendices
/pdfs/C1_Duran_preface.pdf (accessed December 27, 2011) (hereafter cited as Durán, “Preface”).

8
The musical hand is a pedagogical concept, developed by Guido d’Arrezzo in the eleventh
century, in which the knuckles of the hand represent solfège pitches. By pointing to a knuckle, a teacher
can direct students to sing a given syllable without having to designate it verbally or in writing. More on
this concept will be presented in chapter 4.
7

the Prologo ad Lectorum and the resources designed to accompany it will be examined in
great detail in chapter 4.
Also of interest to this study are Durán’s correspondences. The original
documents exist in various locations and in published translations such as “Letters of
Narciso Durán” by Francis Price.
9
Craig Russell has created transcriptions and
translations of those pertaining specifically to the acquisition of musical instruments for
the missions.
10

The Works of Felipe Arroyo de la Cuesta
Felipe Arroyo de la Cuesta, active primarily at mission San Juan Bautista, wrote
several works dedicated to recording the grammar and vocabulary of several indigenous
languages in Alta California. Though his intent was simply to provide a means for
communication with non-Spanish speaking peoples and a way for them to participate in
worship in their own language, he succeeded in preserving aspects of several languages
that have largely been lost in the present-day. (His work is so thorough that it is used
today by groups interested in reviving these languages among Native Americans who no
longer speak them.) Of interest to this work are three of his writings: Vocabulary and

9
Francis Price, ed. and trans., “Letters of Narciso Durán,” California Historical Society Quarterly
37 (1958): 97-128.

10
Narciso Durán, “Letters by Father Narciso Durán Requesting Musical Resources,” in From
Serra to Sancho: Music and Pageantry in the California Missions, Craig Russell, trans. (New York: Oxford
University Press, 2009), Appendix C-2, http://www.oup.com/us/companion.websites/9780195343274/
appendix/appendices/pdfs/C2_Duran_in_CHS.pdf (accessed December 28, 2011).
8

Phrase Book of the Mutsun Language of Mission San Juan Bautista,
11
“Lengua de
California,”
12
and his “Notebook,” mentioned above. In them he records phrases and
music of both European and Native American origin. He also provides translations into
various languages of several liturgical and devotional texts for the purpose of teaching
them to the Native Americans. In the preface to Vocabulary and Phrase Book, he outlines
six footnotes that clarify, among other things, that the language in question exists entirely
in the oral tradition, that European letters are lacking in representing it, and that the
language is preserved most accurately among the very old and very young of the time, for
the old had learned it before it had been influenced by Spanish, and the young had
learned it from their parents, but had not yet learned Spanish. In his “Lengua de
California,” and “Notebook” are found some of the only known transcriptions of Native
American music in its pure form—with minimal European influence, for it was from
these elders that Arroyo de la Cuesta had learned them and with these children that he
sang them. Later historical accounts and recent recordings of Native American music
would preserve a form of this music that had been influenced by interaction with
Europeans, indoctrination into their customs, and training in their music. Arroyo de la
Cuesta’s works will be of primary value in chapter 3, where a survey of mission era

11
Felipe Arroyo de la Cuesta, Vocabulary or Phrase Book of the Mutsun Language of Alta
California, vol. 8 of Shea's Library of American Linguistics (New York: Cramoisy, 1862) (hereafter cited
as Arroyo de la Cuesta, Vocabulary).

12
Felipe Arroyo de la Cuesta, “Lengua de California : Santa Ynez, Calif., 1837,” BANC MSS C-
C 63a, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley (hereafter cited as Arroyo de la Cuesta,
“Lengua de California”).
9

indigenous music will be reconstructed. Some of his writings will also be mentioned in
chapter 4 during the discussion of bilingual resources for teaching.

The Works Progress Authority Documents
Another invaluable source is the set of photographs of various manuscripts made
during the 1930s by the Works Progress Authority (WPA), one of President Roosevelt’s
“New Deal” initiatives intended to provide jobs for those out of work during the
Depression. Assembled into boxes and folders at the Hargrove Library at the University
of California, Berkeley, these photocopies include the various works of Felipe Arroyo de
la Cuesta, several scores by Juan Bautista Sancho and other composers, and historical
publications and notes by other authors (most now out of print), among thousands of
other literary and historical documents. The original photographs and many of the
original documents were housed at Stanford University but are now lost. Thus, these
copies represent the only source available for some of these materials. Many of the WPA
documents exist on microfilm as well, housed at the Bancroft Library.

Music Treatises
Three texts on music that were known to have been in use at the California
missions are relevant to this study: Marcos y Navas’s Arte, ó compendio general del
canto-llano, figurado y organo…,
13
Vicente Pérez Marínez’s Prontuario…,
14
and Daniel

13
Francisco Marcos y Navas Arte, ó compendio general del canto-llano, figurado y organo…
(Madrid: Joseph Doblado, 1716). This author reviewed the copy: SBMAL MT860.M37 1776, ex libris
“Del simple uso de Fr. Juan Bau
ta
Sancho.”
10

Travería’s Ensayo gregoriano…
15
Each is a lengthy treatise on music theory and
practice, with diagrams, musical excerpts and definitions of terms. They provide
information about the concepts and methods used to teach church musicians. All three of
the above texts present lengthy discussions of the three types of music typically used in
the church (and by extension, the missions): canto llano, canto figurado, and canto
órgano, all of which will be discussed in detail in chapter 2. They also provide music for
most of the church year.
16

Contemporaneous Chronicles
The Interrogatorio: Preguntas y Respuestas
In 1812, José Señán, President of the missions of Alta California, forwarded to
the mission Padres a interragatorio (questionnaire) that contained thirty-three preguntas
(questions) addressing the status of the missions and the activities associated with them.
This questionnaire originated in Spain, was forwarded to the colonies by Don Ciríaco
González Carvajal, Secretary of the Department of Overseas Colonies at Cádiz on

14
Vicente Pérez Martínez, Prontuario del canto-llano… (Madrid: Julián Pereyra, 1799-1800).
This author reviewed the copy: SMBAL M2907.L99 P47, with annotations by Padre Ibáñez.

15
Daniel Travería, Ensayo gregoriano, o estudio practico del canto-llano y figurado… (Madrid:
Imprenta de la Viuda de Don Joachín Ibarra, 1794). This author reviewed the copy: SBMAL 287.09 T779,
ex libris “F. A. Malabehar, / de la Purisima Concepcion.”

16
Multiple copies are available at the Santa Bárbara Mission Archive-Library, some with ex librii
identifying them as the property of mission Padres. Other texts are known to have been in use in Mexico
and may have been known to the California missionaries, all of whom trained at the Apostolic College of
San Fernando, Mexico City before travelling north. For a thorough study of such texts, see Carlos Flores,
Music Theory in Mexico from 1776-1866: A Study of Four Treatises by Native Authors, PhD dissertation,
North Texas State University, 1986.
11

October 6, 1812, travelled via the regional Viceroys to Mexico, where it was signed and
forwarded on to California by Don Ignacio María Saludo on August 1, 1813, addressed to
Señán.
17
The original letter from Saludo is housed in the Santa Bárbara Mission Archive-
Library along with a copy in the Libro de Patentes, a log of all official mission
correspondence. The original responses, eighteen in all,
18
were housed in the Archive of
the Archdiocese of Monterey, but subsequently were lost. However, photocopies of them
were made prior to this and are housed in the Santa Bárbara Mission Archives-Library,
filed without catalog number under “Preguntas y Respuestas.”
Question thirty-three (labeled variously in the responses by other numbers,
depending on which questions were answered and how those answers were grouped)
specifically addresses music. It reads as follows:
Have they any inclination towards music? With what musical instruments are they
acquainted? With string or wind instruments? Are these the same they have
always used? Are they acquainted with our instruments and do they use them? Do
they have any songs in their own languages? Are they sweet, lively and in tenor?
Are they more inclined to music of a sad and melodious kind or to that which is
warlike? In case they have their own songs which tones do they use? If possible
describe these and give the notes.
19

Ten of the transcriptions and translations used in this work were made by Craig
Russell from the photocopies of the responses housed in the Santa Bárbara Mission

17
Clement Meighan, “An Anthropological Commentary on the Mission,” in Geiger, As the Padres
Saw Them, 8-10.

18
Missions San Rafael and Solano had not been established at the time the responses were
authored (between 1813 and 1815). No response is known to have been sent from mission Purisima.

19
José Señán to the missionaries of Alta California, ca. 1812, “Preguntas y Respuestas,” Santa
Bárbara Mission Archive-Library, in Geiger, trans., As the Padres Saw Them.
12

Archive-Library.
20
Transcriptions of the remaining eight were made by this author from
the photocopies of the same source and are printed in appendix A of this work beside
translations by Maynard Geiger.
21

Table 1 below shows a list of the responses made to Señán’s questionnaire,
arranged by date.
Table 1: Chronological List of Responses to the Interrogatorio
Mission Signator(s) Date
Santa Barbara Ramón Olbés December 31, 1813
San Carlos Juan Amorós February 3, 1814
San Fernando Pedro Múñoz, Joaquin Pascual Nuez February 3, 1814
San Luis Obispo Antonio Rodríguez, Luís Antonio Martínez February 20, 1814
San Antonio Juan Bautista Sancho, Pedro Cabot February 26, 1814
Santa Ines Estevan Tapís, Francisco Xavier Uría March 8, 1814
San Miguel Juan Martín, Juan Cabot April 15, 1814
Santa Cruz Marcelino Manríques, Jayme Escudé April 30, 1814
San Juan Bautista Felipe Arroyo de la Cuesta May 1, 1814
Soledad* Antonio Jayme June 20, 1814
San Gabriel Luís Gil y Toboada, José María de Zalvidea June 28, 1814
San Juan Capistrano* José Barona, Gerónimo Boscana August 8, 1814
Santa Clara* Magín Catalá, José Viader November 4, 1814
San Jose* Narciso Durán, Buenaventura Fortuny November 7, 1814
San Francisco* Ramón Abella, Juan Sainz de Lucio November 11, 1814
San Luis Rey* Antonio Peyrí, Francisco Suñer December 12, 1814
San Diego* José Sánchez, Fernando Martín December 23, 1814
San Buenaventura* José Señán August 11, 1815
Source: Maynard Geiger, As the Padres Saw Them: California Indian Life and Customs as Reported by the
Franciscan Missionaries 1813-1815 (Santa Barbara, CA: Santa Bárbara Mission Archive-Library, 1976),
10.
* Indicates transcriptions by this author available in Appendix A.

20
Russell, From Serra to Sancho Appendix C, http://www.oup.com/us/companion.websites/97801
95343274/appendix/?view=usa (accessed July 1, 2011).

21
Maynard Geiger, As the Padres Saw Them: California Indian Life and Customs as Reported by
the Franciscan Missionaries 1813-1815 (Santa Barbara, CA: Santa Bárbara Mission Archive-Library,
1976), 133-137.
13

The responses are remarkably consistent in their assessments of indigenous music
and of the Native Americans who performed it, despite the span of time and distance
between their authors. Most describe instruments used, types of songs, subject matter,
characteristics of melodies, and the link between music and dance. The responses are also
consistent in their assessments of how well the Native Americans learned and performed
mission music, especially what indigenous instruments they used. Meighan suggests that
this may have been due to the fact that the Padres, especially those in close proximity to
each other, collaborated on their answers. He also suggests that it may be due to the fact
that some of the Padres were new to their missions, some of which had only recently
been founded, and thus did not have enough background knowledge to provide accurate
answers to the questionnaire. Thus, they sought the advice of their more experienced
colleagues.
22
The consistency may also be due to the fact that the question itself is
somewhat leading. These possibilities aside, the collective response to the question shows
a people who valued music, both their own and that which was new to them, and who
were highly skilled in its performance. Or it might simply accurately reflect consistency
in the music of the region.

Linguistic Primers
As mentioned above, Felipe Arroyo de le Cuesta studied and documented several
indigenous languages in use in the mission regions, recording them in his “Notebook,”
“Lengua de California,” and Vocabulary or Phrase Book of the Mutsun Language of Alta

22
Meighan, 8.
14

California. Buenaventura Sitjar, Padre at mission San Antonio just north of Arroyo de la
Cuesta, added to this canon another such primer, Vocabulario de la Lengua de los
Naturales de la Mision de San Antonio (Vocabulary of the Languages of the Natives of
mission San Antonio), a dictionary of words and phrases in the various languages spoken
in the region surrounding mission San Antonio.
23
He also further describes life at the
missions, and addresses the topic of both indigenous and European music.

Diaries, Logs, and Reminiscences
In addition to the various treatises and official documents penned by residents of
the missions, many travelers came to and through California during the mission period,
leaving a wealth of narrative descriptions of their experiences there: another precious
source of information for this study. Some heard first-hand the indigenous music of the
area. Others attended services at which mission music was performed. Most interacted
with the mission Padres and Native Americans and left anecdotes and characterizations of
their personalities and talents. Many of these narratives were recorded in various diaries
and ships’ logs, most available in publication. Francis Weber has compiled a highly
useful annotated bibliography of such sources.
24

23
Buenaventura Sitjar, Vocabulario de la Lengua de los Naturales de la Mision de San Antonio
(New York: Shea, 1861).

24
Francis Weber, The California Missions: As Others Saw Them, 1786-1842 (Los Angeles:
Dawson’s Book Shop, 1972).
15

One such document is the Diario of Pedro Font,
25
chaplain to Lieutenant Colonel
Juan Bautista Anza on his expedition to the area in 1775. Font describes many first
contacts with Native Americans, as well as detailed accounts of the music use for the
Mass and other ceremonies occurring during the foundation of several missions. Also on
the expedition with Anza was Padre Francisco Palóu, who recorded many of his
observations in Noticias de la Nueva California.
26
In addition to these is the journal of
Padre Juan Crespí,
27
which documents similar events.
Otto von Kotzebue (1787-1846) was a Russian captain who travelled most of the
West Coast of America from Alaska to California. He kept a detailed ship’s log in which
he documented encounters with missionaries and Native Americans. Some of the entries
include descriptions of music performed at the missions. Though his assessments of the
Native Americans and their performances were generally negative, he provides valuable
information about performance practice, especially with regard to the use of instruments
and also how the music was learned.
28

25
Pedro Font, The Anza Expedition of 1775-1776: Diary of Pedro Font, trans. Frederick Teggart
(Berkeley: University of California, 1913).

26
Francisco Palóu, Noticias de la Nueva California, 4 vols. (San Francisco: John T. Doyle, 1874).

27
Juan Crespí, Juan Crespí, missionary explorer on the Pacific coast, 1769-1774, ed. and trans.
Herbert Eugene Bolton (1927; repr., Austin: University of Texas, 2007).

28
Otto von Kotzebue, Voyage of Discovery into the South Sea and Beering’s Straits for the
Purpose of Exploring a North-East Passage Undertaken in the Years 1815-1818…, trans. H. E. Lloyd
(London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1821).
16

Eugène Duflot de Mofras (1810-1884) was attaché to the French Embassy in
Mexico City. He spent time in California in 1841 and recorded the events in his journal.
29

His descriptions of Native American music and rituals, as well as mission music
performances, are extremely detailed.
Gerónimo Boscana, Padre at mission San Juan Capistrano, wrote Chinigchinich,
30

an account of Native American customs and ceremonies in the area. It was subsequently
translated by Alfred Robinson, who added a lengthy introduction. Robinson, a business
man from Massachusetts, wrote his own memoirs, Life in California,
31
which contain
some of the most comprehensive and detailed descriptions of all aspects of life during the
mission period and shortly afterward.
Pablo Tac (1822-1841), a Native American convert from mission San Luis Rey,
wrote a chronicle of life at the mission that included descriptions of Native American
singing and dance, as well as the training of mission musicians. It is a rare look at the
processes of conversion that took place at the missions from one who experienced them
first-hand.
32

29
Eugène Duflot de Mofras, Travels on the Pacific Coast: A Report from California, Oregon, and
Alaska in 1841, trans. Marguerite Eyer Wilbur (Santa Ana, CA: Fine Arts Press, 1937).

30
Gerónimo Boscana, Chinigchinich, trans. Alfred Robinson (New York: Wiley and Putnam,
1846).

31
Alfred Robinson, Life in California Before the Conquest (New York: Wiley and Putnam, 1846).

32
Pablo Tac, "Conversión de los San Luiseños de la Alta California,” in “Indian Life and Customs
at Mission San Luis Rey,” trans. Minna Hewes and Gordon Hewes, The Americas 9, no. 1 (Jul., 1952): 87-
106. Engelhardt, Mission San Luis Rey, 86, provides the following information about Tac. He was born in
1822, was trained at the mission, then studied grammar, humanities, rhetoric and philosophy in Rome,
1834-1840. He died in 1841 from consumption. It should also be noted that he was accompanied by another
Luiseño, Amamix Agapitus, baptized (presumably in infancy) in 1820, also trained at the mission, then
studied in Rome, 1834-1835, before dying from an unknown illness.
17

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894), famed Scottish poet and writer, spent many
years living in California and writing about what he saw, both in his poetry and fiction
and in his memoirs. Several entries in The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson
33
describe
his experiences at the missions, including Masses he attended at the then secularized
mission-churches.
Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo, son of the famous Spanish General, was a settler
who witnessed life in the missions and throughout California prior to and after its
cessation to the United States. His article, “Ranch and Mission Days in Alta California”
34

presents a summary of the lifestyles of the various residents of California, including
Native Americans in and outside the missions, settlers, farmers, ranchers, and soldiers, as
well as the new settlers from the United States. He includes much information about
mission life, including the training of mission musicians.
Hubert Howe Bancroft drew from all of the above and many other sources in an
attempt to create a complete history of California in his many publications. As an early
California resident himself, he also bore witness to the events that shaped the state’s
history, especially those relating to the missions in the latter half of the nineteenth

33
Robert Louis Stevenson, The Works of Robert Louis Stevenson (Across the Plains, NY: The
Davis Press, 1906).

34
Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo, “Ranch and Mission Days in Alta California,” The Great Century
Magazine XLI, no. 2 (December, 1890), under “The Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco,”
http://www.sfmuseum.org/hist2/rancho.html (accessed November 11, 2011).
18

century.
35
His works also provide much of the source material for historians who
followed in his footsteps, such as Zephyrin Engelhardt.

Pioneering Studies
The Missions Studies of Zephyrin Engelhardt
Zephyrin Engelhardt, a Franciscan monk active at the Santa Bárbara Mission
Archive, authored a series of books, the sum of which represent the most comprehensive
historical chronicle of the missions in print. His four volume work, The Missions and
Missionaries of California,
36
traces the history of the missions from the arrival of the
Spanish explorers in the Americas to the secularization of the missions starting in 1833
and the periods of decline and then restoration that followed. Volume I spans the period
ending with the arrival of the missionaries at Alta California. Volume II covers the
establishment of the missions in California. Volume III documents the decline (in some
cases into ruin) suffered by many of the missions following their secularization as they
passed between Spanish, regional, Mexican, and United States governmental control and
in some cases into private hands. Volume IV records the efforts to restore the missions in
the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and the activities that took place at each
one thereafter.

35
Hubert Howe Bancroft, History of California, 3 vols. (San Francisco: A. L. Bancroft and Co.,
1884); and Hubert Howe Bancroft, California Pastoral (San Francisco: The History Company, 1888).

36
Zephyrin Engelhardt, The Missions and missionaries of California, 4 vols. (San Francisco: The
James H. Barry Co., 1908-1915).
19

Engelhardt draws significantly from primary sources: correspondence, diaries,
baptismal records, government documents, etc. Many such citations are particularly
relevant to this study, such as narrative descriptions by visiting merchants, soldiers,
explorers, and the like of musical performances in the missions, letters by missionaries
requesting instruments, music books and other resources found in the mission libraries,
and writings on the methods used for musical training and other musical activities of the
missions. Engelhardt also relies heavily on the works of Hubert Howe Bancroft.
Engelhardt’s bias as a Franciscan is ever present in his works. He portrays the
missionaries as heroes who saved the Native Americans from damnation and improved
their quality of life by introducing them to European ways. He further portrays those who
were responsible for the secularization of the missions as the architects of an attack on
that endeavor. The objective reader must sort through this bias and endure a great deal of
racist characterizations of the Native Americans, not to mention harsh portrayals of those
not sympathetic to the Franciscan cause—Russians, Protestants, military leaders, and
various government officials. Yet, Engelhardt’s works compile a comprehensive history
and a guide to the wealth of primary sources available to researchers.
In addition to the above four-volume work, Engelhardt set out to write a separate
volume for each of the twenty-one California missions. Before his death he had
succeeded in authoring sixteen, leaving those for missions San Jose, San Rafael, Solano,
Santa Clara, and Santa Cruz unwritten. In some cases, the individual misson volumes act
as concordances with corresponding sections of the four volume work described above.
20

However, information is reorganized so that it is relevant directly to the mission in
question. Of these, the following are most relevant to this study.
Engelhardt’s volume on mission Purisima
37
outlines the daily routine of the
mission. It lists the genres of music used, along with examples of each. His volume on
mission San Antonio
38
provides information about Buenaventura Sitjar’s Vocabulario de
la Lengua de los Naturales de la Mision de San Antonio. It includes a transcription of
Duflot de Mofras’s Pater Noster, written in one of those languages. It also provides an
account of the restoration celebration of 1907, which included a performance by Native
American musicians playing European instruments—perhaps including some of those
alive then who were trained in the former missions.
Engelhardt’s volume on mission San Carlos
39
highlights examples of particular
genres of music, especially those for the choir. His volume on mission San Diego
40

highlights some of the observations of Padre Francisco Palóu, who joined Anza’s
expedition in order to found mission San Francisco. It also includes descriptions of
performances by then-renowned Native American singers. It provides information on

37
Zephyrin Engelhardt, Mission La Concepcion Purisima de Maria Santisima (San Francisco:
James H. Barry Co., 1932) (hereafter cited as Engelhardt, Purisima).

38
Zephyrin Engelhardt, San Antonio de Padua: The Mission in the Sierras (San Francisco: James
H. Barry Co., 1929) (hereafter cited as Engelhardt, San Antonio).

39
Zephyrin Engelhardt, San Carlos Borromeo (Carmelo): the Father of the Missions, Santa
Barbara, CA: Mission Santa Barbara, 1934) (hereafter cited as Engelhardt, San Carlos).

40
Zephyrin Engelhardt, San Diego Mission (Santa Barbara, CA: Mission Santa Barbara, 1920)
(hereafter cited as Engelhardt, San Diego).
21

musical genres, the education of children at the mission, and the languages associated
with the mission, as well.
Engelhardt’s volume on mission San Fernando
41
documents musical genres used,
daily life at the mission, and methods used to educate the children there. His volume on
mission San Francisco
42
reiterates information on daily life and describes various
ceremonies, including the genres of music associated with them. It also provides more
accounts from the voyages of Anza by Francisco Palóu, including observations of
mission activities by Russian captain, Otto von Kotzebue. His volume on mission San
Gabriel
43
provides yet another documentation of the daily cycle at the mission. It also
describes Padre Boscana’s Chinigchinich.
Engelhardt’s volume on mission San Juan Bautista
44
highlights some of the
education methods used at the mission and summarizes the mission music used and the
daily performance routines. It also describes how the Doctrina, the texts associated with
the basic tenets of the Church, were taught. Lastly, it describes the process leading up to
the secularization of the missions. His volume on mission San Juan Capistrano
45

41
Zephyrin Engelhardt, San Fernando Rey: the Mission of the Valley (Santa Barbara, CA: Mission
Santa Barbara, 1927) (hereafter cited as Engelhardt, San Fernando).

42
Zephyrin Engelhardt, San Francisco or Mission Dolores (Santa Barbara, CA: Mission Santa
Barbara, 1924) (hereafter cited as Engelhardt, San Francisco).

43
Zephyrin Engelhardt, San Gabriel Mission and the Beginnings of Los Angeles (Santa Barbara,
CA: Mission Santa Barbara, 1927) (hereafter cited as Engelhardt, San Gabriel).

44
Zephyrin Engelhardt, San Juan Bautista: A School of Church Music (Santa Barbara, CA:
Mission Santa Barbara, 1931) (hereafter cited as Engelhardt, San Juan Bautista).

45
Zephyrin Engelhardt, San Juan Capistrano (Santa Barbara, CA: Mission Santa Barbara, 1922)
(hereafter cited as Engelhardt, San Juan Capistrano).
22

reiterates information about Padre Boscana’s Chinigchinich, and documents the
languages spoken in the region surrounding the mission. It also includes another
transcription of Duflot de Mofras’s Native American Pater Noster.
Engelhardt’s volume on mission San Luis Rey
46
provides biographical
information about two Native Americans, Pablo Tac and Amamix Agapitas, who were
sent to Rome to become priests. His volume on mission San Miguel
47
includes a photo
and description of its split choir loft that may have made possible antiphonal or even
polychoral music. His volume on mission Santa Barbara
48
provides descriptions of
Native American music and Padre Tapiz’s musical scores. It also describes the education
of boys at the mission and the music at Feast Days, and it provides a biography of
Narciso Durán. Finally, his volume on mission Soledad
49
describes Padre Ibáñez’s
enthusiasm for teaching music to and writing music for Native Americans and soldiers. It
provides examples of verses he wrote for sacred music and his instrumental music, as
well.

46
Zephyrin Engelhardt, San Luis Rey Mission (Santa Barbara, CA: Mission Santa Barbara, 1921)
(hereafter cited as Engelhardt, San Luis Rey).

47
Zephyrin Engelhardt, San Miguel, Arcangel: The Mission on the Highway (Santa Barbara, CA:
Mission Santa Barbara, 1929) (hereafter cited as Engelhardt, San Miguel).

48
Zephyrin Engelhardt, Santa Barbara Mission (Santa Barbara, CA: Mission Santa Barbara,
1923) (hereafter cited as Engelhardt, Santa Barbara).

49
Zephyrin Engelhardt, Mission Nuestra Señora de la Soledad (Santa Barbara, CA: Mission Santa
Barbara, 1929) (hereafter cited as Engelhardt, Soledad).
23

Da Silva’s Mission Music of California
Next to Engelhardt, Owen da Silva stands out as one of the pioneers of mission
music study. His most important work is Mission Music of California,
50
which was for
several years the most comprehensive collection of printed music from the missions, and
the only one readily available outside the mission archives. Mission Music of California
presents da Silva’s hand-scored editions of fifteen works ranging from complete Masses
to motets and other liturgical works, as well as devotional songs in the folk style, all with
harmonizations composed by Arthur Bienbar. The book includes a significant
introduction on mission music by John McGroarty.
51
McGroarty’s point of view is
decidedly biased. He often uses archaic diminutives when referring to the Native
Americans. For example, he states that the California natives “stood on a lower physical
and intellectual plane than a great many other tribes of North America,”
52
and refers to
their music as pagan song. Nevertheless, this publication contains valuable information.
McGroarty’s preface includes a substantial discussion of both indigenous and
European mission music that is based primarily on the Interrogatorio responses. It also
includes a discussion of the ways in which mission neophytes (newly converted novices)
were trained and employed in mission musical life, based largely on the Prologo ad

50
Owen da Silva, ed., with accompaniments and chirography by Arthur Bienbar, Mission Music of
California: A Collection of Old California Mission Hymns and Masses, (1941; repr., New York: Da Capo
Press, 1978).

51
John McGroarty, introduction to Mission Music of California: A Collection of Old California
Mission Hymns and Masses, ed. Owen da Silva (1941; repr., New York: Da Capo Press, 1978), i-xv.

52
Ibid., iv.
24

Lectorum of Durán’s “Choir book.” An epilogue to da Silva’s work provides brief
biographies of the principal Padre-musicians responsible for this training and musical
activity, using the chronicles of Engelhardt as its source.

Late Twentieth Century Studies
Maynard Geiger has added significantly to the canon of scholarly works on
mission music. His biography of Junípero Serra
53
highlights the life and contributions of
the Padre who founded the first California mission: San Diego. In it, he cites many
contemporaneous narratives on various “first contact” experiences by Serra and his
contemporaries. These narratives are invaluable in establishing facts about indigenous
culture and music concurrent with the first European influences on it. In addition to this
text, Geiger’s biographical dictionary of the Franciscan missionaries
54
provides details
about the lives and activities of each of the missionaries that were active in California.
Perhaps Geiger’s most cited contribution to the field is his book As the Padres
Saw Them.
55
It provides translations of all the responses to the Interrogatorio mentioned
above. Craig Russell, whose principal work will be reviewed below, points out some
inaccuracies in Geiger’s translations. Nevertheless, the organization of the book is a

53
Maynard Geiger, “Fray Junípero Serra: Organizer and Administrator of the Upper California
Missions, 1769-1784,” California Historical Society Quarterly 42, no. 3 (September, 1963): 195-220
(hereafter cited as Geiger, “Serra”).

54
Maynard Geiger, Franciscan Missionaries in Hispanic California 1769-1848: A Biographical
Dictionary (San Marino, CA: Huntington Library, 1969) (hereafter cited as Geiger, Missionaries).

55
Maynard Geiger, As the Padres Saw Them: California Indian Life and Customs as Reported by
the Franciscan Missionaries 1813-1815 (Santa Barbara, CA: Santa Bárbara Mission Archive-Library,
1976).
25

tremendous strength. It presents all of the responses to each question separately, allowing
for a very quick comparison between the various missionaries’ answers. What becomes
readily apparent is the consistency between them, as pointed out above.
Also of note is one of Geiger’s contemporaries, Theodor Göllner. His articles
56

provide a great deal of information into the performances practices of mission music,
particularly in settings of the Passion. In particular, he highlights the ways in which
different textures were used to set texts.
Another often cited work is Gloria Dei: Story of California Mission Music.
57
In it,
authors Mary Dominic Ray and Joseph Engbeck attempt to combine under one cover a
brief but comprehensive history of the missions, the Padre-musicians who ran them, the
music they taught, and the Native Americans who learned to perform it. The work
includes numerous photographs of musical manuscripts, instruments, mission structures,
and other historical memorabilia. Ray and Engbeck draw heavily from Bancroft,
Engelhardt, da Silva and others, and point the reader toward many primary sources,
especially archeological artifacts housed at museums throughout the Southwest.

56
See Theodor Göllner, “Two Polyphonic Passions from California’s Mission Period,” Anuario
Interamericano de Investigacion Musical 6 (1970): 67-76 (hereafter cited as Göllner, “Two Polyphonic
Passions”); and Theodor Göllner, “Unknown Passion Tones in Sixteenth-Century Hispanic Sources,”
Journal of the American Musicological Society 28, no. 1 (Spring, 1975): 46-71 (hereafter cited as Göllner,
“Unknown Passion Tones”).

57
Mary Dominic Ray and Joseph Engbeck, Gloria Dei: The Story of California Mission Music
(San Marcos, CA: State of California, Department of Parks and Recreation, California State Parks
Foundation, American Revolution Bicentennial Commission of California, ca. 1974).
26

More Recent Studies
William Summers has established himself as one of the first to succeed in
reconstructing mission music into performance editions in a style appropriate for the
era—one based entirely on primary source material. In addition, his works draw from
contemporaneous treatises to identify relevant performance practices of this music. His
“Music of the California Missions” and “Recently Recovered Manuscript Sources of
Sacred Polyphonic Music from Spanish California” point the reader to these resources,
some of which were theretofore unknown to the larger audience. His articles in the Grove
Dictionary and on the California Mission Studies Association website present some of
these resources, as well as a summary of the topic.
58

Carlos Flores provides, in “Music Theory in Mexico from 1776-1866,”
59

information about compositional and pedagogical practices in Mexico, based on local
treatises on music theory. Practices in Mexico would certainly have influenced those in
California. Thus, his study helps to clarify information found in mission sources.

58
William Summers, “Music of the California Missions: An Inventory and Discussion of Selected
Printed Music Books Used in Hispanic California, 1769-1836,” Soundings 9 (1977): 13-29 (hereafter cited
as Summers, “Music of the California Missions”); William Summers, “Recently Recovered Manuscript
Sources of Sacred Polyphonic Music from Spanish California,” Revista de musicologia 16 (1993): 2842-
2855 (hereafter cited as Summers, “Recently Recovered Manuscript Sources”); William Summers,
“California Mission Music,” in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2
nd
, ed. Stanley Sadie
(London: Macmillan, 2001), 4:834-35 (hereafter cited as Summers, “California Mission Music”); and
William Summers, “California Mission Music,” California Mission Studies Association Articles,
http://www.ca-missions.org/oldsite/summers.html (accessed April 2, 2011) (hereafter cited as Summers,
“California Mission Music” online).

59
See Flores.
27

“The Liturgical Music of the California Missions, 1769-1833” by Regina
Gormley
60
is particularly relevant to this study. It documents the music of, among others,
Arroyo de la Cuesta and Durán. Gormley shows how music was adapted from existing
liturgical music so that it could more readily be taught.
James Sandos provides needed perspective on the effects of conversion on the
indigenous communities of California.
61
He draws from primary source materials to show
how, despite what other scholars have stated, the benefits of contact with outside cultures
were, in many ways, outweighed by the destructive effects of such contact. He shows
how indentured servitude, massacres, and epidemics led to the large scale devastation of
indigenous populations and the loss of culture. He presents balanced arguments with
much detail about both positive and negative aspects of mission life.
Grayson Wagstaff presents, in “Franciscan Mission Music in California, c. 1770-
1830,”
62
a summary of mission music and the talents of the mission musicians, largely
based on contemporaneous narratives. He then provides a detailed description of the
genres and styles used in various types of services, as well as the repertoire associated
with these genres and styles.

60
Regina Gormley, “The Liturgical Music of the California Missions, 1769-1833” (DMA Diss.,
The Catholic University of America, 1992).

61
See Sandos, “Between Crucifix and Lance”; and Sandos, Converting California: Indians and
Franciscans in the Missions (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2004) (hereafter cited as Sandos,
Converting California).

62
Grayson Wagstaff, “Franciscan Mission Music in California, c.1770-1830: Chant, Liturgical
and Polyphonic,” Journal of the Royal Musical Association 126, no. 1 (2001): 54-82.
28

John Koegel’s “Spanish and French Mission Music in Colonial North America”
63

like many works above, draws from primary source material to survey mission music.
However, given its larger scope—all of Colonial North America—it provides the
opportunity to compare mission music in California to that across the continent, including
in the French territories and at non-Franciscan missions. This serves to clarify
information presented in studies focused exclusively on California missions.
As its title suggests, Music in North America and the West Indies from Discovery
to 1850 by Daniel Mendoza de Arce
64
is extremely far-reaching in scope. Like Koegel’s
work, what it lacks in depth, it makes up for in breadth, providing information for
comparison between local and global practices in music.
Kristin Dutcher Mann’s “The Power of Song in the Missions of Northern New
Spain”
65
presents a summary of information pertaining to mission music, drawing from
many of the above mentioned studies. She adds to this a comprehensive survey of Native
American music prior to European contact based largely on archeological data.
In “Hispanic Sacred Geometry and the Architecture of the Divine,” Rubén
Mendoza
66
makes the somewhat controversial assertion that many of the physical

63
John Koegel, "Spanish and French Mission Music in Colonial North America,” Journal of the
Royal Musical Association 126, no. 1 (2001): 1-53.

64
Daniel de Arce, Music in North America and the West Indies from Discovery to 1850: A
Historical Survey (Lanham, MD: The Scarecrow Press, 2006).

65
Kristin Dutcher Mann, “The Power of Song in the Missions of Northern New Spain” (PhD diss.,
Northern Arizona University, 2002).

66
Rubén Mendoza, “Hispanic Sacred Geometry and the Architecture of the Divine,” in “Pre-
Euclidian Geometry in the Design of Mission Churches of the Spanish Borderlands,” Special issue, Journal
of the Southwest 48 (Winter, 2006): iii-xiv.
29

properties of the missions seem designed to capitalize on Native American traditions. He
documents, for example, several instances of architectural design that cause events of the
church year such as Feasts, Seasons, Celebrations, as well as significant seasonal events
such as solstices and equinoxes, to correspond with days on which sunlight shines on key
church features, such as the alter and crucifix. His argument brings into focus the larger
issue of whether or not, or to what extent, cultural practices of indigenous peoples were
allowed to continue—even promoted—at the missions, despite their potential conflicts
with Church doctrine. His critics argue that the Padres would not have allowed any
practices that were not strictly Christian. However, he presents evidence to the contrary,
which help shed light on how mission music was influenced by indigenous music.
Craig Russell’s From Serra to Sancho
67
stands as the most up-to-date and
comprehensive guide to the music of the California missions. It draws from the work of
the early researchers on the topic—especially Bancroft, Engelhardt, and Geiger—as well
as that of recent authors, many of whom are mentioned above, to present a thorough
study of the missions, their musicians, and their music. It also draws from many primary
sources to support or in some cases refute such work. In addition, it is invaluable as a
source for performance editions of mission music. Online appendices supplement the
printed edition, including an extremely detailed and comprehensive bibliography, several
complete editions of music, facsimiles of manuscripts, and the most accurate list of
primary source materials and their locations to date.

67
Craig Russell, From Serra to Sancho: Music and Pageantry in the California Missions (New
York: Oxford University Press, 2009).
30

Studies in Native American Culture and Music
Since the pre-contact indigenous music of most of North America existed
exclusively in the oral tradition, specific information about its sound must be
reconstructed based in part on archeological evidence. This work will draw from this
body of knowledge by examining artifacts relating to music making, such as those found
at museums: the Pheobe H. Hearst Museum in Berkeley and the Southwest and Gene
Autry Museums in Los Angeles. In addition to the archeological record, narrative
descriptions of indigenous music by contemporaneous authors can fill in some of the
gaps. Isolated examples of written evidence from the period shortly after European
contact also exist in the form of dictated music. Many such examples have been collected
and published by settlers, missionaries, historians, and ethno-musicologists. Some, such
as Bruno Nettl, Robert Stevenson, and Robert Parthun, attempt to survey indigenous
31

music in North American.
68
Others focus on regional areas such as California;
69
and still
others focus on more general studies of Native American life.
70

Recent and present-day Native American performance practices can clarify, by
supposition, information not available through the above sources. Thus, this work will
examine the practices of present-day Native American musicians in an attempt to find
similarities between their practices and those identified in the contemporaneous
narratives described above.
71

68
See Bruno Nettl, “Stylistic Variety in North American Indian Music,” Journal of the American
Musicological Society 6, no. 2 (Summer, 1953) 160-168 (hereafter cited as Nettl, “Stylistic Variety”);
Bruno Nettl, “North American Indian Musical Styles,” The Journal of American Folklore 67, no. 266
(October-December, 1954): 351-368; Robert Stevenson, “Written Sources of Indian Music Until 1882, Part
1,” Ethnomusicology 17, no. 1 (January, 1973): 1-40 (hereafter cited as Stevenson, “Written Sources, Part
1”); Robert Stevenson, “Written Sources for Indian Music until 1882, Part 2,” Ethnomusicology 17, no. 3
(September, 1973): 399-442 (hereafter cited as Stevenson, “Written Sources, Part 2”); and Paul Parthun,
“Tribal Music in North America,” Music Educators Journal 62, no. 5 (January, 1976): 32-45.

69
See George Herzog, “The Yuman Musical Style,” The Journal of American Folklore 41, no.
160 (April-June, 1928): 185-190; Larry Warkentin, “The Rise and Fall of Indian Music in the California
Missions,” Revista de Música Latinoamericana 2, no. 1 (Spring-Summer, 1981): 45-65; Rosalind Perry et
al., California Chumash Indians (San Luis Obispo, CA: EZ Nature Books, 1986); and Richard Keeling,
“Music and Culture History among the Yurok and Neighboring Tribes of Northwestern California,”
Journal of Anthropological Research 48, no. 1 (Spring, 1992): 28-48.

70
See Robert Heizer and Albert Elsasser, The Natural World of the California Indians (Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1980); Lowell Bean, “Indians of California: Diverse and Complex Peoples,”
in “Indians of California,” special issue, California History 71, no. 3, (Fall, 1992): 302-323; and George
Emanuels, California Indians: An Illustrated Guide (Walnut Creek, CA: Kings River Press, 1992).

71
Antonio Flores, phone interviewed by author, Redondo Beach, CA, September 9, 2011, is a
specialist in the manufacture and performance of the elder-flute; and Ben Cunningham-Summerfield, email
interviewed by author, Redondo Beach, CA, October 5, 2011, is an Elder of the Mountain Maidu and a
singer and player of the elder-flute.
32

Studies in Music Pedagogy
Chapter 5 will argue that the pedagogical techniques used by the missionaries
stand up to the best practices of the present-day. In order to establish what those practices
are, evidence will be drawn from pedagogical treatises. Michael Rogers’s landmark work
in music theory pedagogy
72
is a thorough survey of the most common strategies for
teaching music theory. Gary Karpinski’s equally relevant study of aural skills acquisition
delves deeper into the processes for teaching musicianship skills.
73
Works by Kemp and
Mills, and O’Neill and McPherson
74
deal with the roles that musical aptitude and
motivation play in the successful acquisition of these skills.

Need and Contribution to the Field
While these and other publications have contributed much to the study of mission
music, the topic occupies a relatively small role in the canon of standards in performance,
musicology and pedagogy. Even in California, where this music was propagated and
where the public school curriculum devotes significant time to mission history,
75
the

72
Michael Rogers, Teaching Approaches in Music Theory: An Overview of Pedagogical
Philosophies (Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 2004).

73
Gary Karpinski, Aural Skills Acquisition: The Development of Listening, Reading, and
Performing Skills in College-Level Musicians (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000).

74
Anthony Kemp and Janet Mills, “Musical Potential,” in The Science and Psychology of Music
Performance: Creative Strategies for Teaching and Learning, ed. Richard Parncutt and Gary McPherson
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2002), 3-16; and Susan O’Neill and Gary McPherson, “Motivation,”
in The Science and Psychology of Music Performance: Creative Strategies for Teaching and Learning, ed.
Richard Parncutt and Gary McPherson (New York: Oxford University Press, 2002), 31-46.

75
California State Board of Education, History-Social Science Content Standards for California
Public Schools, Kindergarten through Grade Twelve, Standard 4.2, Sacramento, CA: June 23, 2009,
33

performance and teaching of mission music are still rare. This may be due to the limited
availability of the music: only a few editions have been made, and some are not readily
available. Also, resources aimed at expanding public knowledge of mission music have
yet to be created in as large a number as those that focus on general mission history.
Consequently, mission music is still largely unknown by audiences and performers.
Another contributing factor to the lack of public knowledge of mission music is
its potential to be dismissed as unsophisticated, compared to music from the same era
elsewhere. While it is true that California mission music, which was written and
performed between the late eighteenth and mid-nineteenth centuries, more resembles
European music of a century or two earlier, it is also true that music of these early
centuries (that of the Renaissance and Baroque eras) is in high demand. Furthermore,
studies of mission era chroniclers may provide insight into practices that were still in use
in the missions but had gone undocumented while they were popular earlier in Europe.
In terms of music education, studies of such a historical model might be dismissed
as out-dated or irrelevant. Yet, music educators continually search for examples of
successful methods against which they can measure their own performance and which
they can offer as evidence when justifying curricula. Such examples need not only come
from present-day practices. On the contrary, studies showing historical successes are
equally important as corroborating evidence of techniques that are timeless.

available online at http://www.cde.ca.gov/be/st/ss/documents/histsocscistnd.pdf (accessed October 21,
2011).
34

Conclusions reached in this work will provide researchers and historians with a
more complete portrait of music at the California missions. They will provide performers
and conductors with information about what mission era repertoire is available in print,
how the music was taught, and how it might have been performed. Furthermore, these
conclusions will provide teachers and conductors information about pedagogical methods
that may be useful in the classroom and rehearsal hall today.
This work is an attempt to address aspects of each of the needs described above. It
will contribute another point of view on the style, genres and repertoire of mission music,
pointing the reader toward additional studies on the topic. It will provide an entry into the
musicological study of the historical practice of Native American music and how this
prepared mission converts to perform mission music—a topic that is rare in the current
literature, perhaps because of the difficulties associated with reconstructing an oral art
form. Moreover, this work will highlight a model for music education and identify
representative examples of repertoire that could be employed within such a model and
that are ideal candidates for edition and subsequent performance.

35

CHAPTER 2: MISSION MUSIC

Several authors have conducted thorough studies of the music used at the
missions of Alta California.
76
Therefore, it is not necessary to restate all of what they
report. This chapter will, instead, select and supplement the relevant data from these
studies in order to provide sufficient background to engage in the discussions that follow
in subsequent chapters.

The Mission
Until the late eighteenth century, Alta California, Spain’s northern-most territory
along the West Coast of North America, was an area of little interest because trade routes
to and from the East used ports further south in Mexico. However, when the Russians
began to encroach on the territory, settling as far south as what would become the city of
Sebastopol, north of the San Francisco Bay, the Spanish Imperial Government took
greater interest in the area. They sent missionaries to found missions for the conversion
of indigenous peoples, and troops to build presidios (forts) to protect (and police) the
communities that formed around them. Military officials preferred this approach because
conquest by force had proven difficult to enforce in other territories.
77

76
See the reviews in chapter 1 of works by Engelhardt, da Silva, Geiger, Summers, Russell, and
many others. This chapter will rely heavily upon the work of these authors, especially Russell, as well as
primary source material.

77
Charles Cudworth, "The California Missions: 1769-1969," The Musical Times 110, no. 1512
(February 1969): 194-196; also see Summers, “California Mission Music” online.
36

The Jesuits had already founded missions throughout Northern New Spain in the
regions that are now New Mexico, Arizona and Baja California. However, after King
Carlos III of Spain expelled them in 1767,
78
the Franciscans, who since the thirteenth
century, had established themselves as an order known for success in missionary work,
79

were given the task of establishing missions in Alta California. In all, one hundred and
forty-two served the missions of Alta California, from 1769 until the missions were
secularized, beginning in 1833.
80
During that time, eighty-seven thousand Native
Americans were baptized, forming large communities surrounded by hundreds of acres of
farmland and tens of thousands of head of livestock.
81

Muscat attributes the success of the Franciscans to the following:
The poverty and the evangelical zeal, which were part of the same foundation of
the Order made the friars ideally adapted for the missionary work which lay ahead
of them. But there were at least two other characteristics of the Franciscans that
contributed to their relationship with the native population and therefore to their
success, namely a cosmopolitan vision of the world and a vision of the Church in
a reformed society. Whatever kind of experience they did in order to evangelize
the indigenous populations of the New World, depended upon the ability of the
friars to learn and master the local languages of the natives. The great success
with which they succeeded in this endeavour is proved by the great quantity of

78
Magnus Mörner, “The Expulsion of the Jesuits from Spain and Spanish America in 1767 in
Light of Eighteenth-Century Regalism,” The Americas 23, no. 2 (October, 1966): 156. Carlos’s reasons for
this action are not fully known, but were likely to have been politically motivated.

79
Noel Muscat, “From the Beginnings of the Order to the Year 1517,” in vol. 1 of History of the
Franciscan Movement (Washington, D.C.: Washington Theological Union, 2008), 9, http://www.franciscan
-sfo.org/hland/histfranmov1.pdf (accessed January 2, 2012).

80
For a brief review of the missions and their missionaries, see Sean McKee, “California Mission
Music and the Libro de Coro of Narciso Durán” (Master’s thesis, California State University, Long Beach,
2006), 5-8; and Ray and Engbeck.

81
William Summers, “California Mission Music” online.
37

dictionaries, grammars, catechisms, sermons and spiritual writings in the native
languages.
82

The extent to which the Franciscans employed music at the missions was another
significant factor. Most of the missionaries had some musical training, albeit simply as
members of the seminary choir, but a few were more extensively trained. Several of these
succeeded in establishing choral schools at which hundreds of musicians were trained and
in creating talented choirs and orchestras, in some cases on a par with those at major
cathedrals in Europe. They (and their trainees) were responsible for creating the music
that would be associated with the California missions—a music that contributed to
drawing potential converts to the mission and keeping them active there.

The Missionaries
Felipe Arroyo de la Cuesta was born April 29, 1780 in Cubo, Burgos, Spain. He
studied Latin grammar in Valluércanes, near Cubo, became a novice in 1796 and a monk
in 1797, and was ordained a priest in 1804. After travelling to Mexico, he attended the
College of Apostolic Missionaries of San Fernando, Mexico City. He arrived in
Monterey, Alta California on August 13, 1808. He served over thirty-one years at
missions San Juan Bautista, San Luis Obispo, San Miguel, Purisima, and Santa Ines, the
last where he died on September 20, 1840.
83
He is most known as a linguist, documenting

82
Muscat, 114.

83
Geiger, Missionaries, 282.
38

several Native American languages in his notebooks and publications,
84
but also as a
transcriber of indigenous melodies and a composer of liturgical music, some of which is
in various Native American languages. Little is known of his musical training. However,
his transcription abilities, combined with Beechey’s remark that he sang in a good tenor
voice, suggest that he was marginally well-versed in it.
85

Gerónimo Boscana was born May 23, 1776 in Lluchmayor, Mallorca, Spain. He
attended San Fernando College in Mallorca. He arrived in the Americas October 24, 1803
and attended San Fernando College, and then travelled to Monterey, Alta California on
June 6, 1806. He served over twenty-five years at missions Soledad, Purisima, San Luis
Rey, San Juan Capistrano, and San Gabriel; the last where he died on July 5, 1831. He is
best known for his account of Native American culture, including their musical customs,
in Chinigchinich.
86

Narciso Durán was born December 16, 1776 in Castellón de Ampurias, Catalonia,
Spain. He entered the Franciscan order at Gerona, Catalonia, Spain at the age of 17.
87
He
arrived in the Americans in 1803, serving at the Apostolic College of San Fernando in
Mexico City, then the missions of the Sierra Gorda and mission Loreto in Baja California
before arriving in Monterey, Alta California on June 6, 1806.
88
He served forty years in

84
See the reviews in chapter 1 of works by Arroyo de la Cuesta.

85
Beechey, Narrative of a Voyage to the Pacific and Beerings’s Strait…, part I (London: Henry
Colburn and Richard Bentley, 1831), 380, in Stevenson, “Written Sources, Part 1.”

86
Geiger, Missionaries, 282.

87
McGroarty, xxiv.

88
Price, 98.
39

missions San Jose and Santa Barbara, the last where he died on June 1, 1846.
89
In 1824,
he was appointed president of the missions of Alta California, and in 1833, he moved the
headquarters to mission Santa Barbara. McGroarty describes Durán as “a practical man
gifted with musical talent, and especially a sense of melody, but one who was
unacquainted with the laws of conventional harmony.”
90
His most important contribution
to the study of mission music is his “Choir book,” and especially the Prológo ad
Lectorum, which contains a detailed description of his pedagogical methods.
91

Florencio Ibáñez was born October 26, 1740 in Tarazona, Aragon, Spain. He
entered the Franciscan order at Zaragosa in 1757, and was choirmaster at the Convento
de Nuestra Sentildeora de Jesús there and at the convent in Calatayud.
92
He arrived in the
Americas in April of 1770, attended San Fernando College in Mexico City and worked at
the missionary College of Querétaro.
93
He was also choirmaster at San Miguel de
Allende, Michoacán, Mexico, 1774-1781.
94
He arrived in Monterey, Alta California on
August 9, 1801 and then served over seventeen years in missions San Antonio (1801-
1803) and Soledad (1803-1818), the last where he died on November 26, 1818.
95
Ibáñez

89
Geiger, Missionaries, 284.

90
McGroarty, xiv.

91
Ray and Engbeck, 9.

92
McGroarty, xxii.

93
Ibid.

94
Summers, “California Mission Music” online.

95
Geiger, Missionaries, 286.
40

is known for his choir book from mission San Juan Bautista, in which he employed multi-
colored notation on single, six-line staves to indicate polyphony. He is also known for his
musical nativity play, Los Pastores, which was performed throughout California during
the Advent season during the mission era and continues to be performed in the present-
day.
96

Francisco Palóu, though not as active in music as the above Padres, wrote many
accounts of music performances in his Noticias. He was born on January 22, 1723, in
Palma, Mallorca, Spain. He entered the Franciscan order at the age of sixteen, at the
Monastery of Jesús in Palma. He attended San Fernando College in Mallorca. He arrived
in San Juan, Puerto Rico in October, 1749, and in San Diego, Alta California on August
30, 1773. He served over twelve years at missions San Carlos and San Francisco. He left
Alta California November 13, 1785 and died in Queretaro on April 6, 1789. His
contribution to the study of mission music lies primarily in his accounts of events that
took place at the mission.
97

Juan Bautista Sancho was born in 1772 in Mallorca, Spain. He took orders in
1791 and became choir director at the Convento de San Francisco, in Palma, Mallorca,
1795-1797. He arrived in California in 1804 and served at mission San Antonio until his
death in 1830. Summers notes that he was well trained in music and had practical
knowledge of figured bass.
98
This talent is evident in his success in creating a well-

96
Ray and Engbeck, 8.

97
Geiger, Missionaries, 289.

98
Summers, “Recently Recovered Manuscript Sources,” 2852.
41

trained choir and orchestra that performed many compositions he had brought with him
from Mexico and Spain or composed himself.
99
Sancho is responsible for a large portion
of the compositions and theory treatises brought to California. He was known to possess
such treatises, operas, multiple settings of the offices and mass, including works by
Ignacio de Jerusalem
100
and José Francisco Javier Garcia Fajer. Many scores he copied
by hand.
101

Estevan Tapís was born ca. 1756 in Coloma de Farnés, Catalonia, Spain. He
attended San Fernando College in Mallorca. He arrived in the Americas in 1768, and at
Monterey, Alta California on August 2, 1790. He served over thirty-five years at
missions San Carlos, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, San Juan Bautista, Santa Ines, and
Purisima, and as President of the missions as well. He died on November 3, 1825 at
mission San Juan Bautista. Tapís wrote and transcribed a significant amount of music,
most compiled in his choir book.
José Viader was born in 1765 in Gallines, Catalonia. He took orders in Barcelona
in 1788. He arrived in Mexico in 1793, and then in California in 1796, where he served at
mission Santa Clara until 1833. There, he created a sizeable orchestra composed of

99
Geiger, Missionaries, 223-225.

100
For a comprehensive treatment of Jerusalem’s style and analyses and transcriptions of several
of his works, see Ana Treviño-Godfrey, “Sacred Vocal Music by Ignacio Jerusalem Found in the Archives
of the National Cathedral in Mexico City” (DMA thesis, Rice University, 2009), and Sherrill Bigelow Lee
Blodget, “From Manuscript to Performance: A Critical Edition of Ignacio de Jerusalem’s Los Maitines de
Nuestra Señora Conceptción, 1768” (DMA document, University of Arizona, 2008).

101
Summers, “California Mission Music” online. For further information on Mexican composers,
see Flores, 18-24.
42

clarinets, flutes, cello, bass, and percussion. He was known to have trained players for
Durán, who lacked the technical knowledge of instrumental playing.
102

The Uses of Music at the Mission
The Imperial Government of Spain viewed the missions as a political device—a
way to acquire land and population peacefully, while preventing Russia from doing the
same. And while the opportunity to oblige the government was certainly a tremendous
advantage to the Franciscans, it is likely that the Order, or at least a majority of its
missionaries who were active in the field, was motivated by a goal more central to their
cause—that of converting non-Christians—and they took a highly pragmatic approach to
achieving this goal. In some cases, rather than attempting to eliminate indigenous
practices, they adapted them to conform to the tenets of the church. They allowed
ceremonial dances and the performance of indigenous music and storytelling to continue,
so long as it did not directly conflict with Catholic doctrine, and they allowed Native
American languages to be spoken at the mission, even translating some doctrinal texts
into those languages so that they could better be understood while the Native Americans
were learning Spanish.
Among the many practices the Franciscans used in this endeavor, music was one
of the most highly effective. Kristin Dutcher Mann summarizes its value to the mission as
follows:

102
Bancroft, History of California, III:726; and Joseph Halpin, “Musical Activities and
Ceremonies at Mission Santa Clara de Asís,” California Historical Quarterly 50, no. 1 (March, 1971): 36.
43

As in both indigenous cultures of the north and the lives of missionaries, music
was culturally important in the northern missions. Whether used for purpose of
attracting indigenous peoples to the mission, teaching doctrine mnemonically, or
celebrating important occasions in the liturgical year, music was a hegemonic
device that was integrally involved in the reshaping of indigenous culture. The
missionaries’ uses of songs, hymns, and Western-style music are a good example
of Antonio Gramsci’s
103
idea of cultural hegemony (and the many scholarly
discussions that it has produced). Instead of conquest by military force, cultural
hegemony is domination based on pervasive, although often subtle, means of
social control.
104

Music was employed in almost every aspect of missionary activity: for teaching
doctrinal and liturgical texts, for enhancing worship, for celebrating special events, and
for entertainment. However, given the isolation of these missions and the limited musical
talents of most of the missionaries, music making presented several challenges. Musical
resources were scarce at first. Instruments, scores, books, and pedagogical materials all
had to be imported or created. Tools, paper and ink were expensive and hard to come by,
and the training of craftspeople and musicians took time. Nevertheless, over time, music
became a central part of mission life, and the missions of Alta California became some of
the most musically active in all of the Spanish colonies.

Sacred Words
Members of the mission congregations were expected to recite from memory in
Spanish the Doctrina: the set of assertions that outline the tenets of the Catholic Church.

103
For a discussion on Antonio Gramsci (1891-1937), Marxist philosopher, see Walter Adamson,
Hegemony and Revolution: Antonio Gramsci’s Political and Cultural Theory (Berkeley, CA: University of
California, 1983).

104
Mann, 110.
44

It consisted of making the Sign of the Cross and reciting the Pater Noster (Our Father),
Ave Maria (Hail, Mary), the Apostles’ Creed, the Acts of Contrition, Faith, Hope and
Charity, the Confiteor (Confession), the Ten Commandments, the Precepts of the Church,
the Seven Sacraments, the Six Necessary Points of Faith, and the Four Last Things.
105

Given the volume of text in the Doctrina, and the fact that Spanish was foreign to the
Native American recruits, some texts were translated into various Native American
languages, and all were set to music in order to facilitate memorization. Nevertheless, the
missionaries attempted to teach Spanish, both so that their congregations would
understand the words they were memorizing, and to satisfy a mandate by the King that all
citizens of Spanish territories learn Spanish.
106

In addition to reciting the Doctrina, members of the congregation were expected
to participate in the daily monastic offices, particularly Matins and Vespers on Feast
Days, which tended to be more elaborately set to music.
107
They were also expected to
participate in the celebration of the Mass each Sunday and on Feast Days, weddings,
commemorations of the dead, and other occasional services. All of these were intended to
be recited in Latin.
Feast Days featured more elaborate services, with concerted musical settings and
festive processions. During Feasts, pageantry was at its highest level, featuring dancing,

105
Engelhardt, San Diego, 131.

106
Engelhardt, San Juan Bautista, 131. King Carlos also decreed in 1793 that grammar schools be
established in the colonies to educate the children in reading and writing Spanish.

107
Mann, 81 and 111.
45

paraliturgical (and even secular) songs, and instrumental music. The procession may have
been one of the most important links between the Europeans and the Native Americans,
for it was a style of celebration that was common to both cultures.

Sacred Ground
Despite their function as places of worship, the missions were also places of
musical diversity as rich as the people who lived in and traveled through them. This often
led to unconventional practices involving the blending of sacred and secular traditions
and spaces. As mentioned earlier, it was not uncommon, for example, for Native
American music to be performed at the mission in its original form and for its original
purpose, so long as that purpose was not deemed to be in conflict with Catholic doctrine
by the missionaries. Various forms of folk music of the colonists were also prominent at
the missions. Traveling merchants and dignitaries brought their music to the missions and
would be entertained by mission inhabitants. This music would include popular tunes and
classical European music, as well as political songs and anthems, most of which involved
the use of instruments. These types of secular music, along with the extensive use of
instruments to accompany singing or in non-vocal interludes,
108
sometimes found their
way into the mission church, even into the celebration of the mass.
Such occasions would certainly have caught the attention of Church
administrators who adhered to the mandates of the Council of Trent. With regard to
music, the Council had pronounced that the intelligibility of the text (in Latin) was

108
Wagstaff, 56-60.
46

paramount. Part of its decree included that music of a “lascivious or impure” nature be
banished, as well as “worldly conduct, vain and profane conversations, wandering
around, noise and clamor.” It banned instrumental insertions in the liturgy, as well as
most tropes and sequences and paraliturgical texts that had been added to the liturgy over
the years. It further proposed that Gregorian chant be the preferred source of music, and
allowed for polyphonic settings so long as the text was intelligible.
109

Mann summarizes additional restrictions that were imposed upon musicians in the
missions and elsewhere:
Papal legislation regarding the use of music in the liturgy generally forbade
worldly and pagan music in favor of Christian songs and chants. Musical
instruments, such as the harp and lyre, that were associated with pagan music,
were excluded from Catholic worship. The melodies of worldly songs were not to
be used in musical settings of the Mass or office. Chanting by women, with the
exception of the responses of the Mass, was also forbidden because women were
thought to foster sensuality rather than piety.
110

She further notes that Pope Benedict XIV, in his letter dated 1749, specifically addressed
the missions of the American colonies when he wrote the following:
As these new American converts are endowed with extraordinary disposition and
ability in musical chant, they will, on hearing musical instruments, quickly learn
all that belongs to musical art….You, Venerable Brethren, will see that, if in your
churches musical instruments are introduced, you will not tolerate any musical
instruments along with the organ, except the tuba [sic], the large and small
tetrachord, the flute, the lyres and the lute, provided these serve to strengthen and
support the voices. You will instead exclude the tambourines, cors da classe,

109
H. J. Schroeder, Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent (St. Louis, MO: B. Herder Book
Co., 1950), 151.

110
Mann, 75.
47

trumpets, flutes, harps, guitars, and in general all instruments that give a theatrical
swing to music.
111

The fact that music at the missions diverged from these mandates, albeit
documented only in isolated instances,
112
can be attributed to isolation—the lack of
frequent oversight by Church administrators. However, it is more likely a function of the
missionaries’ willingness to “look the other way” when these deviations were deemed
minor, in order to foster trust between missionaries and Native Americans and facilitate
the goal of conversion.

A Diverse Repertoire
A day in the life of a mission novice conformed to that of the monastic life in that
it included a combination of prayer, work and study.
113
The day typically began at sunrise
with the singing of the morning hymn to Mary, Ya viene el alba (Here Comes the Dawn),
followed by the study of the Doctrina (Doctrine). Monday through Saturday, the Missa
Brevis would follow, and on Sundays, the Missa Solemnis, complete with the Eucharist
and a Sermon. Daily work assignments would commence at two in the afternoon. At five,
the Doctrina was performed again, often in Native American languages. The Bendito

111
Ibid.; and Pope Benedict XIV, Annus qui, 1749, quoted in Robert Hayburn, Digest of
Regulations and Rubrics of Catholic Church Music (Boston, MA: McLaughlin and Reilly Co., 1960), 92-
94. It is likely that by “tuba” he means horn.

112
Evidence of such divergences is limited to a few anecdotes in diaries and letters. In the absence
of more instances, one can assume one of two scenarios to be true: first, that such practices were rare, or
2nd, that the lack of written evidence reflects an assumption by authors and scribes that it would be
unnecessary, due to the frequency of such practices. These assumptions will be addressed throughout this
work as discussions of such evidence arise.

113
Tac, 101.
48

(Blessing) preceded all meals: breakfast at dawn, lunch at eleven, dinner at six. The day
would close at eight in the evening with the singing of the evening hymn, Alabado
(Praised Be), and other hymns in Spanish.
114

The music that accompanied daily activities was of a simpler variety, including a
combination of chant and hymn singing, either a cappella or with minimal
accompaniment by cello or guitar, often sung in alternatim (in alternation) between a
leader and the congregation,
115
with the leader being either the missionary or a specially
trained novice. Most music was learned by rote and performed without the use of notated
scores. Chant was performed in unison or with occasional harmonizations in parallel
thirds by boy sopranos (tiples).
On Feast Days such as Palm Sunday, Good Friday, the Stations of the Cross, the
Tenebrae (Darkness), a service for Maundy Thursday, the Mandatum (Washing of the
Feet), and Saints’ days (especially name days of the missions), the celebration would
include an elaborate setting of the Te Deum at Matins
116
and a reprieve from work

114
Engelhardt, San Miguel, 84. Also see Engelhardt, Mission San Carlos, 73, in which Pedro
Font’s descriptions of daily life and music at the mission are copiously excerpted from his Diario. Also see
Engelhardt, San Diego, 131-133; and San Francisco, 32 and 258-259 for additional summaries of daily life
at the missions. The latter describes the different bells used to call the mission novices to these various
activities.

115
Engelhardt, San Miguel, 84 shows a photo of the mission’s split choir loft. Apparent in the
photo is its “u” shape, with sections extending over the sanctuary on either side that are wide enough for
one row of musicians only. While there is no specific mention of the use of polychoral repertoire there, this
architectural feature begs the question, why then have a split choir loft? Perhaps it was used not for
polychoral works, but for performance in alternatim between two choirs, or between choir and instrumental
group. See the discussion later in this chapter on the use of instruments on even numbered verses of
versified texts such as Psalms.

116
The performance of the Te Deum is mentioned by name by nearly all chroniclers who
witnessed Feast Day services at the missions. Pedro Font, for example, describes the ringing of bells and
49

assignments in order to allow mission residents to participate in elaborate festivities in
the afternoon. These would include fireworks, processions, dancing, the use of costumes,
the singing of devotional hymns, bell ringing, the performance of sacred dramas, and
instrumental music, all culminating or stemming from a celebration of the Mass.
117
Feast
day celebrations would end with an elaborate musical setting of Vespers.
118

For these events, the missions assembled regular choirs and orchestras, with
musicians recruited from the population of novices and trained extensively in all aspects
of music. Membership in mission ensembles was limited to boys and men,
119
and their
role in the social structure of the mission was one of esteem. Because membership in the
choir meant education not only in music, but in reading, writing and other arts, and
because members were relieved of other duties, especially manual labor, these positions
were highly sought after. As with European choir schools, parents would enthusiastically
offer their boys as candidates for the choir in hopes of elevating their status in the
community.
120

singing of Te Deum Laudamus during the foundation ceremonies of mission San Carlos. Engelhardt, San
Carlos, 47.

117
Mann, 196.

118
Engelhardt, San Fernando, 88-89; also see McGroarty, ii.

119
Although, Sandos, 144 cites a quote by Lieutenant Edmond Le Netrel, who witnessed both men
and women singing canticles at mission San Francisco. It is not clear whether the women were thought to
be in the choir , or simply singing as members of the congregation. The latter would have been permissible,
according to the Council of Trent, which allows women to participate in responsorial singing in church (see
the discussion under the heading “Sacred Ground” above).

120
Vallejo; and Sandos, 141.
50

The music performed by these ensembles varied greatly, from simple chant to
choral-orchestral works in the then-modern style. Summers notes that over thirty
manuscripts and fragments of music survive, including choir books by Narciso Durán,
Estevan Tapís, Juan Bautista Sancho, José Viader, and Florencio Ibáñez. Works
attributed to these composers include, among others, Ibáñez’s musical nativity play,
Pastorela, Durán’s Misa Viscaína and Misa Cataluña, and settings of the Mass by
Sancho. They also include more than one hundred pages of imported works by composers
such as Ignacio de Jerusalem and Francisco Javier García Fajer. These manuscripts
include pages of chant, polyphonic and homophonic settings of ordinary masses,
Requiems, offertory and processional hymns, works for Vespers and Tierce, including
psalms, Magnificats, Te Deums, Salve Reginas, and sequences—Pange Lingua, Veni
Creator Spiritus, Victimae Paschali Laudes, etc.—with their typical paired phrases.
121

Narciso Durán, in the prologue to his “Choir book,” cites St. Paul as he lists the genres of
music performed by the mission musicians. They include “psalms, hymns, spiritual
canticles…hymns in the tombs of the dead…[and] hymns before daybreak.”
122
Each
example of the repertoire from these sources uses one or more of the four styles of music
found at the missions: canto llano
123
(plainchant), canto figurado (figured music), canto

121
Summers, “California Mission Music” online.

122
Durán, “Preface,” 3.

123
Literally, “flat” chant.
51

de órgano (music of the organ, i.e., in parts) and estilo/música moderno (modern
style/music).
124

Canto Llano
The most plentiful type of liturgical music used in the California missions was
plain chant (canto llano). As in its European counterpart, Gregorian chant, pitch is scored
using simple diamond-shaped neume notation, but on a five-line staff.
125
The rhythm is
determined exclusively by the scansion of the text. Canto llano is monophonic (with the
exception of improvised harmonization to be discussed later), but unlike chant in Europe
and in some of the older Spanish colonies, it was often performed with instruments
doubling the vocal parts.
Canto llano melodies are drawn from the canon of Gregorian, Ambrosian, and
Roman chant. In addition, Russell points out that most of the manuscript sources of such
chant that were found in mission libraries draw from “Old Spanish” or Mozarabic chant,
such as that in the Missal of 1502 and Breviary of 1504, published under Cardinal
Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros. The use of this Toledo chant, so named for of the Spanish
city to which its origin is attributed, was mandated by Papal dispensation under the reign
of Ferdinand and Isabella.
126

124
Russell, 23-77; also see Marco y Navas; Pérez Martínez; and Travería.

125
Felipe Arroyo de la Cuesta used a variation of the neume, resembling a zig-zag shape for the
note head.

126
Russell, 26, 28-29, and 78; Summers, “California Mission Music” online.
52

Mode
By the time the missions were established in Alta California, the liturgical
plainchant of the Church had been standardized in terms of its basis in the Greek modes
(Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, and Mixolydian), called tonos (tones) in Spanish sources.
Allan Atlas provides a concise description of the Church modes in Renaissance Music:
There are four finals—D , E, F, and G—pitches on which the melody can end.
Each final has two modes assigned to it: the authentic mode ranges from the final
to the octave above; the plagal mode ranges from the fourth below the final to the
fifth above. The ambitus [range, italics added] varies…The Tenor of each mode is
derived from the tenor of the psalm tone (a fixed melody to which psalm verses
were sung) for that mode.
127

Atlas further clarifies how each mode is thought of as being divided into a
tetrachord (four adjacent pitches) plus a pentachord (five adjacent pitches) overlapping
by one pitch to span an octave.
128
The modes can be arranged in one of two ways: either
with the pentachord below the tetrachord, called authentic (chords with pitch numbers 1-
2-3-4-5, below 5-6-7-1), or vice versa, called plagal (5-6-7-1, below 1-2-3-4-5). In the
latter case the affix “hypo” precedes the mode’s name, as in hypodorian.
129
Table 2
below shows the modes as they compare with the minor or major scale.

127
Allan Atlas, Renaissance Music: Music in Western Europe, 1400-1600 (New York: Norton,
1998), 94-95.

128
For the sake of illustration, this author will refer to the pitches of the mode by number, as in the
modern technique of assigning “degrees” to scales, where the number “1” refers to the final.

129
Atlas, Renaissance Music, 94-95.
53

Table 2: The eight Church modes
No. Name Comparison with major or minor
1 Dorian D minor with a B-natural*
2 Hypodorian Dorian spanning the octave A to A, i.e., A minor
3 Phrygian E minor with an F-natural**
4 Hypophrygian Phrygian spanning the octave B to B
5 Lydian F major with a B-natural*
6 Hypolydian Lydian spanning the octave C to C, i.e., C major
7 Mixolydian G major with an F-natural**
8 Hypomixolydian Mixolydian spanning the octave D to D
Source: Allan Atlas, Renaissance Music: Music in Western Europe, 1400-1600 (New York: Norton, 1998),
94-95.
* A key signature with a B-flat may or may not appear in the score. When such a signature does appear, the
pitch, B-natural, would appear with a natural or sharp sign indicating it was raised from B-flat.
** The pitch, F-natural, would only appear with a natural sign if it had been preceded by an F-sharp
(musica ficta) elsewhere.

In addition, a chant can be qualified by class, depending on four factors: where
within the mode its melody falls, in which tetrachord or pentachord a melody begins and
ends, whether the mode has the proper final, and/or whether both tetrachord and
pentachord are of the same mode (rather than borrowed from another). Table 3 below
shows how these factors differentiate each class.
Table 3: Classes of melody
Class Range, compared to the octave
Perfect Spans a modal octave
Imperfect Is narrower than a modal octave
More than Perfect Is wider than its modal octave
Mixed Descends from authentic pentachord to plagal tetrachord or vice
versa
Co-mixed “Borrows” a tetrachord or pentachord from another mode
Irregular Maintains the intervallic relationships between modal pitches, but
has a different final, i.e., is “transposed”
Source: Allan Atlas, Renaissance Music: Music in Western Europe, 1400-1600 (New York: Norton, 1998),
95.

54

Francisco Marcos y Navas, an eighteenth century music theorist whose treatises
were known to exist in several mission libraries,
130
defines modes slightly differently by
blending the concept of key with the corresponding Greek mode. They compare with
Atlas’s summary of the Church modes as follows in table 4 below.
Table 4: Marcos y Navas’s description of the modes
Mode Sign Final Greek name Comparison with Atlas’s modes*
1 None D Dorian Same
2 B-flat G Dorian Irregular 1 (transposed up a fourth)
3 F-sharp E Aeolian Irregular 2 (transposed up a fifth)
4 None E Phrygian Irregular 4 (transposed up a fourth)
5 None C Ionian [Major] Same as 6
6 B-flat F Ionian [Major] Irregular 6 (transposed up a fourth)
7 None A Aeolian [Minor] Same as 2
8 F-sharp G Ionian [Major] Irregular 6 (transposed up a fifth)
Source: Francisco Marcos y Navas Arte, ó compendio general del canto-llano, figurado y organo…
(Madrid: Joseph Doblado, 1716), 9, in Craig Russell, From Serra to Sancho: Music and Pageantry in the
California Missions (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009) 109.
*This column has been added by this author for the purpose of direct comparison with table 2.

In addition to these technical distinctions, each mode was thought to embody a set
of characteristics associated with an astronomical figure, and chants were selected for
specific occasions depending on these characteristics. Marcos y Navas’s characterizations
are sumarized in table 5 below.

130
For a thorough discussion of music theory texts in New Spain, see Flores.
55

Table 5: Marcos y Navas’s modal qualities
Mode Body Characteristics
1 Sun Happiness, gravity, removes sadness
2 Moon Tears, sadness, sleep, laziness
3 Mars Negative influence, enrages, arrogance, impiety, cruelty
4 Mercury Influences both good and evil
5 Jupiter Reconciliation, peace, cooperation, calmness, tranquility, kindness
6 Venus Tenderness, devotion, compassion, charity, thankfulness
7 Saturn Melancholy, exerts rules, hardship, hunger, afflictions, weeping,
sighs, sorrow
8 Stars Solemn, spiritual joy, duty, service, brings one to God
Source: Francisco Marcos y Navas Arte, ó compendio general del canto-llano, figurado y organo…
(Madrid: Joseph Doblado, 1716), 10, in Craig Russell, From Serra to Sancho: Music and Pageantry in the
California Missions (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009) 109.

Narciso Durán, with only limited musical training but a great desire to teach
music to his congregation, created a simplified form of chant in order to facilitate the
learning of sight reading. He limited his scoring to only the F clef, and based all Introits,
Alleluias, and Communions on the same tune: the Introit: Gaudeamus Omnes from the
Feast of Saint Francis. Furthermore, he limited his tonal system to mode 1 (with its
associated happiness, gravity and ability to remove sadness) for all Introits except those
for Ash Wednesday, for which he chose mode 6, and Lent, for which he chose mode 4
(influencing both good and evil), presumably representing the evil of the crucifixion and
the good of salvation.
131

Performance
A common practice for all styles of music performed at the missions was singing
in alternatim (in alternation) between a leader and the congregation. Carlos Flores notes

131
Russell, 32 and 107.
56

that chant in alternatim in Mexican missions often involved elaboration of the chant by
the group repeating the alternate section. While the first iteration might be in a more
traditional, declamatory chant style, the subsequent iteration might be ornamented,
harmonized in thirds or sixths, metered and/or in polyphonic texture.
132
In Engelhardt’s
book on mission San Miguel there appears a photo of the split choir loft.
133
Pablo Tac, a
Native American convert from mission San Luis Rey who travelled to Rome to become a
priest, notes in his memoirs that the mission church had two choirs.
134
He doesn’t specify
whether he refers to the architecture—two sections of the sacristy known as the choir (the
sanctuary is cruciform)—or to the ensemble. Given the above evidence, however, the
latter would certainly be possible.
For the purpose of performance of some repertoire intended for a larger audience,
extremely large print editions were created on wooden boards. In some cases these
consisted solely of the texts, and in others both the text and music were scored. Some of
these prayer boards also featured multiple languages, such as that attributed to Miguel
Pieras, but signed “1817, P. Cabot” (Pedro Cabot) shown below in figure 1. The front
shows the text for the Brief Act of Contrition and Acts of Faith, Hope and Love (from the

132
Flores, 17. Given that the California missionaries first trained at the Apostolic College in
Mexico City, it is logical to assume that similar practices were used in California missions.

133
Engelhardt, San Miguel, 84.

134
Tac, 95.
57

Doctrina) in Salinan and Spanish. On the back is the text and psalm tones for the
Asperges Me and Vidi Aquam.
135

Figure 1: Cabot prayer board. Source: Miguel Pieras, “Prayer Board,” 1817, manuscript
1082, National Anthropological Archives, Smithsonian Institution, Suitland, MD. Image
is in the public domain.

In Chinigchinich, Padre Boscana describes a practice at mission San Juan
Capistrano involving Native American song leaders or conductors. He states, “There are
some persons elected from both sexes to conduct the music and for this purpose they had

135
Sandos, 140. Sandos notes that the music is likely by Sancho, rather than Cabot, who was not a
trained musician.
58

a kind of instrument which they call paail.”
136
It is possible this “instrument” was a
variation on the type of stick or pole depicted in the lithograph by Choris (see figure 14 in
chapter 3), apparently used like a mace to tap out time. It is also possible it refers to a
long pointer used when directing performers’ attention toward words or notes on prayer
boards. Steven Richardson describes this technique in an article in the San Francisco
Call-Bulletin in 1918: “…In church exercises the music was displayed on a huge board,
the notes being life-size; that is to say, one could see them a block away. It was the
function of the orchestra leader to indicate each note to the performers with a long pole,
like a billiard cue.”
137
He refers to the type of prayer board featured above.
Some mission manuscripts provide evidence that instruments were used during
the performance of canto llano. Durán’s “Choir book” prologue states that instruments
(such as cello) were sometimes used in unison with singers during chant recitation to
provided pitch support and guide inexperienced musicians to the correct notes.
138
Some
of Durán’s editions also provided harmonized versions of canto llano in a style similar to

136
Boscana, Chinigchinich, Ch. IX, paragraph 4, quoted in Maynard Geiger, handwritten
annotation to the typewritten translation of Gerónimo Boscana, “Response to the Interrogatorio,”
“Preguntas y Respuestas,” Santa Bárbara Mission Archive-Library. It is interesting that he mentions the
performance of women as well as men. Mann, 79 notes that in Cucurpe, New Spain, the choir director,
Ignaz Pfefferkorn, included women in his choir, two of whom he noted for their beauty in singing the Salve
Regina.

137
Steven Richardson, “Days of the Dons,” San Francisco Call-Bulletin, 1918, quoted in Ray and
Engbeck, 20.

138
Russell, 37-38; Durán, “Preface,” 1-2.
59

medieval organum, as in his settings for Maundy Thursday,
139
or as a duet between the
voice (singing the chant) and cello (harmonizing), as in the Subvenite Sancti Dei.
140

An isolated instance of the use of percussion to accompany chant exists in the
choir book penned by Ibáñez. An annotation by the author in the margin of the chant Veni
Sancte Spiritus indicates that the congregation should kneel during the Alleluia while
drums accompany the singing.
141

Figure 2 below shows an excerpt from the Gloria in the Misa los Angeles as set
by Arroyo de la Cuesta compared with that in the Graduale Romanum,
142
one of the
chants originated from the Toledo sources. Arroyo de la Cuesta’s version is nearly
identical, but with all third intervals filled in with passing tones (wherever diamond-
shaped notes occur), making an entirely step-wise melody. This practice may have been
intended as a form of ornamentation, or it may simply have been a means of decreasing
the difficulty of the melody.
143

139
Durán, “Choirbook,” Doc. 1, 12-15.

140
Durán, “Choirbook,” MS 4, 71.

141
Florenco Ibáñez, “Ibáñez Music Ms.,” Santa Clara MS 3, Orradre Library, Santa Clara
University, 34; and Russell, 32; Given that written evidence of this practice is minimal, it is logical to
conclude that the use of instruments in canto llano performance occurred only in isolated instances.
However, the lack of written evidence does not preclude the possibility that the practice was more
common. In fact, it is conceivable that such practice may have been so much the standard that there would
have been no need to provide written instructions for it. The evidence known to this author is not
conclusive in either case. Contemporaneous observations are replete with descriptions of singing
accompanied by instruments, in many cases specifying the title of the compositions, but in most cases not
the style of composition (canto llano or otherwise).

142
Graduale Romanum, ed. Albertus Lepidi and Josephus Ceppetelli (Rome: Typis Vaticanis,
1908), 26-27 (hereafter cited as Graduale).

143
The mass is followed by several scalar patterns, presumably intended as a warm-up or training
exercise. They begin with a scale followed by a variation of the scale with alternating thirds, highlighting
60

Figure 2: Two settings of “Gloria” (excerpts). Sources: Felipe Arroyo de la Cuesta,
“Gloria,” in “Misa los Angeles,” box 2, folder 79, WPA, Hargrove Library, University of
California, Berkeley, transcription by this author (excerpt), courtesy of Jean Gray
Hargrove Music Library, University of California, Berkeley; and Graduale Romanum,
ed. Albertus Lepidi and Josephus Ceppetelli (Rome: Typis Vaticanis, 1908), 26-27.
Image is in the public domain.
144

As set by Arroyo de la Cuesta:

As set in Graduale Romanum:

the difference between steps and thirds and making the exercise particularly relevant to this setting of the
chant.
144
See figures 21 and 22 in appendix B for the complete facsimile of Arroyo de la Cuesta’s setting and the
transcription by this author.
61

Canto Figurado
A second type of church music common in the missions was canto figurado
(figured song), a term referring to the rhythmic structure, not the use of harmonic figures.
Unlike canto llano, this style is strictly metered in units of two or three beats, indicated
by the rhythmic values of the notes and marked off by occasional bar lines, rather than
meter signatures. Square breves, diamond-shaped semi-breves, and stemmed diamond-
shaped minims are used with only rare instances of dotted cross-beat rhythms to create a
simple setting of the natural accentuation of the text. Canto figurado style is common
among hymns, psalms, sequences, prosas (a generic term for Spanish language sacred
texts often set to music), and other versified texts
145
because of its ability to represent
their regular poetic feet and strophic forms.

Scoring
Canto figurado scores may appear visually simplified, in some cases looking like
monophonic melodies or two-part compositions in parallel thirds or sixths. Or they may
appear as fully realized multi-part harmonizations. In order to accommodate multiple
parts in a compact score, they would be “stacked” on a single staff, often of six lines. In
order to differentiate between the parts, the notes are written in multiple colors and/or
with outlined or filled-in note heads. Most manuscripts represent bass pitches with black
solid notes, tenor with red solid notes, alto with black hollow notes, and soprano with red
hollow notes. Guide notes are typically provided at the end of each staff in the bass part,

145
Russell, 43.
62

indicating the starting pitch of the next system. In the case of Narciso Durán, a fifth
(additional soprano) voice might be represented by small grey notes, and when two
voices performed in unison, both colors would appear next to each other as a
multicolored, divided square note head. Yellow notes also appear in some scores.
146
This
technique of using multi-colored notes on a single staff to score multi-part music, called
tabula compositoria, can be found in fourteenth century sources in Italy.
147

Durán’s “Choir book” features flaps of paper woven into the binding that allowed
certain phrases to be overlaid with alternative music.
148
This could provide for liturgical
alternatives, depending on the season, but also it could allow for two musical settings to
appear in the same score: one with simpler, perhaps canto llano style, another with more
complex music in parts. These could even be performed simultaneously, with more
experienced singers singing the polyphonic version, while the less experienced ones sang
the monophonic version.

Texture
In many settings of psalms, sequences and other lengthy versified pieces, the text
for only the odd verses appears in the score. This might indicate that the even verses
would be improvised, based on the odd-versed music; or it might indicate performance in

146
Russell, 80-85.

147
Siegfried Hermelink, “Dispositiones Modorum: Die Tonarten in der Musik Palestrinas und
seiner Zeitgenossen,” Münchner Veröffentlichungen zur Musikgeschichte (Tutzing, 1960), 4:34, in Göllner,
Two Polyphonic Passions, 71.

148
Russell, 96.
63

alternatim, with a soloist or small group of experienced musicians performing the texted
verses from the score, while the larger group or congregation performed the even verses
in unison, perhaps in canto llano style and from memory.
149
Another possibility is that
the music was performed from a combination of sources, where one group would perform
the written canto figurado, and another would perform the missing verses from another
source—perhaps a polyphonic setting, a motet of the same text, or an otherwise more
intricate setting. It is conceivable that such a performance might take place during the
more elaborate Feast Day services.

Instrumentation
Even when canto figurado scores appear as monophonic or in two-part, parallel
thirds or sixth—lacking any visual representations of the implied harmony—the style
called for a chordal accompaniment, improvised on organ, where available,
150
or a
combination of continuo instruments common in the region. The guitar, bandola (a
guitar-like instrument of South American origin), bass bandola, and harp, instruments
used in Spanish secular and theatre song, were frequently used to accompany sacred
music, along with cello and bass. When a single piece required variation in texture, the

149
Ibid.

150
Russell, 47 and 89. Missions San Jose and San Diego had “spinets” as early as 1771, the latter
of which was sent to mission San Gabriel. San Luís Obispo and Santa Barbara had organs, the latter as
early as 1842. Mission Solano had a clavichord, left in the area by the Russians. Barrel organs existed at
some missions, most notably at San Juan Bautista, but they lacked a keyboard, being “played” by turning a
crank while punch cards manipulated the stops. Letters to Church administrators containing unfulfilled
requests for organs from Padres at other missions can be found in various archives. See Russell, Appendix
C-4.
64

harp or other soft instrument was sometimes used to accompany smaller choirs, while the
organ or a group of instruments was used to accompany larger groups, occasionally in
alternatim.
151
In many sources, indications of duo (duet), a 3 (with three), or coro
(chorus) appear to indicate improvised harmonization by additional voices and/or
instruments played colla parte or separately from the voices, based on what appeared in
the score.
152

Göllner notes that in Passion settings throughout the region, polyphony is used
both for setting turba (crowd) scenes realistically and “as a means of underscoring
moments of particular significance. Thus, it served the same function as did the
ornamented melodic formula within the monophonic versions.”
153
This use of
compositional technique is relevant to the implications of harmonization described above.
Changes in texture and volume could be created for dramatic effect by adding or
subtracting voices, thereby altering chord voicing and doubling.
Further indications of instrumental music that is associated with vocal music exist
in the designations toca (play), tocata (played), and música ([instrumental] music) that
appear in several sources. In many cases, such as at the end of a verse, they appear above
what look like empty measures, signifying that music was to be improvised in that

151
Russell, 46-47.

152
Russell, 81 and 96.

153
Göllner, “Unknown Passion Tones,” 71.
65

space,
154
possibly based on the section preceding it. Such realizations result in the
creation of a simple binary form (A – A’) in each verse.
Sean McKee notes that Durán’s “Choir book”
155
contains non-texted psalm tones
marked clave (harpsichord). He suggests that this page may have been intended as
accompaniment for vocal music based on the psalm tones.
156
Given the number of
“missing” verses from versified music throughout the “Choir book,” this is certainly
possible. The missing verses may have been performed from memory, with the
harpsichord providing tonal support. On the other hand, these pages may also provide
examples of purely instrumental music for use as processionals or other auxiliary music.
The choice of clef might also indicate that a piece or passage of music was
intended for instruments as opposed to voices. C, F and G moveable clefs appear most
frequently in mission sources,
157
with G being most common for instrumental music.
Clefs and changes of clef could indicate voicing and changes in it, or could designate the
use of instruments differentiated by range or transposition. The process of transposing by
as much as a fourth down or fifth up was common in Spanish-language pieces such as
villancicos, possibly to accommodate changes of tuning in the different sized and
differently tuned instruments that typically associated with that style of music.
158

154
Russell, 99.

155
Durán, “Choir book,” C-C 59, 118.

156
McKee, 32.

157
As will be discussed in chapter 4, Durán uses F clef almost exclusively.

158
Russell, 86.
66

Harmony
Compositions in canto figurado style are typically diatonic throughout. Rare
instances of chromatic alterations are used more for melodic embellishment than for
harmonic function. Homophonic texture creates triadic chord progressions that conform
to standard patterns. Cadences typically involve dominant triads, with occasional seventh
chords.
159

John McGroarty, reflecting on the seeming simplistic style of Durán’s canto
figurado settings, states, “We of today, so accustomed to rich harmonies and refreshing
modulation, may quickly tire of these humble compositions, but they must have been a
constant joy to the Padre in his exile, and a veritable delight to the Indian, who to the
present time does not know the meaning of monotony.”
160
So often, historians paint the
music of earlier periods as inferior to that of later ones. Though this may be true of some
technical features, it is not true in terms of the amount of information the music
communicates about an era. Isolation from Europe helped to preserve the music of earlier
periods in practice at the missions.
161
Since this mission life was more reflective of life in
Europe a century or two earlier, it is fitting that the music resembles the same. The Native
Americans, then, not having much elaborate modern European music, would have little
context by which to judge mission music. To them, it was as meaningful as the same style
would have been to Baroque Europeans. This sentiment is further summed up by Göllner

159
Russell, 42-46, 79.

160
McGroarty, xiv.

161
Göllner, “Two Polyphonic Passions,” 75.
67

as he defends the apparent simplicity of two anonymous Passions found in the archives at
mission Santa Barbara:
Though of different origin and representing different stages in the history of
Passion music, the two Santa Barbara Passions have one thing in common: their
music is of a simple, unsophisticated character. Compared with the great
European music of the same period, this music appears completely outdated and
inferior, far remote from the central events in the history of music. We may well
ask, therefore, whether it is necessary to uncover material of relatively little
artistic significance. And this is certainly one of the reasons why the sources in
question lay hidden in the mission archives, almost completely forgotten for 150
years. It should be said, however, that a judgment of this kind reflects an aesthetic
theory, which derived its norms mainly from the music of the nineteenth century
with only few connections to both earlier and more recent developments.
Mendelssohn's negative reaction to Victoria's composition [the St. John Passion]
can easily be understood from this background.
The music of the California missions as well as that of the medieval
church belongs essentially to the liturgy. The musical sound is necessary for
communication between clerics and the congregation. It is first of all language,
not language read silently in privacy, but sounding in the open space of the
church. The necessity of making the sacred text a means of communication
resulted in music. This historical reality is as far removed from the concert hall,
and therefore from the reach of the modern musician and his audience, as it is
from the theologian and liturgical historian, who is merely concerned with the text
but not with its musical realization.
162

Figure 3 below shows an excerpt of Durán’s setting of the sequence, Victime [sic]
Paschali: laudes.
163
The use of the word música over the empty bar at the end of each
phrase (at the measure lacking bar lines between mm. 10-12, and at m. 30, etc.) indicates
that instrumental music is to be improvised there. The addition of a third voice in m. 28
heightens the harmonic tension toward the cadence. Curiously, the dominant chord on the
downbeat of the penultimate measure adds a D in beat 3, implying a minor seventh chord

162
Göllner, “Two Polyphonic Passions,” 74-75.

163
See figures 24, 25, and 26 in appendix B for the complete facsimile and transcription.
68

prior to the final C major chord, and making for a somewhat awkward cadence, even by
eighteenth century standards. This may seem like an error, made by a composer with a
limited understanding of music theory. But more likely, it reflects a style that is heavily
influenced by folk music and improvised parallel thirds.
The form of this setting is typical of sequences. The strophic verses of text are set
in binary form: A, with a half cadence at m. 10, followed by B, with an authentic cadence
at m. 29, followed by B’, with an authentic cadence at the end, prior to the added
Alleluya.
Figure 3: Narciso Durán, “Victime Paschali: laudes,” in “Durán Choir book,” Doc. 1,
Santa Bárbara Mission Archive Library, 108, transcription by this author, 2012 (excerpt).

69

Canto de Órgano
Another type of music used in the church was Canto de órgano, so named
because it was typically accompanied by organ (when one was available) or other
continuo instruments, such as strings, brass, harp or archlute. Canto de órgano is fully
polyphonic, with a chant serving as cantus firmus, typically in the bass or tenor part, and
contrapuntal voices added above it. Parts were ornamented with appoggiaturas and
trills.
164
It is logical to assume that these figures would be added in performance in
addition to being added in the scores.

Scoring
Canto de órgano is metered, with rhythmic values represented by note shapes, as
in canto figurado. However, rhythmic figures in canto de órgano are much more
complex, including dotted off-beat rhythms and syncopation. Measures are marked off by
bar lines much of the time. Other features include the use of fermatas and repeat
marks.
165

Pitch is scored in C or F clefs on five or six line staves with pitch guides at the
ends of systems. Accidentals indicate chromatic alterations in a manner consistent with
Renaissance polyphonic style.
166
As with canto figurado, multiple simultaneous parts are

164
Russell, 80.

165
Ibid., 39.

166
Ibid., 39 and 79.
70

represented on a single staff, in tabula compositoria,
167
rather than in separate part books.
Florencio Tapís copied chant books (or had scribes copy them) so that each singer could
read from his own.
168
Also, as with canto figurado, the different voice parts are indicated
using different colored, outlined, or filled-in note heads. But techniques varied greatly
between missions and scribes. Scores attributed to Tapís at mission San Jose use red and
black. Durán uses the format described under the canto figurado heading for four part
texture. Some scores use yellow for the soprano part, red for the alto part, and black
outlines for the tenor part, and solid black for the bass. At San Juan Bautista, three-part
texture is represented from top to bottom with yellow, red, black, respectively.
169

In many cases, different parts were scored on available pages in multiple sources,
rather than contiguously in one source or part of a source, due to the scarcity of paper.
Reconstruction can be difficult when parts appear to missing from one source, only to be
found in another. The comparison of note shapes and handwriting is thus essential during
reconstruction.
170

Representative Settings
Since canto de órgano is a more complex style than canto llano and figurado, it
would require greater skill among its performers and more rehearsal time. Thus, it likely

167
See the description under the heading for canto figurado.

168
Engelhardt, San Juan Bautista, 133. The extra effort and expense (given limited resources for
copying) of this practice showed his commitment to music literacy.

169
McGroarty, xiii; and Russell, 78-80.

170
Russell, 39 and 79-81.
71

would be performed less frequently, perhaps on Feast Days and other special occasions.
One genre that is mentioned in nearly all sources for such days is the Te Deum. It appears
in many sources and in all styles. In Durán’s “Choir book,” it is set in polyphonic psalm-
tone style with a series of chords repeated for several words before changing. The text
appears in odd verses only, suggesting performance in alternatim with even verses
performed in a simplified style, or even solely by instruments. In Sancho’s version
171
it
is scored in four voices in canto de órgano, in quadruple meter, with even verses
musically slightly varied from odd ones. There are indications that soloists performed
odd verses, with the choir (or congregation) performing the modified even verses.
172

Durán’s setting of the text, Veni Sancte Spiritus, a sequence for Pentecost, is
shown in figure 4 below. It begins, as is typical, with an Alleluya in canto llano style,
designated Alla. 5
o
T
o
Musica de Ut (in mode 5, music [instrumental] in C [major]). Only
the odd verses of the sequence are shown, labeled compass de 3 (composed of three
[voices]), followed in the first verse with the word musica, where instrumental music
would be played during or in place of the even verses. This is confirmed by the phrase
following the Alleluya section, Musica la mism[o] solfa que la sequencia, à de Ut
([instrumental] music has the same solfège [notes] as the sequence in C), meaning that
instrumental music was to be played from (or based on) the vocal parts. Russell suggests
that the even verses might have been improvised in canto de órgano style, making this

171
Juan Bautista Sancho, “Te Deum,” score, box 2, folder 77, WPA, Hargrove Library, University
of California, Berkeley.

172
“Choir book from mission San Rafael,” Doc. 2, Santa Bárbara Mission Archive-Library, 84-85;
reprinted in Russell, Appendix B-8, “Te Deum.”
72

setting an example of all three textures.
173
It is possible they may also have been
performed from another source or from memory by the congregation.
Figure 4: Narciso Durán, “Alleluya” and “Veni Sancti Spiritus,” in “Choir book in
Gregorian form: ms., 1813 / by Fr. Narciso Durán for use of the neophytes of Mission
San Jose,” BANC C-C 59, Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley,
microfilm, p. 38 (detail). Photo by unknown WPA photographer. Courtesy of The
Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. Used by permission.

Estilo Moderno/Música Moderna
In addition to the three styles described above, a fourth style, Música moderna or
estilo moderno was popular for feast days and other events that called for more elaborate
music. Given the isolation from European society, modern music in the Americas, and

173
Russell, 204.
73

especially California, was not at the forefront of stylistic trends. On the contrary, it
tended to resemble the music of previous centuries. Thus, the “modern” music in the
eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries at the missions resembled Baroque or Rococo
style in Europe.
Música moderna uses the conventional notation of the day in treble and bass clefs
with stems, flags, and beams to represent rhythm. It features ornamented melodies with
frequent flourishes and trills. Melodies use wide-ranging intervals, register changes and
arpeggio patterns. Unlike the antique style (canto de órgano, especially), which features
instrumentation colla parte for the most part, música moderna features independently
scored instrumental parts, such as a pair of violins over a chordal accompaniment instead
of or in addition to colla parte instruments. Harmonies are more complex than the other
styles, making use of seventh chords, diminished triads, secondary dominants and
modulations. Large works include aria, recitative, choral and instrumental sections.
174

Figure 5 below shows Sancho’s “Kyrie” from his “Misa de los Angeles.” The
method of notation is essentially modern. Indications of voicing (and by implication,
instrumentation) appear above the systems. This score is written in part-book style, with
voices written out completely on separate sheets or areas so that an entire ensemble or
section can read from a single page. First and second sopranos are scored on one page,
alto on another, and bass and continuo on another. The continuo part includes some
figured bass above the staff. Instrumental parts would have been played from one of these

174
Russell, 49.
74

parts depending on the instrument’s range, possibly playing colla parte during tutti
sections and resting or improvising an alternate part during solo sections.
175

175
Juan Bautista Sancho, “Misa de los Angeles,” 1796, box 2, folder 58, WPA, Hargrove Library,
University of California, Berkeley. Russell, Appendix D-1, provides an excellent transcript and edition of
the Mass in its entirety, with vocal parts on a single score and interpolated instrumental parts for two
violins and continuo, as well as performance notes.
75

Figure 5: Juan Bautista Sancho, “Kyrie,” in “Misa de los Angeles,” score, 1796, box 2,
folder 58, WPA, Hargrove Library, University of California, Berkeley, three loose leaf
photocopies (excerpts). Photograph by an unknown WPA photographer. Courtesy of Jean
Gray Hargrove Music Library, University of California, Berkeley. Used by permission.

Tiple 1
ro
(first soprano):

Tiple 2
do
(second soprano):

Alto:

Bass:

Acómpañamiento (accompaniment, i.e., continuo):

76

Instrumental music
The missions contained a variety of instruments available for performers. They
include trumpets, drums, chirímias (an oboe-like reed instrument of Native American or
South American origin), bajones (literally, slumps: bassoon-like reed instruments),
cornets, organs, violins, cellos, basses, harps, guitars, and percussion.
176

Many accounts of the use of such instruments to accompany voices during Mass
exist, such as Durán’s advocacy of singers playing instruments simultaneously while
singing.
177
There are also ample examples in extant choir books of the words música,
toca, and tocata to indicate the use of instruments during certain pieces. The same scores
also contain the word coro to indicate when the music was to be taken up by the
singers.
178
Isolated examples of the use of percussion in the church exist, too. Halpin
describes the use of rhythmic hand clapping, wooden clappers, rattles and drums during
the performance of the Miserere to symbolize the confusion at Christ’s death.
179

In addition to instrumental sections of choral music, there are examples of purely
instrumental music used within the church. In the Durán “Choir book,” for example, a

176
Koegel, 48.

177
See chapter 4.

178
Yet, Engelhardt, San Juan Bautista, 135, even while citing these same facts, insists that the
Mass was always sung a cappella.

179
Halpin, 39. Note also the use of percussion mentioned above in an Alleluia in Ibáñez’s choir
book. Few examples of written evidence such as these exist to support the assumption that percussion
instruments were used regularly in church music. Nevertheless, as mentioned before, their absence does not
necessarily preclude the possibility that it was more widespread than would seem evident.
77

Tocata de La (toccata in A) exists within the Misa Chigauita. And in the Mass in A in the
concordance from mission Santa Clara a Prelude in D precedes the Mass.
180

Dramatic Music
Passions
Passions at the missions featured a form of writing similar to that of the European
chorale-passion, differentiating turbae (crowd scenes) from soliloquentes (soliloquys,
meaning solo scenes in recitative style) by varying textures. Whereas the soliloquentes
sections would follow the psalm-tone melodies in more or less monophonic texture, the
turbae sections would be more freely composed in a variety of textures to fit the text:
either polyphony or homophony. In many cases, parallel motion, as in the falsibordoni of
many European compositions, is used. Two such passions, one to St. Matthew, the other
to St. John, exist as anonymous scores in the archives of mission Santa Barbara. Each one
features multi-part polyphony, scored on a single six-line staff with multi-colored notes
representing separate voices.
181

Joseph Halpin describes the use of the chorus in quasi-oratorio style during the
recitation of the Passion texts, noting that three men (priests or a combination of priests

180
Durán, “Choirbook,” Doc. 1, 75 and 152; and Durán, “Choirbook,” MS 4, 119 and 121, in
Russell, 99.

181
Göllner, “Two Polyphonic Passions,” 68-61.
78

and Native Americans) would function as narrators, the bass being the voice of Jesus.
The choir would then function as a turba chorus for crowd scenes.
182

Pastoral Plays
Alfred Robinson describes a performance of the pastorela following a Mass at
mission San Diego as follows:
…the characters entered in procession, adorned with appropriate costume, and
wearing banners. There were six females representing shepherdesses, three men
and a boy. One of the men represented Lucifer, one a hermit, and the other
Bartolo, a lazy vagabond, whilst the boy represented the archangel Gabriel. The
story of their performance is partially drawn from the Bible, and commences with
the angel’s appearance to the shepherds, and his account of the birth of our
Saviour. Lucifer appears among them, and endeavors to prevent the prosecution
of their journey. His influence and temptations are about to succeed, when Gabriel
again appears and frustrates their effect. A dialogue is then carried on at
considerable length relative to the attributes of the Deity, which ends in the
submission of Satan. The whole is interspersed with songs and incidents that seem
better adapted to the stage than the Church.
183

Halpin goes on to describe that such plays would typically take place in a room
other than the sanctuary: the oratory. At mission Santa Clara, this room was known as
Bethlehem because of this tradition. In it, curtains would mask the stage area, which
contained the orchestra, choir, and a minimal set. Halpin also notes that the pastorela that
was performed at missions throughout California was likely that written by Padre Ibáñez
at mission Soledad, the script for which is extant today.
184

182
Halpin, 40.

183
Robinson, 66-67.

184
Halpin, 39.
79

Devotional Music
Many texts belonging to the Doctrina, such as Padre Nostre, Ave Maria, the
Rosary, various litanies and novenas, and the Dios te salve Maria were set to music in
Spanish or Native American languages. In addition, devotional poetry was composed and
often set in folk styles. The catchy tunes of these songs were appealing, helping to
motivate new converts to learn them. It also allowed lengthy texts to be memorized more
readily. One example of such a song is described by Palóu in an event that took place
September 26, 1773, while he was traveling near mission San Diego. On the road he and
his party encountered a group of Native Americans. He states, “Kneeling down in the
road these poor Indians, who ‘til a few days before had been savages, knowing nothing
about God, now as children of the Church of God were singing the Alabado! We
rewarded them with a sack of pinole (ground corn) and some Rosary beads.”
185

Descriptions such as this are plentiful, revealing the extent to which this repertoire had
taken hold among the Native Americans.
The Alabado, named after its opening line: alabado sea (praised be), is a genre of
song in Spanish praising the Holy Trinity, Blessed Sacrament, Virgin Mary, Angels,
and/or Saints. The version common in the California missions has two stanzas with
identical music in each. It was sung at sunrise and sunset and at the end of nearly all
devotional services. As such, it became one of the most popular tunes in California.
Owen Da Silva includes the melody in Mission Music of California,
186
based on a 1919

185
Palóu, 49.

186
Da Silva, 112.
80

recording of a native singer performing it. Kristin Dutcher Mann notes that Alabados
were a way of keeping sacred time, where their repetition at the conclusion of the offices,
meals and devotional sessions delineated the times and activities of the day. As such they
were powerful tools for expressing devotion.
187

Numerous other devotional genres were used, all similar in their simplicity. The
Alba (dawn), sometimes called Alabanza (praise), is a morning hymn to Mary in twelve
stanzas, sung in Spanish in alternatim. An estribillo is a duet in thirds or sixths between
sopranos, occasionally adding a tenor to create three part texture, all accompanied by
continuo.
188
A villancico, a genre brought from Spain, is a devotional song in Spanish,
featuring realistic characters in its texts (shepherds, gypsies, laborers, etc.), and music
derived from folk style. Villancicos are metered, chordal, typically accompanied by harp
or guitar and often performed in processions. Their form consists of coplas (couplets)
similar to those in estribillos, improvised by alternating singers between statements of the
refrain.
189

A gozo is a Spanish song of praise, sung at important feasts. Gozos feature
strophic texts in four-line stanzas, with repeating musical material in duple or triple
meter. They would be set in two to four-voiced texture, with a melody and folk-like,
sometimes fauxbourdon-style harmonization. Texts would begin with one of the
following formulas: “Para dar luz immortal…” (To give immortal light…), or “Pues sois

187
Mann, 175-176.

188
Russell, 163.

189
Russell, 42 and 168; and Mann, 53.
81

sancto...” (Because you are holy…), followed by the name of the holy person being
commemorated: a saint, angel, or biblical figure. The text then proceeds to expound upon
the virtues of that person. Gozos follow binary form between stanzas: a - a’ - b - refrain.
The “a” and “b” sections follow an antecedent-consequent phrase structure.
190

Prosas are non-liturgical Spanish texts. They would be printed on large scores
used in group singing, often in an oratory space, but occasionally in the church, as well.
Prosas would be set typically in canto figurado style.
191

Many of the scored compositions from the mission manuscripts feature a common
formulaic style of devotional text that begins with the exclamation “¡O!” as in “¡O pan de
vida!” (Oh, bread of life). Such texts would be set using devices such as those in the
above genres: parallel thirds and sixths, or folk-like chordal textures. Duran’s setting of
“¡O Sacretissimo [sic] Cuerpo!” (Oh, sacred body),
192
for example, sets the voices in
parallel octaves and fifths with “phrygian” half cadences, as in flamenco style. His “¡O
que suave!” (Oh, how mild) setting features word painting by changing meter on the
phrase “encender a ti mismo” (ignite yourself). He also writes the word golpe (gallop)
above each statement of the word amor (love).
193

190
Russell, 167-168.

191
Russell, 43 and 213; and Sandos, 151.

192
Sacretissimo (Latin: very sacred) appears in combination with Cuerpo (Spanish: body). If fully
in Spanish, it would be Sacratisimo Cuerpo.

193
It is not clear whether or not this is intended as an articulation marking (striking, as in a horse’s
hooves on the ground), a tempo marking (at the speed of a gallop), whether it was intended to resemble a
dance style known as golpe, or whether there was to be percussion accompanying the singing. Given that
these songs would have been accompanied and performed in less formal settings, any of these options are
possibility.
82

One type of performance that is not so much a genre as it is a venue is the velorio
(wake). The term refers to the fact that music and dance would be performed all night,
keeping its participants (and anyone within earshot) awake. Velorios often took place at
the end of Feast Days or special occasions. They would include all of the above genres of
devotional music, as well as secular music and even Native American music.
On August 14, 1769, Padre Juan Crespí records an encounter between Captain
Gaspár de Portolá, who was heading an exploration up the Santa Barbara Channel. The
Spanish were celebrating the Feast of Assumption of the Blessed Virgin. The Native
Americans (presumably Chumash) offered in return a celebration of their own. Crespí
records in his journal: “All through the night these Indians molested us and kept us awake
by playing on their weird flutes or pipes, so that it was necessary for the sentinels to be
well on their guard.”
194
Later in the same voyage he records the following:
They were not satisfied with spreading food before us, but also desired to amuse
us. One could notice the mutual strife and rivalry among the different villages to
excel in their gifts and sports, in order to merit the approval of our people.
Toward evening, the chiefs of each town came, one after the other, all in their
finery of paints and feather ornaments, holding in their hands split reeds, the
motion and noise of which served them to keep time in their chants and dances.
This they performed so well and so uniformly that it sounded vary harmonious.
The dances lasted all through the evening, and we had a hard time ridding
ourselves of them. We dismissed them, begging them by signs not to come back
during the night and trouble us; but in vain. As soon as darkness had set in, they
returned, blowing horns, the infernal noise of which was sufficient to tear our ears
to pieces.
195

194
Juan Crespí, Juan Crespí, missionary explorer on the Pacific coast, 1769-1774, ed. and trans.
Herbert Eugene Bolton (1927; repr., Austin: University of Texas, 2007, entry dated Monday, August 14,
1769.

195
Crespí, Saturday, entry dated August 19, 1769.
83

Given the theatrical nature of many Native American ceremonies, and the fact
that they would sometimes go on for several days, it is not surprising that velorios and the
theatrical genres described above were so popular at the missions.

Secular music
In addition to sacred music, secular music was known to have been performed,
both in non-religious and religious contexts. At missions throughout the territory,
Mexican popular music, such as that to accompany the mitote (an indigenous Mexican
ceremony commemorating seasonal activities such as planting and harvesting)
196
and
dancing by matachinas (dancers elaborately adorned often with bird feathers),
197
was
used at festive occasions to entice potential converts and as part of Feast Day
celebrations.
198
In the latter case, they would likely have been tailored toward Biblical
stories and Church history.
The nineteenth century chronicler Alfred Robinson noted that on one occasion
during Mass at mission Santa Barbara, “some fine arias, rather unsuitable, however, to
the place” were performed.
199
European tunes were also known to be in use at the

196
See Adrian Guzmán Vázquez, “Mitote and the Cora Universe,” Journal of the Southwest 42,
no. 1 (Spring, 2000): 61-80.

197
See W. C. Holden et al., “Studies of the Yaqui Indians of Sonora, Mexico,” American Journal
of Archaeology 40, no. 4 (October-December, 1936): 571-572.

198
Mendoza de Arce, 98.

199
Ibid., 269-271.
84

missions, some transcribed from barrel organ roles, others learned from travelers.
200
Robinson makes the following observations of his experience of Mass at mission San
Gabriel in 1829:
The Solemn music of the mass was well selected, and the Indians’ voices
accorded harmoniously with the flutes and violins that accompanied them. On
retiring from church, the musicians stationed themselves at a private door at the
building, whence issued the reverend father, whom they escorted with music to
his quarters; where they remained for half an hour performing waltzes and
marches, until some trifling present was distributed among them when they retired
to their homes.
201

Duflot de Mofras describes a Mass at mission Santa Cruz on September 14, 1841,
during which the orchestra played two secular tunes:
It was not without keen surprise that we heard musicians brought over from Santa
Clara, singing the Marseillaise, as the congregation rose, and escorted the
procession singing Vive Henri IV. After Mass, upon asking one of the fathers how
these Indians happened to know these airs, I was informed that one of his
predecessors had bought a small [barrel] organ from France and that the Indians,
after hearing the airs, had instinctively arranged the songs for use by various
instruments.
202

Mary Dominic Ray and Joseph Engbeck cite several examples of secular music,
including dance, used in the church. For example, William Brewer, a member of the
United States Geological Survey, in 1850 described music at mission Santa Barbara,
which “began with an instrumental gallopade (I think from Norma) decidedly lively and

200
Summers, “California Mission Music,” 4:834-35.

201
Robinson, 44-45.

202
Duflot de Mofras, 417.
85

undevotional in its effect and associations.”
203
They further cite Juan Alvarado, a mid-
nineteenth century California resident, who records in his memoirs the following:
The same Indians who had assisted in the Mass of the morning and the bull and
bear fight of the afternoon furnished the music for the dances; and they did it well,
being much more accustomed even for their church music to lively and inspiriting
operatic airs and dancing tunes than the slow and lugubrious elegies and dirges.
The programme consisted of contradanzes, minuets, Aragonese jotas, and various
other dances usual among the Spanish population.”
204

Comprehensive Skills
Many members of the mission communities were trained, and a few were selected
to be educated in choral schools to become regular members of mission ensembles. Such
positions were highly sought after, for they raised the social status of the musician and his
family, and because of the fact that such service relieved the musician of other, less
desirable duties. Mission musicians were called upon to perform a challenging repertoire
of European music, especially in light of stylistic differences between it and their own. In
order to do so, they needed to possess a diverse set of skills.
Mission musicians were conversant in Spanish and familiar with Latin in order to
read the texts, musical instructions and diacritical markings in scores. They were literate
in music, as well, proficient at decoding musical notation into a meaningful
understanding of the sound of the music. They were also able to write text, and copy and

203
Ray and Engbeck, 17. Brewer’s observations refer either to a non-mission church, or given the
date, a secularized mission. In either case, it is conceivable, given the other quoted observations, that such
events took place at the missions in earlier years.

204
Ibid., 19.
86

dictate music, and to make arrangements from existing melodies, and perhaps compose
them.
205

Their skills in aural perception were well-honed. This allowed them to audiate
rhythm and pitch, both from proto-notation such as the musical hand and from scores.
They were also proficient at demonstrating these perceptive skills in performance.
They were highly skilled singers, capable of handling difficult music of a wide
variety of styles including chant, polyphonic music, arias, and recitatives. They were also
trained to play various instruments, in many cases multiple instruments, in order to
double as accompanists for concerted music and players for purely instrumental music.
They were skilled at realizing harmonies from both figured and un-figured scores. They
put these skills into practice when called upon to improvise from all types of scores, as
well as from memory or out of pure invention. The most talented of them were trained in
various forms of leadership, such as cantoring at services, training musicians in the choral
school, and rehearsing music. It is likely that some were also conductors, leading groups
of musicians, both in call and response and in performance from scores.
206

Given that musical instruments and equipment were rare and difficult to acquire
from Mexico and Europe, some mission musicians were trained as craftsmen so that they

205
The volume of choir books and other copied music suggests that the mission musicians were
quite active as copyists. The accounts above of Native Americans transcribing music from barrel organ
sheets and popular tunes they heard document their abilities at dictating and arranging music. Furthermore,
given the volume of anonymous repertoire, it is conceivable that some of it was composed by musicians
other than the Padres to which it is mostly attributed.

206
At least two accounts of Native Americans acting as a conductor exist in the historical record.
See the mention of José el Cantor in Monterey and an anonymous blind conductor at mission San Carlos in
chapter 4.
87

could design and construct musical instruments. Examples of such instruments exist in
several archives and museums throughout the area. Sandos notes a famous violin at
mission San Antonio made in 1798 by a Native American named Carabajal (stolen in
2003 from mission San Antonio) that features an animal symbol on the scroll thought to
be a Native American mythological symbol. He also notes an instance of a European-
style flute made of a rifle barrel.
207

It is conceivable some mission musicians were also skilled at music composition.
They are known to have created arrangements of tunes and to improvise. This, in
combination with the fact that they were trained in music literacy and theory, provides
the necessary means for composition. Juan de Torguemada’s treatise, Monarquía
Indiana, describes such abilities in the mission musicians in Mexico as follows:
With this I conclude (and this is an important observation): only a few years after
the Indians began to learn to chant, they also began to compose. Their villancicos,
their polyphonic music in four parts, certain masses and other liturgical works, all
composed with adroitness, have been adjudged superior works of art when shown
[to] Spanish masters of composition. Indeed the Spanish masters often thought
they could not have been written by Indians.
208

Such activities could certainly have taken place in the California missions, as
well. Though evidence in the form of signed scores has not been found, much of the
available repertoire was scored anonymously.
Chapter 4 will explore these skills further and document how they were taught by
the missionaries. However, it is important to note that, while these musical trainees

207
Sandos, 141-142.

208
Juan de Torquemada, Monarquía Indiana, III, 214, trans. Robert Stevenson, in Music in Aztec
and Inca Territory (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1968), 172.
88

learned a great deal from the Padres, much of their musical aptitude they already
possessed prior to their training in the missions, learned through the performance of
Native American music. Before any conclusions can be made about the pedagogical
methods used in the missions, an examination of this subject must be made.
The following chapter will attempt to discover what musical skills would have
been learned by the Native Americans from the performance of their own music prior to
European contact.

89

CHAPTER 3: A MUSICAL PEOPLE

For the Native American communities living in the region that would become
Alta California, ceremony played a central role in almost every aspect of life. Nearly
every activity had a corresponding ritual—a dance, a story, a song—and it would be
performed any time that activity took place. Rituals became the means by which these
communities recorded their history, educated their children, worshiped, healed, and
entertained themselves, and music was almost always a part of the rituals.

A Diverse People
The region of Northern New Spain that corresponds with what is now Northern
Mexico and the American Southwest from Texas to California was home to
approximately fifty groups of Native Americans, each divided into several tribes whose
languages were related. In the mission regions of Alta California, they included the
Yumans, near the Colorado River and extending to the San Diego area; the Tongva, in
the Los Angeles basin; the Chumash, Esselen, and Salinan, along the coasts from the
Santa Barbara channel up to the Monterey Bay area; the Ohlone (also known as
Castanoan), along the central and northern coast; and the Miwok in the northern Central
Valley and northern San Francisco Bay area.
Each of the California missions served multiple communities of Native
Americans. Table 6 lists by mission the names to which they are referred in the sources
90

cited in this work, with the common Spanish name given in parentheses where
relevant.
209

Table 6: Native American groups associated with the California missions
Mission Name
San Diego Kumeyaay (Diegueño)
San Luis Rey Uacatom/Quechnajuicom* (Luiseño)
San Juan Capistrano (Juaneño)
San Gabriel Tongva (Gabrieleño)
San Fernando Tongva (Fernandeño)
San Buenaventura Chumash
Santa Barbara Chumash (Barbareño)
Santa Ines Chumash
Purisima Chumash
San Luis Obispo Chumash
San Miguel Salinan
San Antonio Salinan
Soledad Salinan
San Carlos Esselen, Ohlone
San Juan Bautista Salinan, Ohlone, Yokut (Tulareño
210
)
Santa Cruz Ohlone
San Jose Ohlone
Santa Clara Ohlone
San Francisco Ohlone
San Rafael Coastal Miwok
Sonoma Coastal Miwok
Source: Rose Marie Beebe and Robert Senkewicz, “Language Groups of Alta California,” in Lands of
Promise and Despair (Santa Clara: Santa Clara University Press, 2001), 144.
*A term introduced by Pablo Tac. See a review of his memoir in chapter 1.

These groups shared an understanding of the universe as being composed of three
worlds. Lowell Bean summarizes them as follows:

209
In some cases, these common names have been adopted by the tribes, even to the present-day.

210
Arroyo de la Cuesta refers to the people of the eastern edge of the mission’s territory (the
western edge of the Central Valley) as such in “Lengua de California.” Tulareños, i.e., the Yokuts, were so
named by the Spanish because of the series of marshy lakes around which they lived: Los Tules (named
after the reeds, tullin, that grew there).
91

The first [world is] an upper world populated by powerful anthropomorphic
beings such as the astronomical persons Sun, Moon, and the various
constellations, forerunners of animal species and other spirit beings; the second
[is] a middle world peopled not only by human beings, but also by various
nonmortal beings with considerable power; and [the] third [is] an underworld
peopled by super-ordinary beings, usually unfriendly toward humans. These latter
beings were conceived of as reptilian, amphibious, or distorted humanoid in form
and were associated with water, springs, underground rivers and lakes, and
caves.
211

Commemorations honoring this system are reflected in their visual arts: rock
paintings and engravings, basketry, costumes, architecture, and tools. Ceremonies in their
honor involve storytelling, dance, and music. They include those for life cycle events,
subsistence activities, historical and practical songs, and the expression of cultural
identity.
212

Despite such strong musical traditions among these peoples, stylistic differences
between their music and that of the Spanish missionaries and other European colonists
led many European observers to conclude that their music was unsophisticated or even
nonexistent. Many studies on mission music, especially those made during the nineteenth
and early twentieth centuries accept this characterization and proceed to show how the
missionaries taught music to Native American devoid of musical skills—starting from
scratch, so to speak. However, available evidence proves the contrary—that the Native
Americans had highly developed musical skills, born out of their own traditions.

211
Lowell Bean, “Indians of California: Diverse and Complex Peoples,” in “Indians of
California,” California History 71, no. 3 (Fall, 1992): 302-323.

212
Bean, 316-317.
92

When the missionaries arrived in the region, they found a people who possessed
great musical talents and a passion for performance. Largely because of this, the task of
training them to become mission musicians was made much easier. In order to more fully
examine how the mission Padres accomplished this training, it is first necessary to
examine the indigenous music of the region and what musical skills the indigenous
musicians possessed prior to their training at the missions.

Reconstructing an Oral Tradition
Since the music of the Native Americans existed solely in the oral tradition, it is
not possible to reconstruct with certainty specific examples of this music, with the
exception of the few written examples recorded by observers after the initial European
contact.
213
Nor is it possible to determine specifically how these skills were taught,
beyond the assumption that they were learned by rote through communal performance
and apprenticeship. Yet, general information can be reconstructed by correlating evidence
from three distinct types of sources.
Observations recorded during the mission period by persons such as the
missionaries, colonists, traveling merchants, and explorers can provide anecdotal
descriptions of the sound of the music, as well as its context in Native American life.

213
See the discussion of Arroyo de la Cuesta’s works in chapter 1 and under the heading “Arroyo
de la Cuesta’s Transcriptions” in the present chapter. Further studies of early written records of indigenous
music will be also cited later in the present chapter.
93

Writings such as the Interrogatorio responses
214
and other contemporaneous chronicles
are excellent sources of descriptions of the music by those who heard it firsthand.
Artifacts excavated from archeological sites can provide information about the
physical objects used in music making. Samples and photographs of instruments used to
perform this music are available in the collections of several museums such as the Phoebe
A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology, the Gene Autry Museum, the Southwest Museum,
and the Smithsonian Institution, and images of them are available in various publications.
More recent performances by Native American musicians, i.e., recordings made
from as early as the late nineteenth century to the present-day, can demonstrate what
music in the more recent past sounded like. The earlier recordings feature musicians who
were alive during or shortly after the mission period, or are descended from those who
were alive during it. So, despite years of influence through cultural interaction, much of
the original traditions still remain intact in their practices. In addition to recordings,
present-day musicians have contributed their knowledge of this music in the form of
interviews with this author.

Instruments
Information about the musical instruments used by indigenous peoples of
California can be obtained by examining the many surviving samples in archeological

214
See the discussion of the Interrogatorio in chapters 1 and 2, and forthcoming citations of
specific responses pertaining to the musical elements in the Native American music of the mission region.
94

collections. Additional information can be obtained by analyzing descriptions by
contemporaneous observers—how the instruments were played, and how they sounded.
Some of the archeological artifacts available can be played in order to determine
their sound. Those that are too fragile to be played can be analyzed to determine what
sounds they are capable of making. Reproductions can also be made that match
archeological samples and/or that correspond to descriptions by contemporaneous
observers or present-day artisans who have learned their craft through the oral tradition.
Despite claims made in the Interrogatorio responses from missions Santa Clara
and San Jose, which state that the Native Americans had no instruments of their own,
215

the responses are replete with descriptions of them and how they were used in music
making. There are numerous mentions of flutes, whistles, rattles, and split-stick clappers.
In addition, there are isolated descriptions of horns and bows. In general, the instruments
described fall into two categories: those used to enhance the rhythmic and metrical
structure of the music, and those that participated in melodic structures. Of the former
category, there are non-pitched percussion instruments (idiophones) and pitched
instruments (aerophones and chordophones), both used in a repetitive rhythmic fashion.
Of the latter category, there are aerophones and the voice. The following paragraphs will

215
It is possible that these Padres did not recognize Native American instruments such as the
rattle, clapper or whistle in their musical contexts because of their dissimilarity to European instruments. Or
the authors of these responses simply might not have allowed themselves to be exposed to Native American
music, choosing not to associate themselves with what they would have considered pagan music. Or for the
latter reason, they might have chosen not to mention such music, given that the audience of their responses
was made up of Church administrators. (These same Padres noted examples of Native American music
elsewhere in their responses, albeit it in derogatory terms.) But given the preponderance of descriptions of
instruments at other (some nearby) missions, it is likely that these comments were not accurate.
95

address each of the instruments mentioned in the sources relevant to this study, adding
examples of the same from the archeological record.

Non-pitched (Rhythmic) Instruments
The use of various parts of the body to create rhythmic sound is common to most
cultures. Clapping, snapping, slapping and stomping are simple gestures that can enhance
rhythmic structures and alter vocal utterances. The fact that the human anatomy features
limbs in mirror image allows for the use of left and right hands and feet to create rapid
repetition and varied accentuation. The latter is particularly true when preference of hand
is considered, where the preferred hand (and perhaps foot) will have a tendency to strike
harder or faster, creating rudimentary figures of variable volume and duration. When
combined with dance, these rhythmic gestures can further articulate movements, and
highlight the two-phased motions of back-and-forth, side-to-side, and up-down. Thus, the
body as a percussion instrument may be one of the most significant factors, alongside
linguistic scansion, in the arrangement of rhythm in music.
The response from mission San Fernando simply mentions that the Native
Americans used small sticks as percussion instruments; presumably beat against some
object or other sticks to create their sound. George Herzog mentions that the Diegueño
beat bunches of sticks together to accompany songs. He also states that “[they] use sticks
96

in the whirling dance. The dancer rests upon them and signals for faster singing by
striking the sticks rapidly together.”
216

Various rattles and shakers are mentioned throughout the written sources,
including gourds, turtle shells (filled with pebbles, sand or seeds), cocoons and seed pods
(tied to the end of a stick, as in figure 6 below), and animal hooves (bound to a stick).

Figure 6: Maidu cocoon rattle. Source: Roland Dixon, “Cocoon-rattle” in The Northern
Maidu (New York: American Museum of Natural History, 1905), 222, figure 58b. Image
No. 50-1595 courtesy of the American Museum of Natural History. Used by permission.

The response from mission San Juan Bautista describes a type of rattle consisting
of a stick with a gourd attached to one end, filled with pebbles or sand, while the
response from mission San Diego simply describes a “timbrel with a disagreeable
sound.” Herzog notes the frequent use by the Diegueños of the xal әmá (gourd rattle) and
axuál (turtle shell rattle) to accompany dancing. He also mentions the use of the tasíl,
tasíl (deer hoof rattle) in mourning rituals.
217

216
Herzog, 189.

217
Herzog, 185-190.
97

Most responses mention a split-stick clapper used to accompany dancing. The
response to the Interrogatorio from mission San Juan Bautista includes a drawing
showing how the stick was split nearly through, with the non-split end reinforced by
sinews tied around it. The response from mission San Carlos likens its appearance to a
distaff.
218
The non-split end was held in one hand and the split end was beat against the
other hand, a leg, the ground, or some other object to the beat of the dance.
Pablo Tac, a Luiseño convert, provides a drawing in his memoir of Luiseño
dancers holding what appear to be sticks and clappers played in a manner similar to that
described above. The drawing is shown below in figure 7.

218
A distaff is a spool used to collect spun thread from a spinning wheel. The simplest designs
featured a piece of wood split into two or more fork-shaped prongs at one end through and around which
the thread would be wound to create a ball.
98

Figure 7: Luiseño dancers. Source: Pablo Tac, Indian Life and Customs at Mission San
Luis Rey: a Record of California Mission Life by Pablo Tac, an Indian Neophyte Written
about 1835, ed. and trans. Minna Hewes and Gordon Hewes (San Luis Rey, CA: Old
Mission Press, 1958), plate 3. Courtesy of the San Luis Rey Band of Mission Indians.

The dancer on the left holds two sticks in his right hand. The dancer on the right holds
one in each hand. The latter sticks appear thicker, possibly split clappers. The drawing
illustrates that the dancers played simultaneously, while dancing.
Juan Crespí describes the use of the split-stick clapper during a Chumash
ceremony as follows:
Toward evening, the chiefs of each town came, one after the other, all in their
finery of paints and feather ornaments, holding in their hands split reeds, the
motion and noise of which served them to keep time in their chants and dances.
This they performed so well and so uniformly that it sounded vary harmonious.
219

219
Crespí, Saturday, entry dated August 19, 1769. This same quotation appears in a larger
quotation in chapter 2.
99

Figure 8 below shows a sketch of a split-stick clapper collected from the Northern
Maidu. It matches the description of such clappers throughout the region with the
addition of an ornamental tassel.

Figure 8: Maidu split-stick clapper. Source: Roland Dixon, “Clapper-rattle” in The
Northern Maidu (New York: American Museum of Natural History, 1905), 222, figure
58a. Image No. 50-3134a courtesy of the American Museum of Natural History. Used by
permission.

Herzog describes two means of using baskets as percussion instruments: by
scraping or by striking with two sticks held together in one hand.
220
The sound would
result from a combination of effects: the basket being scraped or struck, and the sticks
striking each other.
Derrick Lehmer is quoted in Ray and Engbeck as he describes the Miwok plank
drum, which consists of a plank of cedar or red wood that is placed over a hole in the

220
Herzog, 189.
100

ground and danced or stomped upon, creating a “throbbing roar that fits in well with the
lyric swing of the songs.”
221
Heizer and Elsasser note that that the Miwok also use a
drum made of a hollowed out piece of sycamore, six to seven feet long, which is beat
upon with heaving objects.
222

Quasi-pitched (Rhythmic) Instruments
Many sources refer to instruments that are capable of producing pitches or quasi-
pitches, but because these pitches are either fixed incidentally or difficult to maintain at a
steady frequency, these instruments function less as melodic instruments (if at all) and
more to enhance the rhythmic aspects of the music. They include the following.
The bullroarer consists of a flat piece of wood, narrow in one dimension and long
in the other, tied to a string or sinew that is long enough to allow the piece of wood to be
swung in a circular motion. As the wood increases in speed through the air, it begins to
spin at an steady frequency, creating an audible pitch corresponding to the rotational
speed. Depending on the shape and size of the bullroarer, and the number of notches in it,
it can have a low, undulating or rumbling sound, or a high, hissing or buzzing sound. See
figure 9 below. This example is eight and three tenths inches (21 cm) long, yielding mid
to upper-ranging pitches.

221
Ray and Engbeck,13.

222
Heizer and Elsasser, 41.
101

Figure 9: Yokut bullroarer. Source: Bullroarer, Chukchansi Yokut, 1905. Copyright ©
Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology and the Regents of the University of
California. Photograph by unknown photographer, Catalogue No. 1-4035. Used by
permission.

Herzog notes that the xotát (bullroarer, in the Yuman language) is used to
summon the people to ceremonies. Yuman bullroarers were about a yard long with
notches, making them look like the feathers on an arrow.
The response from mission San Antonio mentions that the Native Americans used
a bow made of a stick, strung with animal sinew. It was played in a manner similar to a
Jew’s harp, where one end of the bow is placed against the player’s teeth, the mouth
providing the resonance chamber, while the player plucks or strikes the bow sinew with a
stick, altering the size and shape of the mouth opening and the position of the tongue and
soft palette to enhance the overtones above the fundamental pitch.
223
It is conceivable,
also, that the player could adjust the tension of the sinew by straightening or bending the
bow or by pressing on the sinew itself with the non-plucking hand in order to change the
tension on the sinew, thereby changing the fundamental pitch. Whether this instrument

223
George Emanuels, California Indians: An Illustrated Guide (Walnut Creek, CA: Kings River
Press, 1993), 120.
102

was used as a melodic instrument cannot be known for certain. However, given its
simplicity, it is likely that it functioned to enhance the metrical structure of the music,
and/or as a harmonic drone.
Crespí refers to “horns” in his statement cited in the previous chapter.
224

Furthermore, the response from mission San Fernando records that the Native Americans
there used a type of “cornet.” It is not clear, however, whether the response refers to a
European horn or a Native American horn made of a conch shell, such as those known to
exist in Southern California particularly among the Chumash people of the Channel
Islands. However, since Crespí was describing a first contact experience, he likely does
refer to the latter. This instrument is capable of only one fundamental pitch determined
by the size of the shell, with overtones being created by changing the volume of airflow
into the instrument or the tension on the embouchure; thus, it would not be used as a
melodic instrument. It could provide a drone, creating a form of polyphony (though no
such music is described in the sources available) or to provide a tuning pitch for voices. It
could also be used to call people to a ceremony and to enhance rhythmic elements of
music. Crespí’s frustration at the “infernal noise” is likely motivated by such a use.
The same response mentions that “…like boys, [the Native Americans] make a
little noise with the stem of a wheat straw.”
225
It is not clear from this description how the

224
Crespí, Monday, August 14, 1769.

225
Juan Bautista Sancho and Pedro Cabot, response to the Interrogatorio, February 20, 1814,
“Preguntas y Respuestas,” Santa Bárbara Mission Archive-Library.
103

stem was played: whether blown directly into or transversely, whether cut, forming a
double reed, or a fipple,
226
or whether folded and blown between the two sides.
Descriptions of whistles are plentiful. The responses from missions San Fernando,
San Gabriel, and San Buenaventura note that they are made of a deer’s shinbone. The
response from mission San Juan Bautista has them made of goose bones, and that from
mission Santa Ines suggests a wing bone. Most responses state that whistles were used
during dances. The responses from mission San Gabriel suggests that both flute and
whistle were used together to accompany dancing.
An addition, whistles made of the leg bones of birds and sometimes deer are
plentiful in the archeological record.
227
They consisted of a segment of hollowed-out
bone with a hole carved through to the hollow center on one side of the midpoint or near
the end of the bone. Some whistles had one end permanently plugged with tar.
228
In
some cases, as many as three whistles were strapped together, making it possible to play
multiple pitches simultaneously.
Whistles were played by blowing across the hole creating a pan flute-like pitch.
Like all transverse airflow instruments, it would have been possible to articulate tones in

226
A fipple is the square or semi circular hole near the blown end of a tubular wind instrument
such as a recorder, with an angled ramp opposite the blown end that serves to direct some of the air flow
out of the tube, creating periodic changes in air pressure and thus, a tone.

227
Examples from the Gene Autry Museum in Los Angeles, the Pheobe A. Hearst Museum of
Anthropology in Berkeley, and the Fowler Museum of Cultural History at UCLA were examined by this
author.

228
Rosalind Perry, et al., California’s Chumash Indians: A Project of the Santa Barbara Museum
of Natural History Education Center, ed. Lynne McCall and Rosalind Perry (San Luis Obispo, CA: EZ
Nature Books, 1986), 26-28.
104

various ways including tongued attacks and cut-offs, flutter-tonguing, slurred attacks and
cut-offs, etc. In addition to the fundamental pitch, it would have been possible to play
harmonics and to bend the pitch by altering the volume of air used or by using the
embouchure to manipulate the angle of air flow. Pitch could have been further
manipulated by stopping or unstopping one or both ends of the bone. Few whistles have
consistent pitches or intervals. However, it is conceivable that they could have provided
some melodic or harmonic function, perhaps a pedal tone (or tones) around which unison
melodies were centered, i.e. a form of tonality, albeit different from whistle to whistle.
Figure 10 below shows a sketch of a double whistle collected from the Maidu.

Figure 10: Bound bone whistle. Source: Roland Dixon, “Bird-bone whistle” in The
Northern Maidu (New York: American Museum of Natural History, 1905), 221, figure
57b. Image 50-1613 courtesy of the American Museum of Natural History. Used by
permission.

This whistle features a fippled shaped hole carved near the open end. By blowing directly
into the open end, a tone is created in the same way as a recorder or modern whistle. It
could also have been played by blowing transversely, while stopping or unstopping the
holes to manipulate the fundamental pitches.
105

Pitched (Melodic) Instruments
Instruments that are capable of producing specific pitches in order to perform
melodies include the human voice, the reed oboe, the flageolet (or recorder), and the
flute. The ability of the voice to create a variety of sounds is the same among all humans.
Yet, linguistic and stylistic differences between cultural groups yield a wide variety of
vocal techniques and resulting timbres. The voice can be used to create both pitched, non-
pitched, or quasi-pitched sounds. Thus, like some of the other instruments mentioned
herein, it fulfills a dual role as both a melodic instrument, via singing, and an instrument
used to enhance rhythm, via speaking, yelling, hollering, crying or imitating other sounds
such as animals or even other instruments. Descriptions of indigenous vocal technique
and timbre vary greatly, describing both its actual sound and also the aesthetic perception
of the sound.
Contemporaneous observers report extreme differences between the vocal
technique used by the Native Americans in the mission regions as opposed to Europeans.
Though they do not compare the two directly, they assume the European style to be the
norm, imbuing their comments with that bias; thus, many observations seem derogatory,
yet they provide valuable information.
Describing the vocal tone of the Native Americans, the responses to the
Interrogatorio describe “shouts during dances,”
229
“disagreeable voices,”
230
“cries and

229
Feilpe Arroyo de la Cuesta, response to the Interrogatorio, May 1, 1814, “Preguntas y
Respuestas,” Santa Bárbara Mission Archive-Library.

230
Juan Amorós , response to the Interrogatorio, February 3, 1814, “Preguntas y Respuestas,”
Santa Bárbara Mission Archive-Library.
106

yells,”
231
“[chants that] to a great extent proceed from a forced throat,”
232
and declare that
“They do not sing when they go on the war path but shout.”
233

Recordings made during the early twentieth century and examples of recent
performance practice reveal a range of diverse vocal timbres used. Richard Keeling
describes the vocal tone of the Yurok as resembling “sobbing,” with much tension,
tremolo, nasality and the use of glissando.
234
Bruno Nettl, on the other hand, notes that
the vocal style of the California-Yumans is relaxed, approximating that of European
“cultivated” music.
235
Lehmer, referring to recordings he made of the Miwok, describes
them as, “born lyricist….If a Miwok uses a kind of recitative in his storytelling, his songs
are usually very logically phrased—in a way that more or less resembles the question and
answer phrase we are so accustomed to.” He also describes the use of vocables
(nonsensical syllables) in singing, and notes that “…those of us who are accustomed to
the harsh gutturals of eastern tribes will be surprised at the liquid flow of the Miwok
syllables.”
236

231
Magín Catalá and José Viader, , response to the Interrogatorio, November 7, 1814, “Preguntas
y Respuestas,” Santa Bárbara Mission Archive-Library.

232
Narciso Durán and Buenaventura Fortuny, response to the Interrogatorio, November 7, 1814,
“Preguntas y Respuestas,” Santa Bárbara Mission Archive-Library.

233
Ramón Abella and Juan Sainz de Lucio, response to the Interrogatorio, November 11, 1814,
“Preguntas y Respuestas,” Santa Bárbara Mission Archive-Library.

234
Richard Keeling, “Music and Culture History among the Yoruk and Neighboring Tribes of
Northwestern California,” Journal of Anthropological Research 48, no. 1 (Spring, 1992): 27-28.

235
Bruno Nettl, “North American Indian Musical Styles,” 359; and Nettl, “Stylistic Variety,” 4.

236
Derrick Lehmer, quoted in Ray and Engbeck, 13.
107

George Herzog’s 1927 study of Yuman and Diegueño music found a similar
variety of vocal techniques. He states that descending runs often employed legato or
glissandi. The vibrato is soft, and there is “no guttural tension and sudden, forceful
expulsion of breath. Singers sing in tune, maintaining that tuning for the duration of a
song. Grunting, shouting, or calling out words is used in certain songs, but as a form of
rhythmic accompaniment, separate from the singing.”
237
Herzog observes in some songs
the use of strong vocal accents to heighten the rhythmic accompaniment. He also notes a
technique used occasionally in which a long note will be ornamented by the quick
repetition of a single pitch.
238

Present-day practice is equally as diverse as the above. Examples of the
performance of Native American music live, as at powwows, or on recordings include
nearly every one of the techniques mentioned above, depending on the region and type of
music. Given that many recordings were made as early as the 1890s by musicians who
were alive during the era in question (or whose parents or grandparents were) and that
present-day performance is similar to those, it is logical to assume that modern practice
has retained many, if not most of the elements of vocal technique used during the mission
era.
In 1815, at the gubernatorial inauguration of Pablo Vicente Solá at mission San
Carlos, the local Native Americans performed a traditional ceremony accompanied by an

237
Herzog, 190-191.

238
Ibid., 198. This technique is not unlike the Baroque ribattuta di gola in which a singer creates a
well-articulated series of quick, short notes on a single pitch to ornament a long note.
108

instrument called a chirimías (reed oboe). Warkentin describes it as an oboe “made of
heavy sections of reed with holes in them.”
239
According to the historian Juan Alvarado,
They arranged themselves across the front of the plaza and, at the sound of the
chirimías, the leaders began first to leap about…the musicians of all the tribes,
who were branches of the great Esselen people, played Indian dances and all the
Indian men and women took part in the dancing…
240

This instrument is made by cutting the end of a thick reed to form a double reed
and cutting holes into the reed chamber to create stops. The fact that it is capable of
definite pitches suggests that it was a melodic instrument. It is also possible that this is
the instrument previously referred to as “Straw,” making it one of the instruments that
acts to enhance rhythmic rather than perform melodic structures.
The response from mission San Antonio refers to a flute with eleven holes.
Kroeber suggests that this instrument is actually the flageolet (or recorder).
241
Since a
player would only have ten fingers, the eleventh hole would be the fipple, or rather a hole
with a wooden piece strapped over it to create a thin passage between the blown end and
the tube chamber, serving to direct some of the air flow into and some of it out of the tube
like a fipple. Similar instruments among the Native Americans in the plains of central
North America would have the above mentioned wooden piece carved into animal shapes
such as a bird. Such instruments, as shown in figure 11 below, were known to be used by

239
Warkentin, 46.

240
Juan Alvarado, “History of California, 1769-1847, “ vol. 1, manuscript, Bancroft Library,
University of California, Berkeley, 54, quoted in Warkentin, 46-47 (ellipses added by this author).

241
Alfred Kroeber, The Constituents of the Native Languages of California (Berkeley: University
of California Press, 1911), 157.
109

the Mohave in the Colorado River area, but not by coastal tribes. It is possible that they
may have been borrowed from the neighboring Mohave by the Diegueños or
Gabrieleños, who were known to interact with them. The example shown in figure 11
features a wooden piece strapped over the “fipple” hole (not shown) and ornamented with
silk ribbon. It has three holes.

Figure 11: Mohave flageolet. Source: Flageolot, Mohave, 1904. Copyright © Phoebe A.
Hearst Museum of Anthropology and the Regents of the University of California.
Photograph by unknown photographer, Catalogue No. 1-13854. Used by permission.

Flutes are mentioned specifically in several Interrogatorio responses. Those from
missions San Fernando and San Luis Obispo state that they are made of elder wood.
Missions Santa Ines and San Buenaventura simply mention wood, and others suggest
bone. The responses from missions San Carlos, San Antonio, and San Gabriel liken their
sound to that of a recorder. Sancho and Cabot at mission San Antonio state that the flutes
are open at both ends, are three to five hand breadths long (approximately twelve to
110

fifteen inches [30.5-38.1 cm]
242
), and have eleven holes, although they may have more or
fewer
243
. They further state that the flute plays instrumental pieces, all in the same meter,
the majority of which are cheerful. However, the response from mission San Miguel
declares that such an instrument is one “…that does not merit, in my judgment, the name
of flute;” and Tapís and Uría, at mission Santa Ines suggest that such a flute “…makes a
disagreeable buzzing in the ear…”
244
Examples of flutes can be found in numerous
archeological collections. Such flutes are made of hollowed-out elderberry wood or bird
or deer bone, open at both ends. They typically have four holes drilled through to the
hollow center. The player blows across one open end, creating the fundamental pitch,
then stops or leaves open one or more of the holes in order to alter the pitch. Herzog
observed this same type of wilwíl (flute, in the Yuman language) in 1927, when he
recorded Yuman music. He, along with Heizer and Elsasser, notes that they had four
holes and were used by boys for courting.
245
However, Geiger quotes Pedro Fages, who
describes an instance in which flutes are used in pairs, along with various percussion

242
Russ Rowlett, How Many? A Dictionary of Units of Measurement (Chapel Hill, NC: University
of North Carolina Press, 2000), s.v. “Palm,” http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/units/introd.html (accessed
January 13, 2012). The handbreadth, or Palm is an archaic unit of measure meaning the width of the hand,
equivalent to three inches (7.5 cm).

243
See the discussion of the flageolet above.

244
It is possible that it refers to the reed oboe, rather than the flute.

245
Herzog, 183-231; and Heizer and Elsasser, 120-121.
111

instruments, to accompany ceremonial singing. This practice is confirmed by a similar
description in the response from mission San Gabriel.
246

Two present-day flute specialists, Antonio Flores and Ben Cunningham-
Summerfield,
247
provide the following information on the construction of the California
native elderberry wood flute (hereafter, the elder-flute) and how it is played:
Cunningham-Summerfield states that there is a great deal of variation in length, diameter,
wood thickness, and hole diameter in elder-flutes, even within the same region. He makes
flutes that are approximately eighteen inches (45.7 cm) long with four holes. Flores states
that the dimensions of an individual flute (and by extension its range) depended on the
maker and on the elderberry tree used to construct it. Newly grown branches on
elderberry trees have soft pith in the middle that hardens over time. As the branch
thickens, the tunnel containing the pith widens. A suitable branch for flute construction
would have a tunnel wide enough to be hollowed out by a straight stick: approximately
one quarter inch (0.6 cm) in diameter. Branches of this thickness have nodes at regular
intervals from which smaller twigs branch off, creating obstructions in the tunnel, and
between which the branches are fairly straight. The distance between these nodes on
branches of the correct thickness tends to be about ten inches (25.4 cm). Furthermore, the
traditional method of determining the desired length of a flute is by measuring the

246
Pedro Fages, “Report on the California Missions by Pedro Fages,” 1786, Bancroft Library,
University of California, Berkeley, in Geiger, “Serra,” 180.

247
Antonio Flores, interviewed by author, by phone, September 9, 2011, is a specialist in the
manufacture and performance of the elder-flute; and Ben Cunningham-Summerfield, interviewed by
author, by email, October 5, 2011, is an Elder of the Mountain Maidu and a singer and player of the elder-
flute.
112

distance from thumb to pinky finger when the hand is fully spread, a distance that for
most adult males is roughly the same as that between the nodes of a suitable elderberry
branch. Thus, this is the average maximum length of the elder-flutes that Flores makes.
Cunningham-Summerfield states that a dried segment of elder wood would be
hollowed out by using coals and a sharp stick to scrape out the soft pith. It would then be
cleaned out with a horse tail. He uses a modern variation of this by using a rat-tail file.
Once hollowed out, holes would be gored or burned through to the tunnel using a stone
drill (similar to a present-day auger
248
) or an ember of a toyon tree branch. Cunningham-
Summerfield uses a modern variation of this by heating a metal nail. The width of the
holes could not exceed the maximum width that could be covered by a finger, but tended
to be approximately equivalent to the width of the hollowed tunnel: one quarter inch (0.6
cm). The gap between holes on the flute was equivalent to the width of the thumb, which
for most adult males is just under an inch (2.5 cm). Flores states that the typical number
of holes was two to eight, and that the set of holes was usually just off the center of the
length of the flute.
The elder-flute can be played in such a way as to generate any specific frequency
within its range. Pitch could be manipulated by closing or partially closing holes in
various combinations, thus shortening or lengthening the effective length of the
instrument and generating fundamental pitches of frequencies corresponding to those
wave lengths, or by capitalizing on nodes at fractions of those wavelengths, creating

248
Examples of such drills can be found at the Gene Autry Museum, Los Angeles, as well as
numerous other museums and archives. Geiger, “Serra,” 179, notes that such drills, made of bone, were in
the possession of the Chumash.
113

overtones above the fundamental pitches. In addition, pitch could be manipulated by
variation in the embouchure, causing the air stream to be more or less focused or to cross
the opening of the flute at different angles. This would direct more or less air into the
instrument, affecting internal air pressure and thus, pitch. Subtle variations in the degree
of hole closure also allowed for minute changes in fundamental frequency, making pitch
bending possible, as well as microtonal pitches “between” those resulting naturally from
open or completely closed holes. Furthermore, changes in the volume and speed of
airflow across the flute opening by blowing softer or harder could change pitch in subtle
ways by changing the air pressure significantly enough to enhance overtones more than
fundamental pitches. In short, like the present-day European flute, the elder flute could be
made to play in nearly any tonal system and with a range sufficient to accommodate most
types of melodies.
249

Flores states that he is able to play nearly any melody on his flutes. He cites as
examples of possible melodies Brahms’s Lullaby and Gershwin’s Summertime, noting
that it is not the pitch system but the range that is the only limitation on pitch. He notes
that elder-flutes were played by blowing obliquely, at a forty-five degree angle and
slightly downward across one of the two open ends. Since the holes were typically off
center, the flute would have a different pitch system depending on which end was blown
into. The shorter end (the end with the shorter distance to the first hole) has the higher of
the two highest fundamental pitches. Thus, the player would be free to play in nearly any

249
This fact is confirmed by analyzing the pitch properties of specimens of such flutes. See figures
12 and 13 below, and appendix C.
114

tonal or modal system and any type of melody he desired. In terms of his improvisational
method, Cunningham-Summerfield states, “I just play how I feel and see what comes
out.” Figure 12 below shows an example of an elder-flute collected from the Mendocino
coastal area (likely Pomo).

Figure 12: Pomo elder-flute. Source: Pomo elderberry flute from Mendocino coastal area,
1901. Copyright © Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology and the Regents of the
University of California. Photograph by unknown photographer, Catalogue No. 1-103.
Used by permission.

This flute’s dimensions are ten and two tenths inches (25.9 cm) long by nine
tenths inches (2.2 cm) wide. Thus, its design matches Flores’s descriptions and relative
dimensions, with the exception of the recessed finger holes. They appear to have been
sawed by a more refined tool, perhaps reflecting developments in manufacturing
techniques in the post-mission era. Figure 13 below shows a larger version, like that of
Cunningham-Summerfield’s, being played by a Yuman musician, ca. 1870-1912.
115

Figure 13: Yuman playing an elder-flute. Source: Yuma Musician, Arizona, 1870-1912,
LC-DIG-ppmsca-08116, Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division
Washington, D.C. Photograph by I. W. Taber (Isaiah West). Image is in the public
domain.

The player blows at an oblique downward angle, using the index and middle
finger of each hand to cover each of the four holes. Assuming the man is adolescent to
adult size, the flute appears to be approximately fifteen to twenty inches (38.1-50.8 cm)
long. This design and method of playing matches that of the flutes created by
Cunningham-Summerfield.
Appendix C examines the acoustic properties of flutes with dimensions equal to
those in figures 12 and 13. Based on this examination, the Pomo flute shown would have
an effective “chromatic” range of E-flat
6
to C
8
, or an octave and a major sixth. The Yuma
flute would have one of D
5
to F-sharp
7
, or two octaves and a major third.
116

Genres
The aspects of mission era Native American music that do not involve physical
evidence are more difficult to reconstruct. The information below relies on historical
written evidence and on recordings and analyses of recent and present-day practices.
According to Yuman tradition, songs are dreamt into existence. They take the
form of series or suites, all on the same theme. Song series include those commemorating
animals, astronomical bodies, events, individuals, or “people” songs—those associated
with important life events, such as coming-of-age, marriage, or burial. Ceremonies are
designated for certain times of day, some lasting through the night or even through
several days, or for certain times throughout the year. Only special singers—often
elders—were allowed to sing certain songs. They were taught through apprenticeship in
order to prevent the songs from changing or being influenced by other songs.
250

Paul Parthun suggests that the contexts for performance fall into three large-scale
categories: social, ceremonial, and religious songs. Social songs consist of those for
public functions, such as powwows and meetings. Ceremonial songs consist of those that
are patriotic, memorial, or honorary. Religious songs are those that honor the
supernatural.
251

250
Herzog, 183-186.

251
Paul Parthun, “Tribal Music in North America,” Music Educators Journal 62, no. 5 (January,
1976): 44-45. He relates these categories to modern Native American music, noting that many present-day
Native Americans in the United States are Christian, and thus their religious songs are diverse, including
both European and Native American music.
117

Heizer and Elsasser further summarize the genres of songs common throughout
California. They include, in addition to the above, gambling songs, hunting songs,
puberty rites, songs with allusions to nature, nature spirits, flowers and other plants,
instruction songs, and non-vocal dance music.
252

Pablo Tac, writing in his memoir of 1840, describes the differences between the
dances of the indigenous peoples in the region of mission San Luis Rey:
The dance of the Yumans is almost always sad, and thus the song; the same of the
Diegueños. But we Luiseños have three principal kinds for men alone, because
women have others, and they can never dance with the men. Three principal ones,
two for many, and the other for one, which is more difficult. Many can dance in
these two, and in this kind it is possible to dance day and night, and in the other
only at night.
253

Though his terminology is cryptic, it appears that he identifies the difference between
dances for (or to be performed by) men, women, and people as a whole, as well as dances
for (or to be performed by) specialists as opposed to the general public, and further,
dances to be performed at specific times of day. He continues to describe each type of
dance, and the process of apprenticeship, which appears to be the preferred method of
music education, at least among the “specialists:”
No one can dance without permission of the elders, and he must be of the same
people, a youth of ten and more years. The elders, before doing the dances
publicly, teach them the song and make them learn perfectly, because the dance
consists in knowing the song, because they act according to the song. According
to the song he makes as many kicks, as many leaps as the singers make, who are
the old people, the old and others of the same people. When they have learned,
then they can perform the dance….

252
Heizer and Elsasser, 41-42.

253
Tac, 102.
118

The dancers in this dance can be as many as thirty, more or less. Going out
of the house, they turn their faces to the singers and begin to give kicks, but not
hard ones, because it is not the time, and when the song is finished the captain of
the dancers touching his feet cries, "Hu," and all fall silent. He again comes to the
singers and sings, and all dance, and at last cries, "Hu," and the singers fall silent
and they make the sound of the horse who is looking for his son. The sound hu
means nothing in our language, but the dancers understand that it means" be
silent." When the captain does not say, "Hu," the singers cannot be silent, and
they repeat and repeat the song until the captain wants them to stop. Then they go
before the singers and all the people who are watching them, and the captain of
the dancers sings and dances, and the others follow him. They dance in a circle,
kicking, and whoever gets tired stays in the middle of the circle and then follows
the other….
The second dance never pleases me, because whoever can cry more, cries;
whoever can leap, leaps, but always according to the song; and it very much
resembles the Spanish dance. There is an old singer who has a dead tortoise with a
little stick in the middle, and the hands, feet, head and tail are stopped up, and
little stones are put inside, and thus moving it gives its sound. And always they
dance through the night. They can dance among many. When they dance the old
ones throw wheat and maize at them, and here the women can dance too.
254

In 1841, Duflot de Mofras recorded a description of indigenous music and dance
which summarized much of the above as follows:
Most of the Indian ceremonies and festivals consist of various kinds of dances in
which the natives take keen delight. When dancing they are without clothes,
merely adorning their heads with feathers and painting their faces and bodies.
Men and women dance in separate groups. Music consists of miscellaneous
songs, often accompanied by drums and tortoise shells filled with small shells,
which serve to mark time. Many of these dances are extremely licentious; others
represent bear or deer hunts, or scenes from daily life such as starting off for war,
or the death hunt.
255

The Interrogatorio responses are replete with comments on how diverse the
Native American repertoire was. According to the responses from missions San Luis
Obispo, San Juan Bautista, San Buenaventura, San Antonio, and San Fernando, there

254
Ibid, 102-103.

255
Duflot de Mofras, quoted in Ray and Engbeck, 12.
119

were many different types of songs, some sorrowful, some joyous, depending on the
circumstances and purposes of the song and dance. There were songs performed alone
and tunes to accompany dance. There were instrumental pieces, presumably played alone
or to accompany dance. These descriptions seem to confirm the information presented
above.
The response from mission San Juan Bautista states that there were songs for
most activities, such as gambling, burials, healing, mocking enemies, going to war, and
hunting. Several responses note that there were different songs for men and women,
presumably to accompany or commemorate gender specific activities.
Rarely is there mention of music without some association with dance. The
variety of these comments suggests that dance was typically accompanied by music,
including instrumental music, vocal music, and the combination of the two. Dance music
would include accompaniment by whistles,
256
shouts, and percussion, all coordinated
with the beat of the dance. The response from Mission San Juan Bautista explains that
dancers often wore costumes, feathered headdresses, simulated wings, face and body
paint, frequently while imitating the gestures and activities of various animals, such as
the bear, coyote, and others.
Nellie Van der Grift Sanchez, a California resident during the mission era and
afterward, describes a scene in which a Native American ceremony was performed at a
Saturday night mission ball:

256
It is not clear here whether this means whistling (from the mouth) or the use of the bone whistle
described above. However, it is conceivable that it implies both or either.
120

Every Saturday at the missions the Indian neophytes had a ball…In 1824 Duhaut-
Chilly saw twelve mission Indians…dance in wonderful accord…. The orchestra
formed a half circle of women, surrounded by a row or two of onlookers. The
harmony was plaintive and wild, moving the nerves rather than the soul. While
the actors rested, a horn was blown to drive away evil spirits.
257

The orchestra here is presumed to be one in which various Native American instruments
are played, such in the description by Gerónimo Boscana in chapter 9 of Chinigchinich.
He lists among the instruments used to accompany dance hand clapping, whistles, skin
drums, and pebble-filled tortoise shell rattles.
258
The term harmony above likely refers to
the collective sound made by such instruments, not necessarily pitches, as would be the
case in relation to European music. Figure 14 below shows the ceremony performed at
the founding of mission San Francisco, painted by Louis Choris in 1815.

257
Nellie van der Grift Sanchez, Spanish Arcadia (San Francisco: Powell Publishing Co., 1929),
310 (ellipses added by this author), quoted in Warkentin, 48. Auguste Duhaut-Chilly was a French trader
and ship’s captain who spend the years 1827-1828 travelling along the California coast.

258
Gerónimo Boscana, Chinigchinich, Alfred Robinson, trans., New York, NY: Wiley and
Putnam, 1846, 39-40.
121

Detail image of one of the musicians:

Figure 14: Choris painting and detail. Source: Louis Choris, “Danse des Californiens à la
mission de st. Francisco,” 1815, Robert B. Honeyman, Jr. Collection of Early California
and Western American Pictorial Material,” 1963.002.1312-FR, Bancroft Library,
University of California, Berkeley. Courtesy of The Bancroft Library, University of
California, Berkeley. Used by permission.

The detail image shows a musician apparently beating together two sticks (possibly split-
stick clappers), in a manner consistent with the descriptions under that instrument’s
heading.
122

Compositional Elements
There is much contradiction in the Interrogatorio responses’ assessments of the
genres of the Native American repertoire. The one from mission San Antonio suggests
that the majority of it was happy. That from San Buenaventura suggests that they were
sorrowful. The response from mission San Gabriel describes the Native American
instruments as having a poignant sound, more suitable for eliciting melancholy feelings
than happiness. That from mission San Carlos suggests that both joyful and sorrowful
songs consisted of the same melodic nature. Differences of opinion on the subject may
suggest regional differences in the general emotional impact of the music. They may also
reflect cultural biases in which the missionaries assumed that some aspects of the
music—perhaps its modal quality, tempo, melodic gestures, or other such qualities—
represents emotional content that would be associated with that element by someone
brought up in European culture.
259
Or they may simply describe a varied repertoire, like
that of any culture.

Words
Most responses that include descriptions of the lyrics of Native American songs
mention that they consisted of simple words put together in short phrases, as at mission
San Carlos and Santa Ines. Those from missions San Antonio and San Buenaventura
further mention that some phrases have no concrete meaning, but simply list the names of

259
By comparison, note that a great many examples of non-Western music—numerous Jewish
folk tunes, for example—have a modal quality similar to the Western minor scale, but accompany joyous
occasions, a quality that may seem contradictory to those for whom the opposite would be standard.
123

things such as birds or places in the surrounding regions. The response from mission San
Jose goes further to state that they are “…hardly composed of complete human words.”
And the response from mission Santa Cruz suggests that the singers “…don’t articulate a
single word…” The response from mission San Juan Bautista sheds some light on these
observations. It records that many of the words sung were borrowed from other tribes,
and thus were incomprehensible to those who sang and heard them. Juan Amorós, in the
response from mission San Carlos provides additional clarification. He states that certain
syllables of words would be used as vocables (nonsense syllables) upon which a melody
would be sung. His response offered two examples, blending Spanish and Native
American languages, one from a song about the bellota (acorn), another from a song
about a ladrone (thief). He illustrates the melodic contours that occur during the vocables
with dotted lines (described here in brackets).
Bellota…a [rise-fall, rise-fall]…bellota
Mucha semilla
260
…a [rise-fall, rise-fall]...much semilla
Ladrone…e [rise-fall, rise-fall]…ladrone
Manco
261
…o [rise-fall, rise-fall]…manco

Herzog observed a number of songs that have nonsensical words or that are
adopted from other tribes having incomprehensible words. In the former case, the
nonsense words function as either rhythmic accentuation, using the sonic properties of
language as an instrument, or to mimic the sounds of the characters or situations in the

260
Much seed.

261
Maimed one.
124

song. In the latter case, a song might include a few foreign words, or may be entirely in a
foreign language.
262

Rhythm
There is a great deal of consistency among the responses in describing the
rhythmic elements of Native American music. Those from missions San Gabriel, San
Buenaventura, and Santa Clara state that the Native Americans observe the meter
263
with
exact precision. Many note that the split-stick clapper and gourd rattle were used to mark
time with consistency. Responses from missions Santa Ines and San Buenaventura note
that the music exhibits a uniform evenness (presumably of tempo). The response from
mission San Francisco records that “[t]hey keep good time for they have acquainted
themselves with the songs of the birds.” This comment could be interpreted to apply to
both rhythm and melody; that like bird song, the rhythmic and melodic elements consist
of motivic gestures repeated with regularity (perhaps in a consistent meter and tempo).

In Yuman music, rhythm tends to be of a consistent tempo, typically between
ninety-six and one hundred and twenty beats per minute. Beats are organized into duple
or triple metric units according to the text scansion. Songs with short and repetitive texts
often result in more consistent metric organizations. Those with longer, more elaborate
texts will have greater variety of metric structure. Metric units may remain constant
within a given section or motive of a song, but often change when a new melodic idea

262
Herzog, 185-188.

263
Presumably, this would imply the tempo, as well.
125

occurs. The result is a sound that resembles irregular or mixed meters such as five-eight
or seven-eight time. Herzog further notes that percussion instruments that have two
phases, such as baskets that are rubbed one way, then another, or rattles that are shaken in
a similar fashion, will result in unequal divisions of beats: long-short or short-long. They
may also create extra, rebound notes that sound in between beats or as quasi pick-up
notes, or create the sense of heterophony.
264
According to Parthun, in present-day
practice, metric structure tends to be more consistent within a song. However, he notes
that polyrhythm is common throughout the southwest. He further notes that heterophonic
variation is common amongst most North American Indian communities. This results in
the percussion instruments being just out of sync with or sounding as slight variations of
the voices. Rhythmic figures tend to have odd numbers of notes. Isorhythm is also
common.
265

Melody and Tonality
The Interrogatorio response from mission Santa Clara characterizes indigenous
song as “diabolical and extravagant songs of cries and yells for their dances cannot be
reduced to tones, not even to scales.” That from mission San Jose offers similar wording.
The use of the words “tones” and “scales” suggests that the music was non-pitched or
quasi-pitched, or that the pitches were not fixed, with regard to their intervallic
relationship. In fact, both could be true or false. This response highlights the dual role of

264
Herzog, 194-195.

265
Parthun, 34.
126

the voice in Native American music: that of both melodic and rhythmic instrument.
Perhaps the music that inspired this response was of a particular genre in which “cries
and yells” were suitable, whereas other types would call for pitched, melodic singing.
Herzog notes that pitch is not strictly fixed in the performances he observed, nor
is it limited to twelve tones per octave. He describes the melodies of the Yumans as
having a range of between a fifth and tenth. One note functions as tonic, not in a
harmonic sense, but rather as a returning point. The tonic tends to be the lowest note and
usually the final note. Melodies then arch above the tonic in fairly balanced proportions
between the ascending and descending portions. He notes that large intervals tend to be
consistent in distance, whereas smaller ones—seconds and thirds—tend to be ambiguous,
with shifting intonation. Tonal systems tend to fall into pentatonic patterns.
266
Parthun
notes that present-day melodies feature tonal centers, a range of a third to a seventh, with
pitches not strictly fixed, and glides and scoops being common.
267

Texture
Of all the elements of composition present in the music of the indigenous peoples
of the mission regions, texture seems the most consistent. According to the Interrogatorio
response from mission San Antonio, there were no independent polyphonic voices, only
octave doubling in groups (presumably between men and women or prepubescent boys).

The responses from missions San Gabriel and Santa Ines both claim that all performers

266
Herzog, 192.

267
Parthun, 37.
127

sing at the same time and well in tune.

The response from San Buenaventura describes
the singing as having a uniform evenness (presumably of pitch as well as tempo).

The
response from mission San Juan Bautista claims that the music does not have harmonic
consonances, suggesting that it is purely monophonic.

By contrast, Keeling, when describing the texture of the music of the Yurok and
other Northern California tribes in more recent times, suggests that it contains a melody
and bass part. Each of these has separate motives, but the voice with the melody
occasionally improvises based on the bass part, and vice versa. This type of polyphony is
not found in any other indigenous culture in California, except in isolated instances in
Diegueño singing, which features only sporadic polyphony. Keeling’s findings are based
on early twentieth century recordings. Since there is no concrete record of polyphonic
music in earlier sources, it is possible that this is either a feature exclusive to the
Diegueños and tribes in Northern California, or that it developed after the mission era.
268

Form Structure
Only the response from mission San Francisco addresses form specifically. It
states that “…it seems they sing but three or four stanzas of four lines on a single night
for they repeat them.” This statement highlights the repetitive nature of the music, as well
as the length of the ceremonies.

Herzog notes that thematically, songs tend to have a chief motive that is repeated
throughout. It is often contrasted by a “rise,” which is a contrasting section at a higher

268
Keeling, 28 and 39.
128

pitch level. The rise can be a variation of the chief motive or a digression from it. This
results in songs that tend to be in some form of binary: aa, aba, aab, abab, aaba, etc.,
where b may be a melodic digression or rise or both. He also notes the effect of call-and-
response form, which may involve a repetition of the call, as in aa, or a contrast to it, as
in ab. Nettl, in an article in which he summarizes Herzog’s work, notes that the rise may
be a literal transposition of the main melody. He also notes that the rise form is found in
one fifth of the songs from the region.
269

Present-day Native American music, according to Parthun, tends to be of three
formal structures: strophic, through-composed, or of the litany type. The latter type
features call and response, and thus simple binary: aa’. The rise form is also a well-used
feature, with repetitions of a theme being broken up by digressions: aaa-rise-aaa-
rise…
270

A survey of musical examples illustrating each of the above elements is,
unfortunately, not possible, given that this music was transmitted orally. However, a
limited number of examples were collected and notated by Felipe Arroyo de la Cuesta at
mission San Juan Bautista.
271
They represent some of the only examples of mission era
transcriptions. Other, later examples are also available, transcribed from recordings made
in the late eighteenth and early twentieth centuries.
272
Both sets of examples offer

269
Herzog, 193; and Nettl, “Stylistic Variety,” 4.

270
Parthun, 38-39.

271
See Arroyo de la Cuesta, Lengua de California and “Notebook.”

272
See Herzog; and Stevenson, “Wrttien Sources, Part 1” and “Written Sources, Part 2.”
129

valuable information, but both have their limitations. Arroyo de la Cuesta’s transcriptions
reflect the Padre’s self-proclaimed limited musical ability, as well as limitations in
notation methods. The later transcriptions deal with performance practices that, no doubt,
have been influenced by contact with European and American settlers. Nevertheless, they
are the best examples available.

Arroyo de la Cuesta’s Transcriptions
Felipe Arroyo de la Cuesta recorded in his principal works a number of Native
American melodies, scored in European notation. Robert Stevenson has written a study
on these sources, providing valuable transcriptions of several of Arroyo de la Cuesta’s
manuscripts.
273
Examples of them will be presented below, along with facsimiles from
the Bancroft Library, to illustrate some of the features described above.
Arroyo de la Cuesta’s “Lengua de California” contains music on pages thirty-one
through forty-five, most of it Latin liturgical music in canto llano style. However, several
pages contain Native American songs. Page forty-four, shown along with a transcription
by this author
274
in figure 15 below, includes four such melodies, two in the Yokut
language and two songs in the Mutsun language.

273
Stevenson, “Wrttien Sources, Part 1” and “Written Sources, Part 2.” In addition to Arroyo de la
Cuesta’s work, Stevenson includes excerpts of notated Native American music from throughout North
America.

274
This transcription and the one that follows in figure 16 attempts to maintain the inconsistent bar
lengths in staves two, three, four, five and seven, and augmentation dots added to two measures in staff
three. It is likely that these apparent rhythmic anomalies were Arroyo de la Cuesta’s attempt to represent
asymmetrical meters. Furthermore, due to the poor quality of the original document, some of the text is not
readable. In such cases, a question mark appears in brackets. When the text is questionable, such as in some
of the song texts, it appears in italics.
130

Figure 15: Arroyo de la Cuesta, “Lengua de California.” Sources: Felipe Arroyo de la
Cuesta, “Lengua de California : Santa Ynez, Calif., 1837,” BANC MSS C-C 63a,
Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, microfilm, p. 44 (detail). Courtesy
of The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. Used by permission. Partial
transcriptions by this author, 2012.

131

Figure 15, continued

132

The page begins with the remainder of a liturgical chant, continued from a
different page,
275
followed by the Native American melodies. The first, In soyo in soyo (I
see you), a hiding song, begins in the second staff and is dated 1810. The second begins
in the fourth staff and is dated 1814. Stevenson explains that Arroyo de la Cuesta claims
to have learned these from the Tulareños (Spanish name for the Yokuts who inhabit the
eastern Central Valley). The final staff contains two additional Mutsun melodies,
beginning with “Lathrica.”
276
Between the fifth and sixth staves, Arroyo de la Cuesta
pens the following phrase: “Todo esso he oido mil veces, y he acompañado cantando á
los Pages y Muchachas,”
277
which serves as the epigraph for the present work.
The melodies set the texts syllabically. Rhythmic values are limited to two or
three values: quarter, eighth, or sixteenth notes. The implied meter, where not indicated
by bar lines, suggest groups of two and three beats based on repetitive motives and
words. Measure lengths are inconsistently irregular. From the metric organization, one
can deduce the accentuation of the text. The melodies are narrow in range, with the first
and last notes being the lowest pitch or most frequent low pitch, and the remaining
melody rising above it. This conforms to the written descriptions of indigenous music
described above.

275
The previous page ends with the text from verse three of the Psalm of David (number 7:
Psalmus David), followed by a non-texted staff in C clef, presumably an unfinished verse 4. Yet, the Latin
text on this page does not appear to be from that psalm. It is possible that, like so many manuscripts from
the missions, the chant began on a page with insufficient room to complete it, and continued on the next
available space—this page.

276
Stevenson, “Indian Music Until 1882, Part 1,” 12.

277
“[Herein is] all that I have heard a thousand times, and have with the the boys and girls).”
133

On page forty-five, Arroyo de la Cuesta annotates his transcription as a “Cancion
q.
e
oi año 1808 apenas llegué a esta Misión.”
278
Figure 16 below shows a facsimile of
this page, followed by a transcription by this author.
Next page: Figure 16: Arroyo de la Cuesta, “Lengua de California.” Sources: Felipe
Arroyo de la Cuesta, “Lengua de California : Santa Ynez, Calif., 1837,” BANC MSS C-C
63a, Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, microfilm, p. 45 (detail).
Courtesy of The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley. Used by
permission. Transcription by this author, 2012.

278
Song which I heard in 1808 just after arriving at this Mission [San Juan Bautista].
134

135

Stevenson goes on to describe that staves three and four were collected in 1822 and 1810,
respectively. By cross-referencing them with A Vocabulary or Phrase Book of the
Mutsun Language,
279
Stevenson surmises that the song Ole e (beginning on staff four)
was a song about someone losing at gambling; and Ayi ayu (beginning in staff six), which
has the annotation: “Esta Cancion es del Pais, y lengua Mutsun,”
280
describes an animal
caught in a trap.
These melodies are narrow in range, encompassing only a sixth, fifth, fourth, and
octave, respectively. Texts are set syllabically, with a few instances of two notes that set
one syllable. Rhythms are limited to three values, transcribed as quarter, eighth and
sixteenth notes. Arroyo de la Cuesta provides bar lines, presumably to indicate
accentuation of the text. Bar lengths are mostly inconsistent as are note groupings. The
lowest pitch tends to be the first and last note, with the melodies tending to arch above it.
Motivic figures consist of repeated pitches and intervals, some resembling arpeggiated
patterns. An inventory of the pitches of each melody yields apparent tonal structures:
modes or gapped scales, such as the pentatonic scales common in many of the world’s
indigenous musics.
Though Arroyo de la Cuesta does not provide information regarding the
performance venues of these songs, their repetitive structures lend themselves well to
accompaniment with percussion and performance during dance. Furthermore, given their

279
This song is from this place, and in the Mutsun language.

280
Stevenson, “Indian Music Until 1882, Part 1,” 12.
136

short texts and limited range, these songs could be learned efficiently, making them ideal
for communal performance.

Herzog’s Transcriptions
While Arroyo de la Cuesta’s manuscripts provide an invaluable look at several of
the melodies actually performed during the mission era, later transcriptions have been
made by several authors. In 1928, for example, George Herzog collected samples of
Yuman music by means of phonograph recordings. He published his findings in his
article “The Yuman Musical Style,”
281
which provides detailed analyses of the melodies
and a summary of their overall style. Given that these melodies were passed down
through generations who may have lived during the mission era, they can serve as
examples, alongside those of Arroyo de la Cuesta, of what the indigenous music of
California actually sounded like in the past. Figure 17 below presents two Diegueño
songs, one from the Wildcat Series, the other from the Adolescent Girls’ Ceremony.
Next page: Figure 17: Two Diegueño songs. Source: George Herzog, “The Yuman
Musical Style,” The Journal of American Folklore 41, no. 160 (April-January, 1928) 217
and 222. Used with permission of the American Folklore Society.
Note: symbols appearing in the score are to be interpreted as follows:
+ and – indicate pitches that are slightly higher or lower than those scored
Inverted fermatas indicate notes that are slightly shorter than those scored
Doubled slurs indicate glissandos
Doubled staccato points indicate that repeated notes are to be inserted at the same pitch and in the time
spaned by the note scored
Vertical brackets indicate passages that are added or omitted during subsequent repetitions
a/2 signifies the first half of a
The number 1 under a horizontal bracket indicates the point at which an arbitrary repetition may start
Headless note stems indicate quasi-pitched vocal articulations

281
Herzog, 183-231.
137

From the Wildcat Series:

From the Adolescent Girls’ Ceremony:

The Wildcat Series is a song adopted from the Yumans. Thus, the words would
have been incomprehensible to most of the Diegueños. The series from which it comes
138

would be accompanied by gourd rattle, and danced by men only, while women and
children observed. It would have been performed at any time for entertainment. The
second song entitled Adolescent Girls’ Ceremony was original to the Diegueños. It would
have been performed by both men and women during a girl’s coming-of-age
ceremony.
282

Both songs exhibit similar characteristics. The texts are set syllabically, with a
few instances of two notes setting one syllable. Phrases are short, allowing for efficient
repetition. The rhythms reflect the accentuation of the text, grouped in twos and threes,
forming irregular metric units. The last pitch of each section is the lowest, and the
melodies arch above it. The set of all used pitches resembles gapped scales. The formal
structure, though subject to arbitrary alteration by partial repetition or addition of
sections, allows for varied strophic or binary form.

A Skilled People
The indigenous peoples of Alta California had distinct musical talents, some of
which were advantageous for the learning of Western music, while others seemed (to
some contemporaneous observers) the opposite. The mission Padres capitalized on the
former, while (sadly) often attempting to repress the latter.
283
The Interrogatorio
responses provide frequent characterizations of the musical aptitude of their Native

282
Herzog, 186.

283
Had more of the missionaries attempted to learn Native American music as some did Native
American languages, they undoubtedly would have provided a more thorough written record of that music,
not to mention that they may have been more effective in their efforts to bridge the gap between cultures.
139

American converts. Many communicate a decidedly negative assessment, but others
record a great many assets among the talents of the indigenous peoples.
From mission Santa Clara, the response states, “No Indian is a lover of music.”

The response from mission San Carlos describes the missionaries’ reaction to the types of
songs performed by the Native Americans: they “admonish and chastise them for using
songs of hostility, which often result in fights.” (See the response from mission Santa
Clara in appendix A for a lengthier discussion of the negative perceptions of indigenous
music by the missionaries.)

Regarding their perception of the sound of indigenous instruments, the
missionaries had much to say. The response from mission San Diego describes a “timbrel
with a disagreeable sound.” That from mission San Buenaventura describes a whistle that
“they cause to shriek and trill while at the same time they perform violent, strange and
ridiculous contortions of the body [during dances].” It goes on to state that “their songs
are weird and, as a rule, more fit to produce gloom than cheer.”
By contrast, some of the comments in the responses are quite complimentary,
especially when describing the talents of the Native Americans. The one from mission
Soledad claims that they have a “fondness for music of every kind.” From missions San
Antonio, San Juan Bautista, San Miguel, and Santa Ines, the responses use similar words
to express that the Native Americans have a great deal of musical talent. The responses
from missions San Juan Bautista and San Buenaventura state that they are “very attracted
to instrumental music and singing” and from mission San Fernando, the response states
that they are “attracted to and use Western stringed and wind instruments.” That from
140

mission San Luis Rey declares “…our music pleases the neophytes greatly, particularly
the sad and melodious type.” The response from mission San Antonio compliments them
for their clear voices, stating that “all have good ears, both men and women.”
This diversity of responses makes clear the fact that assessment of the quality of
the music of one culture by members of another is problematic. This might best be
considered in light of the following argument posed by John Blacking:
Perception of sonic order, whether it be innate or learned, or both, must be in the
mind before it merges as music…Sonic order may be created incidentally as a
result of principles of organization that are nonmusical or extramusical, such as
the selection of equidistantly spaced holes on a flute or frets on a stringed
instrument.
284

Blacking refers to the fact that the conditions surrounding the creation and
performance of music are what initially shape that music. In this case, the salient features
of how instruments are constructed lead to music of a certain sound. This sound then
becomes assimilated and subsequently part of the tradition.
285
Blacking offers additional
clarification as follows:
People’s responses to music cannot be fully explained without some reference to
their experiences in the culture of which the notes are signs and symbols. If a
piece of music moves a variety of listeners, it is probably not because of its
outward form but because of what the form means to each listener in terms of
human experience. The same piece of music may move different people in the
same sort of way, but for different reasons…Even if a person describes musical
experiences in the technical language of music, he is in fact describing emotional
experience which he has learned to associate with particular patterns of sound.
286

284
John Blacking, How Musical is Man?, Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1973, 10-11.

285
Take equal temperament as an example. Listeners used to it would find other tunings
disturbing. Pythagorean tuning, for example, has well tuned fifths, but the thirds sound “out of tune” when
compared to equal temperament. But that does not make the Pythagorean system, or music that is
conceived within it, bad. It is simply different.

286
Blacking, 52.
141

The sounds of the instruments and the elements of composition used in indigenous music
sounded strange to the missionaries only because they had a different concept of what is
normal. Hypothetically speaking, if any one element had been in common, say the vocal
timbre, it may have served as a translator, so to speak, making the music comprehensible
by virtue of that one common element—the thing that members of both cultures had
become accustomed. Blacking offers further perspective:
The essential differences between music in one society and another may be social
and not musical. If English music may seem to be more complex than Venda
music [of South Africa] and practiced by a smaller number of people, it is because
of the consequences of the division of labor in society, and not because the
English are less musical or their music is cognitively more complex. There are not
more or less things for an individual to learn in different societies, and in the
context of each culture they are not basically more or less difficult. There are
more or fewer different fields in which to learn. It is neither easier nor more
difficult to be a Bushman than an American. It is different…An African ‘folk’
song is not necessarily less intellectual than a symphony: the apparent simplicity
of sound produced may conceal complex processes of generation…
287

When compared to the contemporaneous music of Europe, and even of the older
Spanish colonies in the Americans, mission music can seem almost juvenile. But when
one considers the function of that music, its audience, including who was to perform it
and what was needed to make that performance possible, it is entirely appropriate.
Likewise, the indigenous music of the mission regions reflected every aspect of Native
American life, especially the need for communal experience and the reverence for the
recited word. When viewed from that perspective, this music has more in common with
European music, especially liturgical music, than it has differences.

287
Ibid. Also see Theodor Göllner, “Two Polyphonic Passions” cited in chapter 2 for a similar
discussion of the apparent simplicity of mission music.
142

Aptitude for Music
Given the above, the Native Americans of the mission regions possess musical
skills that were highly developed. Whether or not the missionaries realized it, this made
their task of training mission musicians more achievable. As an illustration of this
concept, the following paragraphs will highlight the musical skills of the Native
Americans that were beneficial to their ability to learn and perform music, both their own
music and that of the mission.
They were able to memorize large repertoires readily. This was largely made
possible through the use of musical forms to set texts. They were at ease with repetitive
forms such as call and response. They were also able to improvise based on established
patterns of form, rhythm, meter, and tonal systems. They were expert at combining
multiple simultaneous activities, including singing and playing, as well as dancing. They
were able to sing in tune in monophonic chanting and keep steady tempi, unifying textual
and metric accentuation, and coordinating singing with instrumental accompaniment.
They appreciated diversity in instruments, favoring a great variety of timbres and timbral
combinations. They were familiar with the effects of dynamic changes associated with
changes in instruments of different volumes and timbres and how this could be used to
enhance important phrases. And they were familiar with the effects of combining voices
and instruments in different numbers to achieve contrast. They were excellent
craftspeople, using tools they made from available materials to manipulate other
materials into varied instruments. They knew the value of apprenticeship with revered
143

masters, and the value of practice. They also valued the role of leadership in group
performance.
In order to thrive, a community needs the coordinated efforts of all of its
members. This requires a mechanism for collective activity. For the indigenous peoples
of California, this mechanism was ceremony, combining storytelling and the recitation of
sacred words with music and dance to form a vehicle for shared experience. Ceremony
became the time piece for these communities, marking of days and seasons, life events
and religious experiences. Out of this tradition they developed music and honed their
skills at performing it.
When the missionaries arrived, this legacy may have been the catalyst that
allowed missionary work to succeed. Chapter 4 will document the methods by which the
missionaries trained mission musicians and how these methods were enhanced because of
the aptitude for music possessed by their Native American converts.

144

CHAPTER 4: AN INNOVATIVE APPROACH

The introduction to this work asserts that a viable method for music education
must show that its use leads students from where they are to where they need to be.
Chapter 2 shows where the Native American music trainees at the missions needed to be
by demonstrating what skills were required of mission musicians. Chapter 3 shows where
they were by demonstrating what skills they acquired through the performance of
indigenous music. Chapter 4 will show how they got there by surveying the methods used
by selected missionaries.

Where They Were
In the Preface to Owen da Silva’s Mission Music of California, John McGroarty
states, “In their pagan state [the Native Americans’] chants had been weird wails,
generally melancholic, and their instruments only the most simple rattles, bone or reed
whistles and flutes, crude timbrels and drums; but their innate abilities budded when the
missionaries brought them the melodious songs and perfected instruments of Spain.”
288

This statement reveals a strong cultural bias. McGroarty characterizes the apparent
simplicity of the Native American music as evidence that it is of lesser value to more
complex European music. Furthermore, he suggests that only through the performance of
more complex music can a musician’s potential be realized. In doing so he misrepresents

288
McGroarty, iii.
145

the quality and value of Native American music in its own right.
289
Despite this
oversight, he touches on one important fact: that the Native Americans had musical
talents that lent themselves well to the learning of European music. These talents are
summarized in the previous chapter, under the heading “A Skilled People.”
Several of the responses to the Interrogatorio address these skills as they apply to
musical training at the missions. The response from mission Santa Clara states that
“[they] learn quite well when one considers that they do not have skilled teachers.”
290

From mission San Juan Bautista, the response reads, “They learn with facility whatever is
taught to them.” And similarly from mission San Antonio, “[they] easily learn every kind
of singing taught: canto llano, metric canto figurado.” Comparable statements are found
in the responses from missions San Miguel and Santa Cruz. Given the skills the Native
Americans possessed prior to their training as mission musicians, their aptness for
learning new music is not surprising. There are many similarities in sound between their
music and mission music, especially with regard to melodic contour and phrasing.
Although the tonal and modal systems likely differed greatly, the presence of such
systems in the music of both cultures made the transition between the two more smooth.

289
See the discussion in the final section of chapter 3 including quotations from Blacking, How
Musical is Man, 52.

290
It is interesting to note that one of the authors of this response was José Viader who was
renowned among his colleagues for his ability to train instrumental musicians. Perhaps, like Durán and
Arroyo de la Cuesta, both of whom begin their principal musical works by explained what poor musicians
they are, this is a reflection of humility. Or knowing the degree of skill required of musicians in Europe,
perhaps he felt his would not measure up. The forthcoming chapter will show, however, that despite any
deficiencies these teachers may have possessed, their abilities to create musicians on a par with those of
Europe is well documented.
146

With regard to learning instrumental techniques, the response from mission San
Gabriel states that “some [of them] have talent and love for Western string and wind
instruments,” while that from mission San Luis Rey suggests that “[they] quickly learn
any instrument taught.” The responses from missions San Juan Bautista and Santa Ines
state that “[they] learn violin, cello, flute, guitar, bandola, and cello, contrabass, horn,
drum.” From missions San Buenaventura and Santa Ines, the responses read “they easily
learn by heart the sonatas that they happen to hear or that are taught to them.” That from
mission Santa Ines specifies that they make their own instruments. Presumably, given the
context above, this refers to European instruments. The response from mission San Juan
Bautista even declares that “they play on [European] musical instruments their heathen
pieces.”
Given the variety of indigenous instruments familiar to the Native Americans,
their success at learning instrumental technique is also not surprising. The fact that the
elder-flutes, for example, had similar ranges and timbres to the European flute and could
play similar tonal and modal patterns, may have contributed to their fondness for flutes
and flute music. No doubt other instruments had parallels as well, sharing similar sounds
and similar uses.

Where They Were Going
In the prologue to his “Choir book,” Durán admits that “[w]hen we arrived at this
Mission, the church singing was so pitiful that the Asperges, the only thing that the boys
sang, had neither feet nor head, and it seemed more of a howl than a song. They didn’t
147

even know how to respond ‘amen.’”
291
Durán quickly responded by devising a means by
which he could help the mission musicians achieve a much higher standard.
Mission musicians had to possess a great many skills to be successful:
292
they had
to be able to sing in the European style, with appropriate vocal technique for that
repertoire; they had to be able to play multiple instruments, in some cases those that they
made themselves; they had to be able to read text and music, realize harmonizations from
unfigured melodies and continuo parts, and provide appropriate ornamentation; they had
to perform for various occasions, devotional, liturgical, and dramatic; and they had to
memorize repertoire learned by rote and by reading scores, in many cases transcribed,
arranged, and perhaps even composed by the musicians themselves. A select few were
recruited to lead rehearsals and antiphonal singing in performance. Some were also
tapped as conductors.

How They Got There
Tolerance
When two cultures interact to the extent that one or both are changed by the other,
something is gained: elements of a new, blended culture; and something is lost: the
original two cultures, uninfluenced by each other. When one culture attempts to dominate
another by force, what is gained and what is lost tends to be out of balance. In the case of
the indigenous peoples of the mission region, whose musical arts were intertwined with

291
Russell, “Prelude,” 5.

292
See chapter 2 for a more thorough discussion of the topic.
148

every aspect of their cultural identity, they lost much: the knowledge of an oral history
and art form and in some cases their language. In pragmatic terms, what the Padres
gained was a labor force and the satisfaction of having “saved” the “heathens.” Where
music is concerned, though, they gained something else, something more subtle. Because
the Catholic Church was somewhat tolerant of native rituals that did not directly
contradict the Christian Doctrine, they allowed such rituals to continue, to some degree.
Native Americans were allowed to speak their languages outside of mission activities,
and to practice dance, storytelling, and musical performance, albeit in a much more
limited fashion. But the missionaries also allowed those activities to influence the
mission music they were attempting to teach. In isolated instances described in chapter 2
and below, the use of percussion, vernacular languages, and non-liturgical music during
church services was allowed to occur.
David Rex Galindo cites such an example of tolerance of a particular dance, the
mitote, at missions San Antonio and Purisima in Texas. Quoting from the Guidelines for
a Texas Mission: “When no superstition, no question of celebrating an enemy‘s death,
nor any sinful motive are present, then the mitote is not unlawful when done for mere
diversion, because among the Indians it is the same as the fandango among the
Spaniards.”
293
Similarly, Nellie van der Grift Sanchez notes that at California mission,

293
Bartolomé Castaño, Guidelines for a Texas Mission: Instructions for the Missionary of Mission
Concepción in San Antonio: Transcript of the Spanish Original and English Version based on the
translation by Fr. Benedict Leutenegger, O.F.M, 4 ed., vol. 1, 37, ed. Howard Benoist and María Eva
Flores, quoted in David Rex Galindo, “Propaganda Fide: Training Franciscan Missionaries in New Spain”
(PhD dissertation, Southern Methodist University, 2010), 382-383.
149

“[e]very Saturday at the missions the Indian neophytes had a ball [consisting of their
music].”
294

Another example of the acceptance of indigenous cultural practices is evident in
the way in which several mission structures are oriented in space. The reader may recall
the review of the work of Rubén Mendoza in chapter 1. The following quotation
describes further details in support of his theories:
Significantly, the sandstone church and three prior chapels constructed in the
period extending from 1771 through 1793 [in Mexico] were all oriented on an
azimuth bearing with specific reference to the midsummer solstice sun. Since that
time I have documented a sizeable number of astronomically and liturgically
significant solar arrays for some twelve California missions, fifteen New Mexico
churches, two Texas sites, and Fray Serra's parish church at Santiago Jalpan,
Queretaro, Mexico; and the equinoctial illumination of the side altar tabernacles
of the Metropolitan Cathedral in Mexico City…. Where California alone is
concerned, midsummer and midwinter solstice, equinox, and patronal feast day
illuminations have since been documented in terms of astronomically significant
azimuth bearings for each of the mission and colonial-era churches in question.
295

If one assumes that these forms of tolerance were more wide-spread than the few
written records and theories suggest, then their influence on European music and culture
was certainly significant. The fact that the Padres had to alter or invent pedagogical

294
Nellie van der Grift Sanchez, Spanish Arcadia (San Francisco: Powell Publishing Co., 1929),
310 (ellipses added by this author), quoted in Warkentin, 48. See chapter 3 for a larger quotation.

295
Rubén Mendoza, “Hispanic Sacred Geometry and the Architecture of the Divine,” Journal of
the Southwest, Vol. 48, No. , Pre-Euclidian Geometry in the Design of Mission Churches of the Spanish
Borderlands (Winter, 2006), pp. iii-xiv, ix-x, available online at http://www.jstor.org/stable/40170442
(accessed December 22, 2011). In a recent Los Angeles Times article, Mendoza’s theories were rebutted by
scholars who believe that these factors are simply coincidences, citing that the Padres would not have
catered to cultural events the Church would have considered pagan. However, Tina Foss, director of the
museum at Mission Santa Barbara, notes that the conversion of the Native Americans was “a synthesis
instead of a conquest.” Steve Chawkins, “Winter solstice means 'illumination' at California mission,” Los
Angeles Times, 12/22/11, LATExtra, Metro Desk, AA.1, available online at http://www.latimes.com/news/
local/la-me-illuminations-20111222,0,328880.story (accessed December 12, 2011).
150

techniques and repertoire for teaching in this environment resulted in a style of music that
was influenced by Native American music, not necessarily by its sound, but by its use.
296

The Spanish Imperial Government’s motivation for settling Alta California was
political: to prevent the Russians from doing the same.
297
The motivation of the
missionaries was, at least from their perspective, more sincere: to convert the indigenous
people to Christianity, a process that they fervently believed was just and of great benefit
to the newly baptized. Other studies have focused on the injustices that were suffered by
the Native Americans during this process.
298
This chapter, however, will focus on what
was gained in music, on the benefits of an environment where compromise led to
innovation.

Recruitment and Training
Prior to baptism, those who wished or were recruited to become Christians lived
at the mission and were given instruction in the Doctrina (the texts associated with the
basic tenets of the Church
299
) and Christian customs for a period of about two to three
months, during which they were expected to remain at the mission. If they stayed, they
were then baptized.
300

296
See Blacking, How Musical is Man, 52, cited in chapter 3.

297
Williams Summers, “California Mission Music,” California Mission Studies Association
Articles, http://www.ca-missions.org/oldsite/summers.html (accessed April 2, 2011).

298
See Sandos, Converting California and “Between Crucifix and Lance.”

299
See chapter 2.

300
Engelhardt, Mission San Gabriel, 34.
151

Zephyrin Engelhardt describes the process by which Native American boys were
recruited and trained as acolytes and musicians. Those that showed an aptitude and desire
for learning were recruited into the choir where they learned to recite the Doctrina and
sing chant. First they learned by rote. But later they were taught to read and write in
Spanish and Latin, as well as in music. Once they had developed a degree of proficiency,
they were made acolytes and would assist the priest at the altar and could lead public
devotional activities. Engelhardt also describes that the means by which novices and
children were punished for minor actions were less severe at first: “[The Padres] would
instruct, warn, admonish, and finally have recourse to such punishments as would
impress creatures so dull, coarse, and carnal, with the gravity of a deed or neglect of a
duty. The culprit would be locked up; but that was what he courted, because it relieved
him of work. He was also deprived of the privilege of visiting his relatives or friends in
the mountains, or forbidden to participate in a festivity or amusement.” He goes on to
describe the more severe misdeeds and punishments such as flogging and whipping for
those who had deserted the mission.
301

In Mission Purisima, Engelhardt goes into greater detail, noting that children over
the age of nine were instructed in the Doctrina. Women and girls were taught separately
from the men and boys. A period of instruction would precede Mass each morning at
which the children would recite the Doctrina from memory. These sessions would also
include the singing of hymns in Spanish. In the evening a similar session would include
the recitation of the Rosary, which included the Pater Noster, Ave Maria and the

301
Engelhardt, The Missions and Missionaries of California, Vol. II, 273.
152

Doxology. During processions, especially on Feast Days, the Salve Regina and Litany
were sung. The Alabado, a Spanish hymn of praise, was sung at the close of each
devotional session. Engelhardt further notes that this routine became so much a part of
mission life that the Native Americans continued its practice even after the missions were
secularized and the Padres left.
302

These and other principals were imparted to the mission trainees through daily
lessons. As in a monastery, where daily life is governed by three activities—work, study,
and prayer—the days at the missions were similarly regimented. Tac records that for
those still living outside the mission, work consisted of hunting and wood gathering, for
the men, while the women prepared food. He goes on to write:
[The man's] daughter stays with the women making shirts, and if these also have
sons and daughters, they stay in the mission, the sons at school to learn the
alphabet, and if they already know it, to learn the catechism, and if this also, to the
choir of singers, and if he was a singer, to work, because all the musical singers
work the day of work and Sunday to the choir to sing, but without a book, because
the teacher teaches them by memory, holding the book.
303

Zenas Leonard, an explorer, records that “for the instruction of these Indians there is four
hours of each day devoted to education and prayer, and the balance of the day is occupied
in teaching them the rudiments of agriculture and the mechanical arts.”
304

During their first lessons in Christian doctrine, children were taught by rote the
Pater Noster and Ave Maria in Spanish. Next they learned the Ten Commandments, and

302
Engelhardt, Mission Purisima, 29-80.

303
Tac, 101.

304
Zenas Leonard, Narrative of the Adventures of Zenas Leonard, March of America Facsimile
Series 69 (Ann Arbor: University Microfilms, Inc., 1966), 52, quoted in Warkentin, 49.
153

the remaining documents in the Doctrina Cristiana. These were recited every morning
and evening. Because the texts were in some cases long, and for the sake of the members
of the congregation who may not have been able to memorize as readily as the children,
the texts were introduced via musical settings. The Padre would sing one sentence, and
then have the congregation repeat it. Psalm tones were often the source of melody. Some
texts, such as the Ave Maria, were even set to popular Spanish melodies.
305
Thus, by rote
memory, using the simplest form of musical declamation, the doctrines of the church
were taught to the Native Americans. As a reward for success in memorizing these texts,
children would sometimes be rewarded with sweets. Later, the music itself would become
the reward.
306
Some observers were critical of the use (or overuse) of teaching by rote,
especially as a means to teach texts that would not have been understood in Spanish or
Latin. These objections will be dealt with in chapter 5, under the heading
“Shortcomings.”
King Carlos of Spain decreed in 1793 that elementary schools be established in
the colonies to educate the children in reading, writing, and Spanish. Engelhardt points
out that such schools were not set up at the missions for lack of teachers, though the
Padres continually requested funding to hire them, citing that their duties did not allow
adequate time for teaching.
307
The response to the Interrogatorio from mission San

305
See chapter 2.

306
McGroarty, vii.

307
Engelhardt, Mission Santa Barbara, 144.
154

Diego belies their frustration as it states that the children “would become proficient [in
reading and speaking Spanish] if they had someone to teach them.”
As a short-term solution to the language barrier, interpreters would be on hand to
repeat in the children’s native language what the Padre was teaching them in Spanish or
Latin. Some Padres were also fluent in some of the Native American languages of their
mission’s region.
308
Thus, they were able to interpret and translate many of the liturgical
and devotional texts into various languages. Examples exist in print in a number of
sources. For example, Padre Sitjar at mission San Antonio authored a dictionary of
phrases and grammar of the Mutsun language. In it he included liturgical texts, such as
the Pater Noster, translated into the Mutsun language.
309
Duflot de Mofras also recorded
the Pater Noster in Diegueño and Acágcheme (Juañeno) in Exploration D’Oregon,
310
and
Arroyo de la Cuesta created many translations in his works, as discussed in chapters 1
and 3.
During the process of teaching these texts, often through chant, the Padres would
pay close attention to the singing, and those boys who displayed an enthusiasm for it
were recruited into the choir, at which point, they were introduced to written notation.
311

Gormley notes that the mission musicians were trained in every aspect of music, as

308
Gerónimo Boscana at mission San Juan Capistrano, and Estevan Tapís and Felipe Arroyo de la
Cuesta at mission San Juan Bautista, for example.

309
Buenaventura Sitjar, Vocabulario de la Lengua de los Naturales de la Mision de San Antonio,
New York: Shea, 1861.

310
Mofras, Exploration D’Oregon, Vol. ii, 394, in Engelhardt, Mission San Diego, 133-134 and
Mission San Juan Capistrano, 245.

311
Engelhardt, Mission San Juan Bautista, 131.
155

would be the case in any European choral school. She quotes from an unpublished
translation of an article by William Summers, “Orígenes hispanos de la música nacional
de California,” which states the following:
Every element necessary for the formation of a mission capilla was looked after;
musicians, men and boys, were trained; musical instruments were purchased or
built; printed music books and manuscripts were brought up from the
motherhouse in Mexico; copyists were put to work making manuscript choir
books containing plainsong and polyphonic music, and copying parts for many
instrumentalists.
312

In Mexico, the organizational structure of the cathedral choir was well established
and therefore served as a model that was copied, to the extent possible, at the missions.
The maestro de capilla (choir master) oversaw multiple ensembles and engaged in all
aspects of administration and performance of music. Choir members were known as
cantores (singers), consisting of voice parts tiple (sopranos, either boys or less frequently,
castrati), alto, tenor, and baxo (bass). The choir also featured seises (literally, sixes,
referring to the typical number of choirboys), who were formally trained in music literacy
and composition by the Maestro de seises (Teacher of the six). In addition to the cantores
were the ministriles (instrumentalists), who performed the orchestral parts, continuo and
instrumental interludes.
313
At the missions, the roles of maestro de capilla and maestro
de seises, were usually performed by the same person (one of the Padres). Furthermore,

312
William Summers, “Orígenes hispanos de la música nacional de California,” unpublished
translation, 5, quoted in Gormley, 7.

313
Eladio Valenzuela III, “A Survey of Choral Music of Mexico During the Renaissance and
Baroque Periods,” master’s thesis, University of Texas at El Paso, 2010. This work is also an excellent
source of information on music in Mexico, and it provides analyses of selected scores.
156

as will be discussed later, musicians often fulfilled dual roles as singers and players,
sometimes simultaneously.

The Gamut
A large number of music theorists were active in describing the sacred music in
Spain and its colonies. Many published texts were in use in monasteries and choral
schools, including in the Americas, and in California.
314
Several theorists who traveled to
or were born in the Americas wrote such texts, citing the ideas of generations of revered
theorists such as Boethius, Zarlino, Tartini, and Guido d’Arezzo.
315
D’Arrezzo is of
particular interest to this study because of the use by the Padre-musicians of the
Guidonian hand: d’Arezzo’s technique for guiding singers through the pitches of the
gamut (the representation of the musical modes as hexachords) by pointing to different
knuckles of the hand.
316
Marcos y Navas’s text, Arte, ó compendio general del canto-
llano, figurado y organo… was one of those in use at the missions. It provides a detailed
description of how to employ Guido’s musical hand in the teaching of music. Figure 18
below shows Marcos y Navas’s rendition.

314
See chapter 1 for an introduction to three texts known to be in use at the missions.

315
See Flores for a thorough treatment of theorists active in New Spain.
316
For a more detailed description of the gamut and Guidonian hand, see appendix D.
157

Figure 18: Musical hand of Marcos y Navas. Source: Francisco Marcos y Navas, “Mano
Musical,” in Arte, ó compendio general del canto-llano, figurado y organo… (Madrid:
Joseph Doblado, 1716), 3, MT860.M37 1776, Santa Bárbara Mission Archive-Library.
Photograph by Brian Burd. Used by permission.

Figure 19 below shows a variation of this featured in a fresco that is painted on
the wall of the music room at mission San Antonio. The only difference between the two
versions is the type of clefs used. In Marcos y Navas’s Hand, the then-modern bass, alto
and treble clefs are used, whereas, in the mission fresco, the more archaic clefs are used.

The cited image is intentionally omitted.

Note: in order to prevent the
inappropriate distribution of the
cited image, its copyright holder,
Santa Bárbara Mission Archive-
Library, has requested that it not
appear in the digital version of this
work. The reader is encouraged to
view the original document at the
Santa Bárbara Mission Archive-
Library. In addition, this author
assures the reader that the image in
figure 19 below is similar in most
respects to the cited image, except
for those characteristics described in
the text below.

158

Figure 19: Musical hand at Mission San Antonio. Source: Paul Johnson, ed., The
California Missions: A Pictorial History (Lane Magazine & Book Company, Menlo
Park, CA, 1964), 94. Photograph by John Robinson/Sunset Publishing. Used by
permission.

In both versions, the pitches of the gamut are numbered one through twenty-one, from
lowest to highest. The solfège syllables for each hexachord are printed on the appropriate
knuckle. To allow for mutation, multiple syllables are printed on some knuckles. Also of
note in figure 19 are the musical instruments displayed on the walls. Though clearly
staged for the photo, these are either authentic instruments made by mission era Native
Americans or copies of them. The violin appears to be the 1798 Carabajal instrument
cited in chapter 2 (with the mythological animal head on its scroll—unfortunately not
visible at this level of detail).

159

Narciso Durán
Alfred Robinson characterizes Durán as “…a remarkable old man…generous and
kind, and benevolent, the natives not only revered him as their spiritual father and friend,
but seemed almost to adore him. He is universally beloved, and the neighboring village
bore testimony to his charitable heart, while many a transient traveler blessed him and
thanked God that such a man existed among them.”
317

Early in his tenure at mission San Jose, Durán noticed of the boys in the choir that
though a few of them could sing the repertoire adequately, others simply followed. Thus,
if the leaders were to become sick, or their voices were to change, or they were to miss a
rehearsal because they had misbehaved, the choir could not function. He also noted that
teaching by rote was very inefficient, since the boys had difficulty memorizing large
amounts of repertoire. He further noted that many of the musicians performed out of
tune.
318
What he needed to do, therefore, was teach them how to read music and audiate
it in order to perform it properly. As he put it, “What is most needed at a Mission is
teaching the young boys the sacred chant by means of rules and principles so that one
doesn’t have to depend on committing everything to memory…not just two or three
among the ten to twelve choirboys, but all or most of them…”
319

Durán begins the prologue to his “Choir book” by stating that he is not a music
teacher, nor does he fully understand the music theory that governs the composition of

317
Robinson, Life in California, 103.

318
Durán, in Russell, “Prelude,” 7.

319
Ibid.
160

chant. Later in the prologue, he states that his method “is not based so much on expert
authority, but instead arises from necessity…”
320

He continues by explaining that his method of composition is simplified for the
sake of ease of teaching and learning. To avoid confusion regarding the changing clefs to
indicate changes of mode, he opts for the “arbitrary” method of using only the F clef. He
justifies this by noting that he “doesn’t have to write for the maestros.” Consequently, to
effect change between modes he uses accidentals, rather than clefs and changes of tonic,
effectively creating a fixed-tonic system.
321

To further facilitate the quick learning of the music, he sets nearly all of his pieces
in mode 1, stating: “Likewise, I need to point out that the Introits, Alleluias, and
Communions are all in the same mode or key….in Mode 1, conforming to or in imitation
of the Gaudeamus (which is the one that I have heard celebrated): except the Introits for
Ash Wednesday and Holy Week, for which I thought it more in keeping with the Spirit of
the Church in the mysteries of these days to set them in mode 4. The Alleluias and
Communions of the year are in Mode 6 for the same reason…”
322

He notes the difficulty in teaching the difference in sound of altered pitches using
fixed solfège , because the changes are not reflected in the syllables. For example, in
fa=ut (F as tonic), the fourth “step” of the hexachord (B-flat) would be termed “fa-
minor,” but sung as fa. If it were altered to B-natural, it would be termed “fa-major,” but

320
Russell, “Prelude,” 5 and 9.

321
Ibid., 8-9.

322
Ibid., 13.
161

still sung as fa. The problem is solved in the present day by the use of altered syllables: fa
would become fi. But because that system was not available to him (and because he did
not choose to use the hexachord mutation process,
323
perhaps because of its seeming
complexity), he choses a different solution. Instead, he advocates for his students
becoming literate so that they can see the alteration simultaneously while singing the
“neutral” fa syllable.
Durán’s solution to the problem of intonation was to teach instrumental music so
that his students could associate pitch intervals with the mechanical changes necessary to
accommodate them on an instrument. He declares: “I mandated that there would never be
a distinction between instrumentalists and singers, but that hands and mouth should do
the task that was assigned to them.” Thus, he insists that instruments always accompany
the singing. As an example he suggests the use of two cellos while singing the Requiem.
This approach had two advantages. First, it helped to maintain the voices at a steady pitch
level; and second, it allowed his students to use the distance on the fingerboard as a
training tool for hearing pitch, or in his words, “so that seeing the distances that the notes
have from one another on the instruments in the positioning of the fingers, they might
acquire some idea of the same distance that the notes in singing have from one another in
the various modulations of the voice.” He further mandates that each musician sing while
playing an instrument. It is not clear from his statement whether he intends this to be true

323
In the example above, the fa=ut hexachord would be sung do-re-mi-fa-so-la (F, G, A, B-flat, C
, D). To accommodate ficta (the B-natural), it would mutate to the gamma=ut hexachord (G = do and B =
mi). Thus, it might be sung: do-re=do-re-mi-fa. The reader may note that explained this way (theoretically,
rather than practically), it may be difficult to understand. So apparently did Durán, thus he abandoned the
system in favor of what he felt was more straightforward.
162

during the performance of music in church, but he does specifically state it should be
done while performing the “natural” (diatonic) scale, followed by the chromatic scale.
324

Following the prologue, Durán provides a few pages of such scales with
indications of how they are to be interpreted and performance. Figure 20 below shows
two of these pages, folios B-verso (reverse of B) and C.
Figure 20: Durán scales. Source: Durán, “Choir book in Gregorian form: ms., 1813 / by
Fr. Narciso Duran for use of the neophytes of Mission San Jose,” BANC C-C 59,
Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, microfilm, ff. Bv-C. Photograph by
unknown WPA photographer. Courtesy of The Bancroft Library, University of
California, Berkeley. Used by permission.

Folio Bv: Folio C:

324
Ibid., 7-8, 10.
163

In folio Bv, Durán’s instructions are not entirely readable. Yet, from what can be read
and seen, it is apparent that these folios present the diatonic and chromatic scale in F and
C, which are to be sung and played simultaneously.
The top margin of folio Bv begins “Escala tenera…”
325
The left side of staff five
reads, “Escala de puros puntos, naturales a reglar de mismos instrumentos.”
326
The left
side of staff seven reads: “Si esta de tonos menores transportarlas en fa.”
327
Then the
bottom of the page reads, “Noten y acuerdense siempre los musicos: que esta senal [two
flat signs] hace subir medio punto, y baxar uno entero: y este otro [two sharp signs] al
contrario hace subir punto entero, y baxar medio”
328
In other words, Durán explains that
to change between major and minor, raise or lower the third so that it forms a half or
whole step below fa. This page then teaches the chromatic alterations necessary to change
between major and minor in the keys of C and F.
The top margin of folio C reads: “Escala general de todos los puntos del violon
desde Fa baxo de la La cuerda hasta La alto de la prima, subiendo y baxando de medio en

325
The meaning of this phrase is unclear. Escala means “scale.” However, tenera is not Spanish.
In Latin it means tender, perhaps referring to the soft hexachord, i.e., that having a flatted fa, as in fa=ut.
Or it could be tener a (to have to). The remainder of the phrase is mostly unreadable.

326
Scale of pure notes, naturals regulated [applied] to the same instruments.
327
If it is in minor tones, transpose to F.
328
Notice and remember always [you] musicians: this signal [two flats in a row means] to raise up
half a point [from the second to the third step], and get a whole [between third and fourth steps]: and this
one [two sharps in a row means that] the whole step opposite raises [to create a] half [step below fa].
164

medio punto, para los principiantes.”
329
Thus, it is simply a chromatic scale for cello (and
voice, in keeping with Durán’s philosophy of singing while playing).
Durán suggests an alternate tuning of the instruments to better suit the voice
ranges of his students. First, he advocates using the flute as pitch source, since its pitch is
fixed.
330
Then, he specifies that the fourth string of violin (normally G) should tune to
the open flute (D-flat), or alternatively to the pitch with all stops closed (E-flat), a major
third lower than standard.
331
So, one can assume that, though his scores were written in F,
they would sound a major third lower.
Durán further suggests playing D or A “minor” keys transposed to F or C, with
lowered thirds, as described on his scale sheets above. He suggests that the use of
transposition like this should be done to make it easier for players, subordinating the
voices to the instruments “and not the other way around” because the instruments have
fixed pitches, at least once they are tuned. In order to accomplish this, he uses flats in a
manner similar to the modern key signature, rather than clefs to represent the modes. He
specifies that accidentals are to remain in effect until the bar line, whereas the key
signature governs the whole composition, as in the modern system. He clarifies: “In these
afore mentioned [key] signatures I use no other accidental except a flat or sharp on B
[rather than the natural]; that is to say that a B-flat creates a sound like F-natural [fa in the

329
Overall scale of all notes of the cello from lowest fa to highest la, up and down by half steps for
beginners.

330
Note that these are wood flutes, without the removable head joints or slides that allow modern
flutes to be tuned. Thus, their pitch would only change subtly, due to changes in temperature and humidity.

331
Ibid., 11. Russell notes in a footnote that the one-stop flute, which was standard at the missions,
has an open pitch of D-flat, or E-flat with all stops closed (as Durán suggests).
165

hexachordal system], and a sharp before B sounds like an E-natural [mi in the
hexachordal system].”
332
Thus, some scores appear to have a B-sharp as a key signature
or accidental; whereas, Durán means for them to be interpreted as a cautionary B-natural
to differentiate them from the B-flat that would occur in F major.
He indicates meter signatures with letters (“C” for common time, ¢ for cut time,
as in the then-modern style), rather than numbers, and scores polyphonic music on six-
line staves allowing all four parts to be scored on a single staff.
333
In order to differentiate
the parts, varied colors and patterns are used, such as black, red, and yellow ink, and
outlined or filled in note heads. Durán also adds cue-sized notes for obligato parts.
334

(See chapter 2 for a more detailed description of these techniques.)
The fact that most of the Padre-musicians such as Durán, Tápis, and Sancho had
multiple copies of their choir books made shows their commitment to literacy. The act of
making such copies was labor and resource intensive. But given the desire to train literate
musicians, it was also necessary.
Durán sometimes puts parentheses around “optional notes” to accommodate the
voice range of his singers and specifies that boys with high voices take over for lower-
ranged singers when passages included sustained sections of high ranging pitches. He

332
Ibid., 11-13.

333
Ibid., 13.

334
McGroarty, xiii; and Russell, 96.
166

also specifies that instruments could be tuned a whole tone lower than normal
(presumably the D-flat open flute tone described above) to accommodate vocal ranges.
335

Durán’s settings of much of the liturgy, like many of his colleagues, feature
texture in alternatim (in alternation
336
). This required that more experienced musicians,
even soloists, would take the lead so that the larger, less experienced congregation could
follow. Furthermore, alternate verses of versified texts often would be performed in canto
llano vs. canto figurado style with more experienced singers performing the latter.
In terms of the musicians’ duties at the mission, Durán admits to having assigned
those who have talent to jobs that keep them close by to the church so that he can call
upon them for rehearsals and performances. Such jobs include: pages, weavers,
shoemakers, blacksmiths, etc., i.e. not farmers, trappers, or ranchers.
337

Successes
Largely because of these methods, Durán’s students became well-known for their
skill. The choir and orchestra from mission San Jose was admired by many who passed
through, including soldiers, governors, explorers, and settlers. But Durán was not alone.
Many of his colleagues experienced similar successes. And most of that success is owed
to the hard work of the mission musicians. The following are just a few examples of the
quality of musicianship that was fostered at the missions.

335
Russell, 92 and 97.
336
See the discussion of this technique in chapter 2.

337
Ibid., 15.
167

Many of the Interrogatorio responses record such triumphs. The responses from
missions San Antonio and San Francisco state that the mission musicians “play violin,
cello, flute, horn, drum, other instruments.” That from mission San Carlos states, “If they
dedicate themselves to the violin or the cello, they become quite distinguished at it, with
the advantage that even though they play in time, they also can sing using solfege
syllables.”

The response from mission San Jose states that “they perform at church functions
in a becoming and splendid manner in excess of what could have been expected when we
first came here.”

Those from missions San Antonio and San Miguel state that the mission
choirs sing in Spanish perfectly. Responses from missions Santa Clara, San Diego, and
San Buenaventura agree that they “succeed very well at being taught instrumental music
and singing in church,” and the response from mission San Jose goes on to specify that
this includes the styles of plainchant and figured music.

Missions San Jose and Santa Clara state that “they sing and play on fifteen (or
sixteen) violins and three cellos.”

The response from mission San Antonio claims that
they “can successfully perform in a choir, sing polyphonic Masses with separate,
independent melodic lines, as long as there are the necessary parts.” That from mission
San Carlos declares that “…the missionaries have nudged them over into the realm of
sacred music, and with such a favorable outcome, that there is an individual
338
who
affirms that many cathedrals don’t have such excellent church choirs and ensembles.”

338
Perhaps Duflot de Mofras or another such explorer.
168

Many California residents and visitors described the talents of individual mission
musicians in their memoirs and travel logs. Dorotea Valdes, a servant in Monterey,
describes in her diary the performance of a Native American singer from mission
Soledad, José el Cantor, at the funeral of Governor José Joachin de Arrillaga as follows:
His Excellency lies buried in the ex-mission of Soledad, his funeral was a very
imposing one, and was witnessed by hundreds of good citizens of Spain, the
missionaries of four missions, a great many Indians, and every soldier belonging
then to the Presidio of Monterey. At his funeral Jose el Cantor and upward of four
hundred neophytes kept up a continuous singing of the Miserere. By way of
digression I will observe, that Jose el Cantor, though then a young Indian was an
excellent singer, understood music and Latin of the church as well as any
priest.
339

Alvarado further describes the skill of José el Cantor as ensemble leader during the
inauguration of Governor Solá in 1815 at the church in Monterey:
More than thirty Indian musicians, assembled from the various missions and
specially trained for the occasion, preceded the group of friars. After the
musicians came about forty Indian singers. Both the musicians and the singers
were directed by the Indian “José el Cantor,” favorite pupil of Father Florencio
[Ibáñez].
340

339
Dorotea Valdez, “Dorotea Valdez Reminiscences: Monterey, Calif.; ms., 1874 June 27,”
BANC MSS C-E 65, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley, 1-2, quoted in Frances
Rand Smith, “The Mission of Nuestra Senora de la Soledad,” California Historical Society Quarterly, Vol.
23, No. 1 (Mar., 1944), pp. 1-18, California Historical Society, available online at http://www.jstor.org/stab
le/25155824 (accessed March 27, 2011). The governor had died at the mission after contracting an illness
while traveling in the area.

340
Juan Alvarado, “History of California, 1769-1847,” vol. 1, Bancroft Library, University of
California, Berkeley, quoted in Warkentin, 50.
169

In addition to el Cantor, Antero of mission Santa Barbara was revered for his great voice
and also his skill at the bass viol.
341
Luís Ansoyo was a revered bass and Venancio
Lablawinat was a noted contralto and choir leader at mission Santa Ines.
342

Other individuals record complimentary comments about the mission ensembles.
Tomás Esténaya, at mission San Francisco, stated in 1827 that the mission orchestra
consisted of eight violins, two bass-viols and two drums. In 1829, the Yankee
businessman, Alfred Robinson, observed Narciso Durán’s choir in a performance of two
works for a Feast Day Mass as follows:
Mass was soon commenced, and Padre Viader at the usual period of the ceremony
ascended the pulpit, and delivered an explanatory sermon relative to the
celebration of the day. The music was well executed, for it had been practiced
daily for more than two months under the particular supervision of Father Narciso
Durán. The number of the musicians was about thirty; the instruments performed
upon were violins, flutes, trumpets, and drums…”
343

Robert Louis Stevenson described the vocal tone of the Native American choirs as
follows: “The pronunciation was odd and nasal, the singing hurried and staccato.”
344
John
McGroarty comments on this by stating: “In execution possibly the only difference
between the singing of plainchant at the missions and in Europe was an unobjectionable
one, a timbre decidedly Indian.”
345

341
Hubert Howe Bancroft, California Pastoral, San Francisco, CA: The History Company, 1888,
234.

342
Engelhardt, Mission Santa Ines, Santa Barbara, CA: Mission Santa Barbara, 1932, 186.

343
Robinson, Life in California, 72, quoted in Halpin, “Activities and Ceremonies,” 38. See the
full quote in chapter 5.

344
Robert Louis Stevenson, 153.

345
McGroarty, xiii.
170

Still others record interesting and sometimes amusing facts about the missions.
The following were cited in chapter 2, but bear repetition here. Duflot de Mofras, in his
Exploration de L’Oregon, describes a Mass at mission Santa Cruz, September 14, 1841,
in which at the point of the Elevation, the orchestra played the Marseillaise and Long
Live Henry IV as a processional. He notes that the Padre informed him that the musicians
had learned the tunes from a barrel organ roll and harmonized it themselves.
346
It is
interesting to note that the harmonizations were created by the musicians themselves,
proving that they were adept at dictation and composition. Juan Alvarado praises the skill
of the Native American musicians.
Proof of the skills of the mission musicians was available as late is the early
twentieth century. In 1907, for example, during the restoration of mission Purisima, a
small ensemble of Native American musicians was assembled for the inaugural Mass.
These musicians played the instruments known to have been used during the mission
period: violin, flute, bass, and a triangle.
347
Robert Louis Stevenson recounts years
afterward a performance he heard in 1829 in which he laments the loss of the missions to
secularization, and admires the mission musicians who continue to perform mission
music on their own.
348

346
Mofras, Exploration de L’Oregon, Paris: Arthur Bertrand, 1844, 417, quoted in Robinson, Life
in California, 11.

347
Engelhardt, Mission Purisima, 131.

348
Robert Louis Stevenson, 153.
171

The legacy of the Padre-musicians, such as Narciso Durán and Felipe Arroyo de
la Cuesta, can be found today in the archives of the missions and various libraries
throughout the region, as well as in a growing number of editions of their music. As
scholars uncover more of it and make it available to performers, perhaps it will regain the
life it once had in the hands and mouths of the well-trained and fervent mission
musicians. Chapter 5 will show some of what is to be gained by present-day musicians,
teachers and historians through the study of this music and of the methods used to teach
it.
172

CHAPTER 5: REFINED GOLD

In 1552, Adrian Petit Coclico describes the curriculum used in the Burgundian
Cathedral choral schools as follows:
[The student will learn]…the musical hand [Guidonian solmization] or
scale…recognize the individual clef symbols; immediately thereafter he will
begin to practice solmization in plainsong or Gregorian chant , and to pronounce
musical syllables and their combinations in their order. To these he will add the
knowledge of the eight modes…Then he will recognize their signs, quantity, and
values, soon after, the shapes of notes, ligatures, points, pauses; afterwards, the
prolations, major and minor, augmentation, diminution, imperfections, alteration,
syncopation, at the same time as the beats and certain proportions of utility…He
will then begin to sing, not only as [the music] is written but also with
embellishments and to pronounce skillfully…[by this time] he can also have
learned counterpoint and composition.
349

The most effective aspect of this curriculum is its order of events. The student is
asked to improvise before he is taught to perform from written music. He is asked to
audiate musical sound by means of a protonotation (pre-written) system—solfège—
before he is taught to read and write music. Lastly, the student is taught music theory,
from the simplest to the most complex concepts. This order of events is analogous to that
used by Durán and his contemporaries at the California missions. It is also supported by
present-day research in the field of music education.

349
Adrian Petit Coclico, Compendium musices, 1552, quoted in Allan Atlas, Renaissance Music,
33, ellipses and text in brackets adapted by this author.
173

A Model Pedagogy
The Padre-musicians of the California missions understood what was necessary to
create a fully functioning mission and church. They knew what role music should play,
and based on what most of them wrote in the responses to the Interrogatorio, they also
knew what their students were capable of, recognizing their aptitude and love for music.
This led them to set attainable goals in terms of what they expected of their students.

Well-Sequenced Activities
The musical activities at the missions were carefully sequenced to allow for the
efficient mastery of the skills necessary to perform mission music.The teaching of
concepts prior to symbols, an idea later coined “sounds before signs” by the nineteenth
century pedagogue, Hoseph Naef,
350
is put into practice in several musical ways at the
missions. Durán notes in the prologue to his “Choir book” that all aspects of music were
taught in this manner until literacy was acquired: starting with the text, as above; then the
pitch, by means of pointing to the hand; then the rhythm, by imitation.
351
The use of
melodic imitation, first by phrases, then in antiphony and in Alternatim allows for the
quick acquisition of repertoire and rudimentary patterns, but also acculturates students to

350
Harold Abeles, Charles Hoffer, and Robert Klotman, Foundations of Music Education, 2
nd
ed.
(New York, NY: Schirmer, 1994), 100, document how Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi (1746-1827), who
taught orphans in Switzerland, was the “first to profess that concepts should be taught through direct
expression before the introduction of names and symbols.” They further document, on page 101, how
Hoseph Naef, who worked with Pestalozzi and established an American elementary school and in 1830,
outlines his tenets for music education, which include teaching “sounds before signs,” observation by
“hearing and imitating sounds,” teaching “one thing at a time,” requiring mastery of one topic before
moving to another, and teaching practice before theory.

351
Durán, “Preface;” in Halpin, “Activities and Ceremonies at Mission Santa Clara de Asís,” 40.
174

the musical elements relevant to that repertoire. Rhythmic and metric structures, tonality
and modality, and harmonic progressions that are exclusive to European music might be
completely foreign to someone from outside that culture, making the theoretical
understanding of that music difficult. However, by learning the repertoire first, the
eventual development of a theoretical understanding of the music is made more plausible.
Even the non-musical processes designed to train converts were beneficial to
music training. Engelhardt describes the first steps the Padres took in this regard as
follows:
The Padre Nuestro was accordingly sung in one loud tone without variation until
the end of a sentence, when a stop or inflection was made. Sometimes this prayer
would be sung after one of the psalm tones. Thus in a few days boys and girls
would be able to sing the prayer aloud and together.
352

It is also interesting to note that by teaching doctrinal texts by rote, even in some cases by
sound to those who did not speak Spanish, the missionaries used the theological
equivalent of teaching sounds before signs. In this case, they taught sound before
meaning—in a manner more similar to how language is first learned.
353
In terms of
theology, it might even be considered a form of dogma before understanding, a concept
that is certainly ripe for criticism, but is nonetheless very practical (and effective,
assuming “understanding” is eventually addressed).
The missionaries provided exercises for developing pitch matching skills. These
included the imitative singing described above, as well as singing colla parte with

352
Engelhardt, Mission San Juan Bautista, 21-22.

353
Critics of this method, however, suggest that it teaches mimicry, without understanding. See
the heading, “Shortcomings” below.
175

instruments, singing while playing, as in Durán’s techniques. Furthermore, singers would
often sing from memory, thereby matching imagined or perceived pitches with performed
pitches. The effectiveness of this practice is confirmed by Andrew Gregory, who notes
that performing on different instruments helps musicians differentiate between
contrapuntal voices by their different timbres.
354

Musicians were encouraged to play instruments, which involves a certain amount
of trial and error. Rudimentary drills and exercises designed to build technique required
the comparison of what the fingers were doing to the sound emanating from the
instrument, and furthermore to the intended sound. Playing scales and melodies from
memory allowed players to further evaluate this comparison.
Michael Rogers’s assertions that the learning of music theory and aural skills
acquisition is a process of mind training, a process of habit forming, of mastery rather
than learning. He advocates exercises such as those used at the missions—those that
encourage the automation of rudimentary skills—explaining that “…eventually the
information must be so totally engraved into the natural thinking grooves that responses
are swift, sure, and automatic.”
355
Rogers outlines an order of events for the study of the
fundamentals of music which is remarkably similar to that proposed by Coclico (quoted
at the beginning of this chapter) and that used at the missions:

354
Andrew Gregory, “Timbre and Auditory Streaming,” Music Perception 12 (1994): 161-74, in
Gary Karpinski, Aural Skills Acquisition: The Development of Listening, Reading, and Performing Skills in
College-Level Musicians (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000), 113.

355
Rogers, 18, and 34-35.
176

Fundamentals study occurs in three stages: (1) understanding the concept behind a
topic… (2) developing accuracy through practice; and (3) developing speed. The
culminating goal at this third level is fluency—a smooth and instant melding of
comprehension, precision, and quickness so that the desired information is always
confidently at one’s fingertips.
356

The use of familiar tunes in early stages of learning helped free the minds of the
students to deal with the fundamental patterns of the music without having to learn the
repertoire simultaneously. Thus, the use of indigenous melodies, such as those collected
by Arroyo de la Cuesta, along with Spanish folk tunes, patriotic songs, hymn-tunes,
psalm tones, and chants, all of which would become familiar to most residents of the
mission over time, was extremely valuable to the process of music education. Kemp and
and Mills suggest that such use of music that is familiar to students helps them find the
value of the music to their lives, and thus is an ideal form of instrinsic motivation for
them to achieve success.
357

Just as the mastery of performance skills before the mastery of decoding skills
(reading) is represented by the sounds before signs concept, so the mastery of theoretical
concepts in music should be acquired through experience before terminology is
introduced. This can be summed up in the phrase practice before theory. This concept is
embodied in several mission music education processes, as well.
Protonotation, the use of multi-modal representations of musical concepts prior to
notation, is especially prevalent at the missions. Solfège and the representation of the
gamut using solfège and the musical hand are two such examples. They were employed

356
Ibid., 35.

357
Anthony Kemp and Janet Mills, “Musical Potential,” 10, in Parncutt and McPherson, 3-16.
177

without the use of scores, often with scales and melodies that had previously been learned
by rote, to associate the experiential understanding of the sound with theoretical concepts
that would later be represented in notation. Eventually, the staff and clef would be
introduced along with notes and accidentals. Rhythmic and metric notation symbols
would follow. And all of these would first be presented in the simplified versions used for
chant and other monophonic melodies before they would be applied to multiple-part
music. Gary Karpinski points out the value of using such protonotation systems:
[The tonic] or do [ut in this case] becomes a convenient, almost intuitive name for
the tonic, once learned, it quickly facilitates communication about tonic
inference… and establishes a point of reference for hearing and performing tonal
music. Likewise, the internal consistency of scale-degree labels in each system—
once learned—provides a means of examining perception of scale-degree
functions and a tool with which to encode the symbols of tonal pitch notation.
358

Another important aspect of the training of mission musicians was the emphasis
on both interpretive and generative processes in music. While musicians were trained
extensively in sight reading and performance technique, they were also trained and
expected to practice various aspects of composition. They were regularly employed in
copying music to create multiple copies of choir books and parts. They were encouraged
to transcribe music, first by performing it through trial and error,
359
then by dictating it.
They were encouraged to transpose music, both for practical purposes (changing ranges

358
Karpinski, 57.

359
Gary McPherson, “The Assessment of Musical Performance: Development and Validation of
Five New Measures,” Psychology of Music 23 (1995): 142-161, in Karpinski, 192, points out that playing
via trial-and-error or “by ear” is yet another way to absorb the sound of a style before attempting to encode
it.
178

to fit different voices and instruments) and for didactic purposes.
360
They were
encouraged to explore orchestration by using various available instruments in
performance. They were known to have arranged various tunes for performance, as
described in chapters 2 and 4. Given this experience, it would be surprising if the Native
American musicians did not also compose music.
361
The principal advantage of the
encouragement of this creative side of music making is its ability to motivate students.
By becoming a part of the music, by participating in a process of creative expression, the
students were more likely to see the value in music that was created by others. Kenny and
Gellrich note, too, that such musical experimentation: arranging and improvisation; help
students practice archetypal knowledge—that which is learned otherwise only through
experience.
362

Many mission musicians were employed as instrument builders, as well as
performers, owing to the difficulties in acquiring instruments in such remote locations.
This would have afforded their makers the opportunities to explore the theoretical
systems used in music through acoustics. Just as learning instrumental technique creates a
kinesthetic process for understanding sound, so instrument building would provide a

360
Karpinski, 214-215, notes that transposition helps students learn intervals in and out of context,
where a single visual note may be heard in multiple contexts.

361
The absence of signed scores might seem to suggest otherwise, but it does not preclude the
possibility that such compositions were either not written down, were lost, or were scored anonymously.
Given the multitude of anonymous scores, this latter option is certainly worth consideration.

362
Barry Kenny and Martin Gellrich, “Improvisation,” 117-118, in Parncutt and McPherson, 117-
134.
179

more thorough understanding of how instrumental technique yields specific musical
sounds.
The advantages of such multi-modal and diverse methods were two-fold: they
helped put learning into context by enhancing one skill with another, and they helped the
musicians to become more intrinsically motivated in music. This approach allowed the
mission musicians to take ownership of something—a rare opportunity, given the often
oppressive conditions in which many were forced to live.
363
These factors led to the
mastery of an extremely comprehensive skill set and allowed the mission musicians to
deliver the quality of performance know to exist at the missions.

Appropriate Resources
In order not to overwhelm their students all at once with the complexities of
European music and its notation, the missionaries selected a form of repertoire that could
easily be taught by rote. They then chose, adapted or devised simple systems of
composition and notation, reducing the “learning curve” to its minimum amount. Kristin
Dutcher Mann provides an apt characterization of this process as follows:
[T]he contact between indigenous and missionary cultures produced new and
changed forms of liturgical music such as the alabado, matachín [dance song
native to Mexico], and different forms of the sung liturgy for the mass and divine
offices, as well as performances for special occasions. These forms reveal a great
deal of accommodation, transformation, and syncretism in the cultural encounters
of mission communities.
364

363
See Sandos, Converting California, for a thorough treatment of the injustices committed
against the Native Americans at the missions.

364
Mann, 4.
180

She further notes that the Franciscans adapted folk songs and popular tunes into laudi
spirituali (spiritual songs), adding sacred lyrics to the melodies. Spiritual plays designed
to introduce doctrine through entertaining pageants were also common.
365

In The Forms and Orders of the Western Liturgy,
366
John Harper points out the
central role the Franciscan order had in the establishment of the Roman Breviary, the
book of liturgy used by missionaries and other members of the clergy. He notes that the
friars had so much work to do, in addition to their pastoral duties, that they adopted a
liturgy that was considerably pared down: “The liturgy was a basis for their pastoral
mission outside the walls of the friary, rather than an end in itself.”
367
He further notes
the relationship between the Roman Curia (Papal court) and the order, and how the need
for a compact liturgy lead to the “formation of the so-called Roman Breviary, a self-
contained portable Office book, and of a style of liturgy that was stripped of excess, and
better suited for recitation by men with other important work besides Opus Dei.”
368

Music in the missions followed suit. Since the mission congregations were at large not
formally trained in music, the music needed to be less complex. This generated the need
for meaningful repertoire that was accessible to musicians new to European music.

365
Mann, 75.

366
John Harper, The Forms and Orders of Western Liturgy from the Tenth to the Eighteenth
Century: A Historical Introduction and Guide for Students and Musicians, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991,
30-31.

367
Ibid.

368
Ibid.
181

The processes of decoding (reading) and encoding (dictating) music can be more
easily undertaken when a minimum of interference is present. At the missions, this was
accomplished in a number of ways. The use of canto llano (plain chant) style effectively
isolates pitch, while limiting rhythm to that implied by the text, thus drawing less
attention away from the processing of pitch information. Canto llano also limits tonal
systems to a particular mode, and since range tends to be minimal, very few hexachord
mutations are required. Furthermore, the style makes limited use of melodic intervals
larger than a third. All of this amounts to a style of music that is ideal for an initiation
into sight reading. This style represented the bulk of what was learned and performed,
allowing for a maximum amount of time for mastery of the most basic skills.
Canto figurado (figured song) style adds the logical next step to this process. Its
melodies are virtually, and in the case of the tenor voice exactly identical to that of canto
llano. Its use of simple duple and triple meters—with rhythmic values limited to dotted
half, half, and quarter values—makes the introduction of rhythmic reading possible
within the limited melodic framework described above. Furthermore, the fact that these
rhythms are equivalent to extensions of the natural text accentuation, the performance of
them is assisted by the previous knowledge of the texts. The combination of melody,
meter, and rhythm in this style facilitates memorization, builds multi-tasking skills, and
also provides a framework for improvisation. In settings in alternatim, for example,
where singers might be expected to improvise variations of alternate verses, the metric
and rhythmic structure provides boundaries that represent the available parameters of
improvisation. A musician might be able to maintain the same rhythmic structure while
182

varying the melody or vice versa. This would be especially useful in the type of
harmonization—often in thirds and sixths—common in this style. This practice was used
frequently for devotional services and feast days, but still less so than canto llano, further
emphasizing the mastery of basic concepts while offering occasional challenges beyond
them.
The ability to read and dictate Canto de órgano (part song) and estilo moderno
(modern style) would be the ultimate goal. Rhythmically, these styles feature the most
complexity, including divided beat values, off-beat entrances, and syncopation. Meters
range from simple to compound and include the possibility of longer measures. Melodies
are wider ranging, requiring greater mastery of technique as well as more frequent use of
hexachord mutation. Melodies are more likely to be chromatically altered, including both
embellishments and implications of secondary tonality. Harmonies feature both
consonant and dissonant sonorities creating challenges for tuning and identification of
quality. Thus, these styles, being the least frequently used, would present challenges for
the most advanced students, but in limited number so as not to overwhelm them.
This repertoire became a tool for spiritual as well as musical education. It
followed that personal devotion required the need for printed music that was available to
individuals. Unlike European choirs, who would gather around part books, mission choirs
often read from multiple copies of chant books.
369
This allowed for greater independence
amoung musicians performing separate parts.

369
Harper further points out that the need for light on the part book stand necessitated the
placement of the choir in the center of the cruciform churches, where light was available from all four
183

Several of the missionaries were also committed to providing multilingual
versions of their central texts to facilitate understanding as they were learned. Arroyo de
la Cuesta has been cited in chapters 2 and 3 as one of the most prolific in this area. In
addition, Padres Boscana, Sancho, Tapíz, Sitjar, and Cabot created notable multilingual
works, both of texts and of music.

Shortcomings
A meaningful assessment of any pedagogical system can only be complete if it
takes into account its failings as well as its strengths. The process of forced conversion
should be considered among them, perhaps above all, since it involved a great deal of
violence, coercion, damage to population, and loss of culture, conditions that are
counterproductive to education in general. However, given the scope of this study, this
author must refer the reader to the work of others on this topic.
370
Instead, the following
discussion will focus strictly on the failings of the missionaries in the realm of music
education.
The historian Juan Alvarado recorded what he believed was the abuse of learning
by rote in the following quote:
During the entire time I was present I heard nothing but the voice of the teacher
repeating Regina Coeli laetare Alleluiah, etc., etc., and the Indians repeating in a
singsong voice what their priestly instructor was teaching them. When the pupils

directions. It also led to the increased need for memorization of repertoire. The use of choir books would
eliminate these needs to some extent, further promoting musical literacy.

370
See Beebe and Senkewicz; Sandos “Between Crucifix and Lance,” and Converting California;
Warkentin; and Heizer and Elsasser.
184

left the school I approached a group of Indians who were already quite big fellows
and asked them what “Regina Coeli laetare Alleluiah, etc.” meant. They told me
they did not know, but that the padre had told them it was very good and that
when it was sung by many persons in chorus it sounded very nice and that that
was why they were studying it.
371

Kotzebue provides a similar rebuke in his ship’s log:
Precisely at ten we entered the church, which is spacious, built of stone, and
handsomely fitted up, where we already found several hundred half-naked Indians
kneeling, who though they understood neither Spanish nor Latin, were never
permitted, after their conversion to absent themselves from Mass. As the
missionaries do not trouble themselves to learn the language of the Indians, I
cannot conceive in what manner they have been instructed in the Christian
religion; and there is probably but little light in the heads and hearts of these poor
creatures, who can do nothing but imitate the external ceremonies which they
observe by the eye. The rage for converting savage nations is now spreading over
the whole South Sea, and causes much mischief, because the missionaries do not
take pains to make men of them before they make them Christians, and thus, what
should bring them happiness and tranquility, becomes the source of bloody
wars…. [The church music] seemed to afford them much pleasure, and which was
probably the only part they comprehended during the whole service.
372

Granted, Alvarado and Kotzebue are concerned more with the students’
understanding of the meaning of the words and its significance to their lives as newly
converted Christians than with their music education. However, they raise an important
question regarding learning by rote: how much is appropriate, and for how long? No
doubt, the Padres with lesser musical skills or less desire to teach musical literacy relied
more upon teaching the prayers and songs by rote. Nevertheless, others who were
attempting to train their congregations in singing may have relied too much on the

371
Juan Alvarado, “History of California, 1769-1847,” vol. 1, Bancroft Library, University of
California, Berkeley, 41, quoted in Warkentin, 49.

372
August Mahr, The Visit of the “Rurick” to San Francisco in 1816 (San Francisco: Grabhorn
Press, 1945) 59.
185

practice for the majority of their congregations and even some members of their choral
schools. The wealth of examples of music to be performed in alternatim, as well as the
one that is simplified from its original form (chant, for example), may point to this
overuse. While it can be effective at the early stages, its use should be abandoned as
quickly as possible after literacy has been introduced.
Durán’s limitation of the repertoire to just one clef and one mode, for the most
part, may have gone too far in terms of limiting the difficulty of the subject matter.
373
On
the one hand, it allowed for greater mastery of basic concepts. On the other hand, it
limited his students’ growth. The lack of harmonic variety may have contributed to a lack
of focus on intonation, about which he complained when he first arrived at the mission.
Furthermore, the lack in overall variety may have restricted his students’ general interest
in the music, thus slowing, rather than accelerating their learning of it.
The fact that Durán mandated that instruments double the voices may have
prevented, rather than solved the problem of their not being able to sing at a steady pitch
level. While such reliance on accompaniment to provide pitch can decrease the amount of
rehearsal necessary to learn repertoire, and train singers to match pitch effectively, it can
also encourage them merely to copy what they hear, withiout audiating the music.
Another process practiced by the missionaries that might fall under this heading is
that of rewarding trainees for good behavior. While the use of extrinsic motivations such
as rewards is not necessarily a bad thing, if it is offered as an automatic response to all
occasions of good behavior, the reward becomes the goal, rather than the activity. In the

373
Sandos, 137 points out that Durán believe them incapable of learning more.
186

case of Durán, he is noted to have offered fruit and other treats to his students when they
demonstrated that they had learned a concept.
374
A better use of rewards would be to
offer them occasionally (perhaps words of praise and encouragement, rather than
concrete objects), not in relation to a specific accomplishment, but rather as an
acknowledgment of overall accomplishment. Another solution would be to ask the
student to identify accomplishments of which he or she is proud and cite them as
examples of goal setting.
Perhaps the most significant failure of the missionaries was a fundamental one:
the failure to help preserve the arts of the Native Americans they set out to help. The
Interrogatorio response from mission Santa Ines explains that the Native Americans do
not perform their own music anymore, but instead perform only mission music. While
this response was probably intended as an asset—an attempt to inform the Church
authorities of their successes—it highlights the great loss that accompanied the
bittersweet rewards of promoting mission music over—rather than alongside—
indigenous music.
Nevertheless, despite its faults, Durán’s system, and similar ones adopted by other
missionaries, succeeded in creating a community of highly trained musicians. Durán
states his case honestly when he concludes his prologue:
I recognize, of course, that if you are a maestro, several faults and objections will
occur to you that I don’t see now: and if I were to see them, I would respond to
you as well as I could. But in general my response is that as long as you adjust
things to the meager skills of the Indians, cut out, add, or change whatever suits

374
Sandos, 135.
187

you with my blessing: but if you don’t know what you are doing, for the love of
God and Saint Joseph, leave it alone.
375

A Satisfied Audience
The Padres and their students accomplished a Herculean task, the results of which
are evident in the praise they received from contemporaneous observers. Numerous
contemporaneous accounts of the quality of music at the missions exist. Sir George
Simpson describes an example of musical excellence at mission Santa Barbara:
In the music-gallery there was a small but well-tuned organ, on which a native
convert was executing several pieces of sacred music with considerable taste, and
amongst them, to our great surprise Martin Luther’s hymn (Ein Feste Burg). This
man was almost entirely self taught, possessing, like most of his race, a fine ear
and great aptitude….Besides the organ, the choir mustered several violins,
violoncellos, triangles, drums, flutes, bells, etc., with a strong core of
vocalists…
376

Atherton makes a similar observation of Durán’s musicians as follows:
In the evening we went to a play performed by the Indian boys and girls of the
Mission, being taught by the schoolmaster [Durán] who appears to be a person of
considerable information. They have a band of about 20 pieces of music, and I
should think some pieces were executed very well.
377

Leonard Zenas notes that while singing the mass, the choir at mission San Jose “at
one moment manifest the most unbounded transports of joy, and the next throw

375
Durán, in Russell, “Preface,” 15.

376
George Simpson, Narrative of a Voyage to California Ports in 1841-42 (San Francisco: The
Private Press of T. C. Russell, 1930), 130, quoted in Warkentin, 50.

377
Faxon Dean Atherton, A California Diary, 1836-1839 (San Francisco: California Historical
Society, 1964) 65, quoted in Warkentin, 51-51.
188

themselves into greatest paroxysm of weeping and lamentation.”
378
British Navy Captain
F. W. Beechey observed, upon hearing Mass at mission San Jose in 1826, that “[a]bove
[the congregation] was the choir, consisting of several Indian musicians, who performed
very well indeed on various instruments, and sang the [Te] Deum in a very passable
manner.”
379

Alfred Robinson observes in 1829 that the voices of the choir at mission San Jose
“accorded harmoniously with the flutes and violins…”
380
Likewise, Robert Louis
Stevenson, the famed author, later describes hearing music at Mass at mission San Carlos
in 1829 as follows:
I could not but admire the apparent devotion of the multitude [of Native
Americans], who seemed absorbed, heart and soul, in the scene before them. The
solemn music of the Mass was well selected, and the Indian voices accorded
harmoniously with the flutes and violins that accompanied them.
381

He later recalls the following:
An Indian, stone blind and about eighty years of age, conducts the singing; other
Indians compose the choir; yet they have the Gregorian music at their finger ends,
and pronounce the Latin so correctly that I could follow the meaning as they sang.
The pronunciation was odd and nasal, the singing hurried and staccato. ‘In saecula
saeculo-mortuorum,’ they went on with a vigorous aspirant to every additional
syllable. I have never seen faces more vividly lit up with joy than the faces of
these Indian singers. It was to them not only the worship of God, nor an act by
which they recalled and commemorated better days, but was besides an exercises
of culture, where all they know of art and letters was united and expressed.
382

378
Zenas Leonard, Narrative of the Adventures of Zenas Leonard, March of America Facsimile
Series, vol. 69 (Ann Arbor: University Microfilms, Inc. 1966) 52, quoted in Warkentin, 52.

379
F. W. Beechey, quoted in McGroarty, 9.

380
Ibid., 12. See the full quote in chapter 2 of this work.

381
Robert Louis Stevenson, 44-45.

382
Ibid., 83.
189

He goes on in the same paragraph to lament the loss of the missions to secularization as
he states: “And it made a man’s heart sorry for the good fathers of yore, who had taught
them to dig and to reap, to read and to sing, who had given them European massbooks
which they still preserve and study in their cottages, and who had now passed away from
all authority and influence in that land—to be succeeded by greedy land thieves and
sacreligious pistol shots.”
383
The idea that these musicians kept singing the music they
had learned, long after the demise of the missions, speaks to the legacy the Padre-
musicians and their students had worked so hard to create.
J. Smeaton Chase and Charles Saunders observe in The California Padres and
Their Missions the following about Native American musicians, one Reynaldo in
particular:
To me there is nothing more moving, more deeply pathetic, in the range of sound,
than that sonorous, mournful Indian voice, whether heard in some majestic chord
of the Church, or as, brooding over guitar or mandolin, the dusky singer murmurs
some soft Spanish love-song; a strange high tenor that is like—I know not what;
yes, like love itself, but a joyous Indian love. Poor Reynaldo! After twenty years I
can see and hear you yet, singing to your mandolin in the dim corner of the old
adobe in Sonora town.
384

383
Ibid., 153.

384
J. Smeaton Chase and Charles Saunders, The California Padres and Their Missions, Boston,
MA: Houghton Mifflin, 1915, 366-367, quoted in McGroarty, xiii.
190

Application to the Present-day and Opportunities for Further Study
Selected Repertoire for Study and Practice
A number of specific compositions would be of particular interest for use in
beginning choral ensembles. Since most of the music in the mission sources is in canto
llano style, there is much to choose from. Portions could be extracted from Arroyo de la
Cuesta’s setting of the Misa los Angeles. Durán’s “Choir book” also sets the entire church
year worth of chant.
Canto figurado offers fuller settings in a readily accessible style, both for its ease
of reading and pleasant sound. Many of the sequences (Pange Lingua, Veni Creator
Spiritus, Victimae Paschali Laudes, etc.) feature repeated music on multiple verses,
making the learning of such music easier, but also allowing for improvisation, varied
texture and possibilities for instrumental accompaniment.
Canto de órgano presents the greatest challenge to a beginning ensemble because
of its polyphonic texture, but might also offer the audience a more satisfying experience.
Settings of the Te Deum by Sancho and Durán would further add historical significance,
since their works are known to have been performed frequently at the missions. Durán’s
Mass settings, Misa Viscaína and Misa Cataluña as well as Sancho’s Misa de los Angeles
are representative of the mission style and offer opportunities for instrumental
accompaniment, the latter in a more Baroque style. Another work of great historical
significance that could be performed in its entirety or excerpted is Ibáñez’s Pastorela.
Church choirs might find it especially meaningful during Advent, but also public
elementary schools as part of their fourth grade mission studies curriculum. As a
191

theatrical work, staging and costuming could add an element of interest to audiences, as
well.

Lessons to Be Learned
The above observations are a testament to the perseverance of the mission
musicians and the dedication to their training by the missionaries who employed, for the
most part, sound pedagogical methods. However, the most important lesson to be learned
from the California missions—one that was never fully appreciated by the missionaries—
is that when two cultures meet, whether from across the ocean or from across the
classroom, there is a potential for one or the other or both to lose some of their
distinctiveness.
To minimize this loss, a classroom must be viewed as an opportunity for
exchange. While a teacher will likely have an understanding of the subject matter—what
it has to offer the student—that teacher must also develop an understanding of what the
students have to offer and what their needs are. This will provide information about what
barriers they may face in finding the subject relevant to their lives. Overcoming these
barriers requires that common ground be found between the subject matter and the
experiences of the students.
At the missions, the Padres and the Native Americans found common ground in
the role that music played in their lives: its ability to provide a means for the expression
of their values and beliefs. This may be why mission music flourished so quickly and
achieved such a high degree of success. Sandos notes this success was beneficial to the
192

mission musicians, not just because of the lifestyle it afforded them, but also because it
provided a sense of accomplishment and worth.
385
Yet, because the missionaries
prohibited the practice of most indigenous music, the losses may have outweighed the
gains.
In the modern classroom, the teaching of a given type of music does not have to
mean that other types are neglected. Students can be allowed to explore concepts through
the music that is most meaningful to them, and then be shown how those same concepts
are meaningful in other musics. This process honors the role of music as an expression of
self, it promotes creativity, it facilitates building bridges, and it fosters intrinsic
motivation for the learning of unfamiliar things. Combining this approach with some of
the pedagogical practices outlined above insures that students will achieve more and
enjoy greater benefits from the experience.

Refining Gold
Sifting through the available information on music education at the California
missions reveals a rich body of methods and resources applicable in the present-day.
Much of it can be used as is, and much can be further refined. An examination of how the
Padre-musicians used it in their teaching reveals a curriculum that is based in sound
practice.
The Padres promoted the perception of sound first, rather than the written
representation of sound, by using familiar repertoire and by encouraging imitation. This

385
Sandos, Converting California, 146-149.
193

helped their students to build a body of repertoire quickly so that, while singing from
memory, they could focus on performance practice. It also helped build confidence in
their students during the early stage of their music education–a phase that is often
accompanied by frustration, due to the steep learning curve of music. They made
effective use of protonotation by employing solfège and the musical hand. These
techniques address multiple modes of learning by combining oral, aural and kinesthetic
activities, making the conceptualization of tonality much more effective. The Padres
promoted the learning of instrumental technique so that the students could perform vocal
and instrumental music. This further reinforced the aural perception of music by
providing timbral, visual, and tactile references to musical elements that would otherwise
be intangible. They then designed rudimentary exercises that helped students build
technique and audiation skills in small doses before being applied in larger contexts. The
Padres encouraged putting these rudiments into practice through playing by ear,
improvisation, and composition, which further helped their students build confidence and
encouraged artistic expression. The Padres created and adapted resources and repertoire
appropriate to the skill levels of their students so that they were challenged, but not
overwhelmed.
These and other successful methods of the California missionaries form a model
that has much to offer music educators of today. What is ultimately important about this
model, though, is that it developed out of the missionaries’ need and willingness to
experiment and change. The mission Padres operated under adverse conditions with very
few resources. Yet they managed to accomplish great things. This is largely due to the
194

fact that they were able to recognize the talents of their students—the most precious gold
available to them—and to innovate.

Other Highways
Given the limitations in scope and length of this volume, additional work is
needed to elevate public awareness and interest in the topic of mission music. Further
musicological studies are needed to expand the number of editions of mission music
available to performers by drawing from the vast body of unedited manuscripts available
in the collective archives. Once editions are more readily available, new performances
and recordings of this music are needed. Additional resources aimed at the general and
juvenile public are also necessary in order to foster an informed audience for such
performances.
Future ethnomusicological studies are needed to delve deeper into Native
American music practices in the region by engaging in more extensive scientific
examinations of archeological artifacts used in music making. They might make use of
historical written examples and early recordings of performances of indigenous music to
create performance editions it. This would add breadth to the body of available
recordings, which is currently focused on present-day Native American music practice.
Future pedagogical studies are needed to collect and examine methods used by
missionaries not addressed in this work: Cabot, Ibáñez, Sancho, Serra, etc. They might
also broaden the scope of the topic by examining methods at missions outside of
195

California not already studied: Arizona, Florida, New Mexico, and Texas, not mention
the French missions in the Midwest and Canada.
While the present volume may be in step with other works of its kind—
proceeding along a path toward greater awareness and interest in California mission
music—it can only travel so far. The topic is a gold mine for future scholars, with
potential benefits to the field that reach far beyond California’s Royal Highway.

196

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205

APPENDIX A: ADDITIONAL RESPONSES TO THE INTERROGATORIO

Transcriptions and translations of ten of the eighteen responses are available in
the online Appendix C in Russell, From Serra to Sancho. The remaining eight are
transcribed here from the photocopies of the original manuscripts housed at the Santa
Bárbara Mission Archive-Library.
386
Slashes are added by this author to represent line
breaks in the originals. Some diacritical marks such as acute accents are added in
brackets by this author, based on Maynard Geiger’s hand written transcriptions also
housed at the Santa Bárbara Mission Archive-Library. Other items in brackets are added
by this author. Translations in italics are by Geiger.
387

Mission San Juan Capistrano
August 8, 1814, Frs. Josef Barona and Gerónimo Boscana:
33 Preg. Si tienen inclinaci[ó]n a la Música etc. Resp. Estos Indios parece que nunca
habían o[í]do m[ú]sica, / pues ellos no usan, ni han usado en su gentilidad de instrumento
alguno. Mas nuestra música les quadra / mucho principalmente la pat[é]tica y melodiosa,
tanto de canto como de instrumento; advirtiendo: / que son muy f[á]ciles en aprender de
memoria qualquier instrumento, sea de la clases que fuere.
It appears that these Indians had never heard of music for they do not play it nor did they
use any musical instrument in their pagan state. However our music pleases them
exceedingly chiefly that of a pathetic and melodious type whether it be vocal or
instrumental. I should like to add that the Indians are very quick in learning to play
almost any kind of instrument by heart.

386
The responses are filed under the title “Preguntas y Respuestas” with no catalogue number.
387
Geiger, As the Padres Saw Them, 133-137.
206

Mission San Jose
Mission San Jose, November 7, 1814, Frs. Narciso Duran and Buenaventura Fortuni:
34 [questions twenty-nine and thirty are combined]. Inclinación á la Música que tenga
semejanza con la nuestra no se les / conoce ninguna: y lo mismo uso ni conocim[ie]nto.
De instrumetos. Ni de / cuerda ni de viento. Tienen algunas canciones que cantan el sus
bayles; / pero apenas llegan á formar puntos cabales de voz humana, porq[u]e. No / son
mas que unos gritos desaforados y ahullidos de animales; por / lo que se juzga imposible
reducirlos á tonos y notas musicales. En la / Misión los cantores, y Músicos, de
muchachos, entran con bastante / facilidad á la música llana y figurada, como tabién en el
manejo de / qualquiera clase de instrum[en]tos. En esta Misión se tocan 15 violines / y 3
violones, y se hacen las funciones de Iglesia con una decencia / y magestad superior á lo
que parece prometiá la tierra.
We have observed in them no inclination towards music which has any resemblance to
ours. Nor do they have or know anything about string or wind instruments. They have
some songs which they sing at their dances but they are hardly composed of complete
human words but are rather some outrageous shouts and the yells of animals. Wherefore
it is impossible to reduce them to musical tones and notes. At the mission the singers and
musicians who are youths learn rather readily both plain chant and figured music as well
as playing any kind of instrument. At this mission there are fifteen violinists and three
celloists [sic]. They perform at church functions in a becoming and splendid manner in
excess of what could have been expected when we first came here.

Mission San Francisco
November 11, 1814, Frs. Ramón Abella and Juan Sainz de Lucio:
32 [the first two questions are combined in one number]. Si tienen alguna inclinación a la
Música, que especie de Ynstrumentos cono- / cen, si son de Cuerda o de Viento, si éstos
son los mismos de que han / usado siempre, y si conocen los nuestros y los usan, si
poseen algunas / canciones de sus Ydiomas, y si son dulces, alegres, o tristes. / Si se
inclinan más en esta lineas a la Música Patética y Melodiosa, o / a la Guerra, y en caso de
usar algunas Canciones propias, los Tonos / en que las cantan, y si es posible una
Esposición y nota de ellas?
A todo lo que cuesta travajo naturalmente se le huye el hombre. Ellos no / tenían
Ynstrumento alguno de Música, y lo más que les hemos visto / hacer como Muchachos
con alguna Caña de Trigo, un poco de Ruído, y solo / en Catorce años he visto a uno que
hizo una Corneta. Tan solamente en / sus Vayles cantan, que me parece que con tres o
quatro quartetas hay / para una Noche por que las buelven a repetir; unas son alegres, y
207

otras / vien melancólicas; si guardan bastante Compás, porque ellos han ohido / a las
Abes. Quando van a la Guerra no cantan, lo que hacen es gritar. / En la Misión
enseñamos algunos muchachos a taner el Biolón, / Tambora, y otros Ynstrumentos que se
usan en las Iglesias; no muestran / repugnancia como otros travajos de maior fatiga.
Everything that requires labor they naturally shun. They have no musical instruments of
their own. The most we have seen among them is that, like boys, they make a little noise
with the stem of a wheat straw. In fourteen years I have seen only one Indian make a
cornet. Only at their dances do they sing. To me it seems they sing but three or four
stanzas of four lines on a single night for they repeat them. Some tunes are lively and
others quite sad. They keep good time for they have acquainted themselves with the songs
of the birds. They do not sing when they go on the warpath but shout. At this mission we
have taught some boys to play the violin, the bass viol, the drum and other instruments
which are used in church. The Indians show no repugnance to this as they do towards
more fatiguing assignments.

Mission San Diego
December? 23, 1814, Frs. Fernando Martin and José Sancho:
33a. Estos Neofitos no tienen, ni han tenido mas instrumentos, que una / sonajilla [rattle]
de un sonido desagradable. Pero en la escualidad? Los Ps. [Padres] Zer han [havían?] /
proporcionado algunos instrumentos musicos, y los tocan con algu- / na abilidad, y
relacion? Bastante en misión?, si invieren quien por perfecionare, pues de? aficion en
mucha ã nuestros instru- / mentos musicos.
These neophytes do not have nor have they ever possessed any instrument other than a
timbrel with a disagreeable sound. But the fathers have furnished them with some
musical instruments at the present time which they play tolerably well. They would
become proficient if they had someone to teach them since they take to our musical
instruments very well.

Mission San Luis Rey
December 12, 1814, Frs. Franco. Suñer and Antonio Peryi:
33. Estos Yndios parece que nunca havian oido música, pues para sus bayles usan solo de
cantos en su idioma, / que son mas tristes que alegres / forzando en gran manera la
garganta, pero ã los Neofitos nuestra / música les quadra mucho, especialmente la
208

patetica y[~] melodiosa, advirtiendo, que son muy faciles en ap- / render qualesquiera
instrumento sea / de la clase que fuere.
It appears that these Indians had never heard music for in their dances they use only the
chant in their own language which are more doleful than lively and which to a great
extent proceed from a forced throat. However our music pleases the neophytes greatly
particularly the sad and melodious type. We note that they are very quick in learning to
play whatever instrument they take up.

Mission Soledad
June 20, 1814, Fr. Antonio Jayme:
23 [some questions are unanswered or combined] La única inclinasion que tenían en su
gentilidad â la Música era tocar una / flauta echa por ellos mismos, pero en la Misión se
inclinan â toda espesíe de / Música.
Their one tendency toward music in their pagan days was in a flute they themselves
made. At the mission they have fondness for every kind of music.

Mission San Buenaventura
August 11, 1815, Fr. José Señán:
Pregunta 33a. [in left column] Se tienen inclinación / ã la Música, q[u]e es- / pecie de
instrumentos / conocen, si de cuerda, / ó de viento. Si estos son / los mismos de q[u]e han
/ usado siempre, y si cono- / cen los nros, y los usan. / Si poseen algs. canciones / en sus
idiomas, y si son / dulces, alegres, ó tristes. / Si se inclinan más en / esta linea á la música
/ patetica, y melodiosa, / ó á la guerrera; y en / caso de usar algs. can- / ciones propias, los
tonos / en q[u]e las cantan, y si es / posible, una exposición, / y nota de ellas.
Respuesta: [in right column] Son en el día bastante inclinados ã cantar, y tocar / qualquier
instrumento, asi de cuerda, como de viento, y / tienen facilidad en aprender las sonatas
q[u]e oyen, o se les / enseñan. En la gentilidad usaban unicamte. una flauta / de Saúco, y
en sus grandes fiestas un pito de hueso de / Venado, q[u]e los Músicos hacen chillar, y
trinar con vio- / lentos, estraños, y ridículos meneos del cuerpo. Sus can- / ciones son
pateticas, y por lo común, más propias, pa. ex- / citar la tristeza, q[u]e pa. alegrarse. Lo
q[u]e verdad eremte. ofrecen de particular, és un admirable compas, é imper- / turbable
igualdad, así en los q[u]e cantan, como en los q[u]e baylan.
209

They are now very much inclined to sing and to play any kind of string or wind
instruments. They possess a facility for learning the sonatas they hear or which they are
taught. In their savage state they used only a small flute made of elderwood and in their
great feasts also a whistle of deer bone which the musicians cause to shriek and trill
while at the same time they perform violent, strange and ridiculous contortions of the
body. Their songs are weird and, as a rule, more fit to produce gloom than cheer. What
in truth they would manifest particularly was an admirable keeping of time and an
imperturbable sameness in those who were singing as well as in those who would be
dancing.

Mission Santa Clara
November 4, 1814, Frs. Magín Catalá and José Viader:
A la 32a… [questions five and six are combined] Que los Ÿnds. en su Gentilidad no
concocen instrumto. algo. ni de cuerda ni de viento. Que sus / canciones Diabolicas, ÿ
estrabagantes, de huallidos, ÿ gritos para sus baÿles, no se pue- / den reducir á tonos, ni á
solfas. Sólo se observa un compás muÿ exacto. Aquí en la / Mn. después de mucho
trabajo, han aprendido los muchachos bastante bien, respecto / á no tener Maestros
Hábiles. Cantan, ÿ tocan 16 violines ÿ 3 Violones, ÿ las funcio- / nes de Yglesia se hacen
con mucha Solemnidad.
In their pagan state the Indian knew no kind of instrument either wind or string. Their
diabolical and extravagant songs of cries and yells for their dances cannot be reduced to
tones, not even to scales. However they observe very good time. Here at the mission, after
much effort, the boys have learned music quite well when one considers that they do not
have skilled teachers. They sing and play on sixteen violins and three cellos. They
enhance the church functions with great solemnity.

210

APPENDIX B: FACSIMILES AND TRANSCRIPTIONS

Figure 21: Arroyo de la Cuesta, “Kyrie” and “Gloria,” in “Misa de Angeles,” score, 1811,
box 2, folder 79, WPA, Hargrove Library, University of California, Berkeley, loose leaf
photocopy (detail). Photograph by unknown WPA photographer. Courtesy of Jean Gray
Hargrove Music Library, University of California, Berkeley. Used by permission.

Figure 22: Arroyo de la Cuesta, “Kyrie” and “Gloria,” in “Misa de Angeles,” score, 1811,
box 2, folder 79, WPA, Hargrove Library, University of California, Berkeley, additional
loose leaf photocopy (detail). Photograph by unknown WPA photographer. Courtesy of
Jean Gray Hargrove Music Library, University of California, Berkeley. Used by
permission.

211

Figure 23: Arroyo de la Cuesta, “Gloria,” in “Misa de Angeles,” score, 1811, box 2,
folder 79, WPA, Hargrove Library, University of California, Berkeley, transcription by
this author, 2012.

212

Figure 23, continued

213

Figure 24: Narciso Durán, “Victime Paschali: laudes,” in “Durán Choirbook,” Doc. 1,
Santa Bárbara Mission Archive Library, 108 (detail). Photograph by Brian Burd. Used by
permission.

Figure 25: Narciso Durán, “Victime Paschali: laudes,” in “Durán Choirbook,” Doc. 1,
Santa Bárbara Mission Archive Library, 109 (detail). Photograph by Brian Burd. Used by
permission.

The cited image is intentionally omitted.

Note: in order to prevent the inappropriate distribution of the cited image, its copyright
holder, Santa Bárbara Mission Archive-Library, has requested that it not appear in the digital
version of this work. The reader is encouraged to view the original document at the Santa
Bárbara Mission Archive-Library. In addition, this author assures the reader that every effort
was made to represent in figure 26 below the contents of the cited image as accurately as
possible and without additions or omissions.

The cited image is intentionally omitted.

Note: in order to prevent the inappropriate distribution of the cited image, its copyright
holder, Santa Bárbara Mission Archive-Library, has requested that it not appear in the digital
version of this work. The reader is encouraged to view the original document at the Santa
Bárbara Mission Archive-Library. In addition, this author assures the reader that every effort
was made to represent in figure 26 below the contents of the cited image as accurately as
possible and without additions or omissions.
214

Figure 26: Narciso Durán, “Victime Paschali: laudes,” in “Durán Choirbook,” Doc. 1,
Santa Bárbara Mission Archive Library, 108, transcription by this author, 2012.

215

APPENDIX C: ACCOUSTIC PROPERTIES OF THE CALIFORNIA NATIVE FLUTE

Several samples of California native flutes from the mission period exist in
museums, but few are capable of being played without causing damage to them. Other
samples exist in photographic form only. Reproductions of these instruments can be
created, based on these sources, historical written records and anecdotal information,
passed through the oral tradition. Further assessment of the sound of these instruments
can be gained through analysis of their acoustic properties.
The following provides a theoretical acoustical analysis of the elder-flutes cited in
figure 12 (the Pomo flute), which resembles those by Antonio Flores, and figure 13 (the
Yuma flute), which resembles those of Ben Cunningham-Summerfield, both cited in
chapter 3 of the present work. Given their assumed dimensions (see below), it is possible
to employ a series of mathematical calculations to determine what pitches they were
capable of playing.
The length of the Pomo flute is noted on its museum catalogue card as being nine
and eight tenths inches (25 cm) in length. Although the distance to each hole is not noted,
it is possible to determine this by measuring the distances on the photograph and then
comparing them to the actual distance. The photograph of the Yuman musician includes
playing cards near his feet. If the size of these cards is assumed to be standard two and
one half by three and one half inches (6.35 x 9 cm), then this can be compared to the
length of the flute in the photograph, along with the placement of the holes, and
216

compared to the actual size of the playing cards. The flute dimensions shown in figure 28
below take into account these facts.
Pomo Flute Dimensions:
A 1 2 3 4 B
   
in.: 3.1 4.3 5.5 6.7 9.8
cm: 8 11 14 17 25

Yuma Flute Dimensions:
A 1 2 3 4 B
   
in.: 6.7 7.9 10.6 11.8 19.7
cm: 17 20 27 30 50

Figure 27: Elder-flute dimensions. Sources: figures 12 and 13 in chapter 3 of the present
work.
Points A and B represent the playable ends of the flute. Points 1, 2, 3, and 4 represent the holes, numbered
from the played end. Numbers beneath the holes these represent the distance in centimeters and inches (not
shown to scale) from the played end to the edge of each hole and the end of the flute.

Assuming the above dimensions to be accurate,
388
the flutes are capable of
playing the pitches noted in table 7 below.

388
This author acknowledges that these measurements make several assumptions, any of which
could be false. The cards might not be standard in size, the conditions of the photograph are not known (the
distance between the camera and the musician, the height of the camera, and the distance between the
musician and the cards is not know), thus the flute’s size relative to the cards cannot be determined for
certain. However, despite this wide margin for error, and given that there is no standard size for this type of
flute, the outcome presented here is within the realm of known artifacts, and thus is a useful exercise.
217

Table 7: Pitch capabilities of two elder-flutes

Pomo elder-flute
Holes covered None (open)

1

1-2

1-3

1-4
Tube length l 8

11

14

17

25
Wavelength λ 16

22

28

34

50
Frequency f * Hz

Pitch

Hz

Pitch

Hz

Pitch

Hz

Pitch

Hz

Pitch
Fundamental 2144

C
7

1559

G
6

1225

D#
6

1009

B
5

686

F
5

Overtone 1 4288

C
8

3118

G
7

2450

D#
7

2018

B
6

1372

F
6

Overtone 2 6431

G
8

4677

D
8

3675

A#
7

3026

F#
7

2058

C
7

Overtone 3 8575

C
9

6236

G
8

4900

D#
8

4035

B
7

2744

F
7

Yuma elder-flute
Holes covered None (open)

1

1-2

1-3

1-4
Tube length l 17

20

27

30

50
Wavelength λ 34

40

54

60

100
Frequency f * Hz

Pitch

Hz

Pitch

Hz

Pitch

Hz

Pitch

Hz

Pitch
Fundamental 1009

B
5

858

A
5

635

D#
5

572

D
5

343

F
4

Overtone 1 2018

B
6

1715

A
6

1270

D#
6

1143

D
6

686

F
5

Overtone 2 3026

F#
7

2573

E
7

1906

A#
6

1715

A
6

1029

C
6

Overtone 3 4035

B
7

3430

A
7

2541

D#
7

2287

D
7

1372

F
6

Sources:Acoustical formulae provided by Luke Keller,
389
interview by the author, January 24, 2012; and
Andrew Botros, "Frequency to Musical Note Converter" (Sydney, AU: University of New South Whales,
2001), http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/music/note/ (accessed January 24, 2012).
*f=v/λ, where v=343 m (34300 cm)/s at sea level at 68°F (20°C), λ=2l (given in cm). Pitch is rounded to
the nearest equal tempered semitone, where A
4
=440 Hz.

The fundamental pitches are those that result from normal blowing. However, when a
player increases the velocity of air passing over and into the instrument, overtones are
created. For practical purposes, only the first three overtones are shown, but other, higher
ones are also possible.
Assumed, but not represented in this examination are the techniques of partially
stopping holes and “lipping.”
390
Partially stopping a hole (on the side closest to the blown

389
Dr. Luke Keller is Chair of the Physics Department at Ithaca College in New York where he
teaches acoustics among other subjects.
218

end) will effectively change the distance between blown end and the artificial edge of the
hole, thereby subtly changing the frequency of the pitches created. The technique of
“lipping” pitches, i.e., changing the position of the lips over the blown end, changes the
direction of airflow over and into the tube, thereby changing the air pressure in the tube
and the pitches created. These two techniques allow the player to change pitch by an
amount smaller than that possible by fully stopping and unstopping holes. Thus, in
addition to fundamental pitches and their overtones, other fractional pitches are possible.
Figure 28 below presents the data from table 7 in musical form, showing what
pitches each flute is capable of playing, scored from lowest to highest pitch.

390
Furthermore, this examination does not take into account the physical properties of the flutes
that affect timbre (material, diameter, size and shape of the bore, etc.). Nor does it take into consideration
techniques that affect timbre. It is assumed that such properties and techniques vary greatly, but not so
much so as to significantly affect the overall nature of the instrument.
219

Figure 28: Elder-flute pitch capabilities. Source: data from table 7.

Pomo flute:

Yuma flute:

The reader should note that for ease of reading, the pitches are scored at two octaves
(15
ma
) and one octave (8
va
) above standard, respectively. Resistance to air flow—the
amount the air inside the flute “pushes back” when air is blown into and over the blown
end—creates a maximum threshold of air that can enter the flute, limiting the upper
register and the ability of the player to produce higher overtones. Thus, several of the
highest pitches appear in parentheses, indicating that they would be difficult or
impossible to play.
If the lowest pitches and those in parentheses are ignored, the patterns formed by
the available pitches on both flutes approximate gapped scales such as the pentatonic
scale with chromatic passing tones in some octaves. However, the scale patterns vary
220

greatly between octaves. Considering that these are approximations to equivalent pitches
in the equal tempered system, and that they can be altered by various techniques
described above, not to mention that overtones above the third are not included, these
flutes would be able to play nearly any pitch within the middle portion of their ranges.
The Pomo flute would have an effective “chromatic” range of E-flat
6
to C
8
, or an octave
and a major sixth. The Yuma flute would have one of D
5
to F-sharp
7
, or two octaves and
a major third. This confirms both Ben Cunningham-Summerfield’s and Antonio Flores’s
assertions that elder-flutes such as those used by mission-era indigenous peoples are
capable of playing any type of melody.

221

APPENDIX D: THE GUIDONIAN HAND

In his eleventh century text, Epistola de ignoto cantu, Guido d’Arezzo describes a
tonal system based on the initial pitches of the first six phrases of the chant Ut queant
laxis, which read as follows (first syllables underlined):
Ut queant laxis
Resonare fibris
Mira gestorum
Famuli tuorum
Solve poluti
Labi reatum
391

Each phrase begins on a pitch a step higher than the last, forming a hexachord of initial
pitches: ut = C, re = D, mi = E, fa = F, sol = G, la = A. The pattern of steps between each
of these pitches (whole-whole-half-whole-whole) developed later as the core of the
diatonic scale, but during the late medieval era and through the Renaissance, was the
basis for a tonal system that spanned from G
2
through E
3
. This system was known as the
gamut, contracting the Greek letter gamma and the syllable ut, i.e., the hexachord starting
with ut = G. Unaltered (natural) pitches within the gamut were called musica recta (right
music), and altered ones (such as the B-flat in the hexachord ut = F) were called musica
ficta (fictitious music).
392

In the hexachord system, when the range of a melodic passage exceeds that of a
hexachord, the solmization syllables are mutated (shifted) so that the new segment of the

391
Liber Usualis, 1504.

392
Atlas, Renaissance Music: Music in Western Europe, 1400-1600, New York, NY: Norton,
1998, 33-34.
222

passage falls within a new hexachord and the half-steps of that segment fall between mi
and fa. Thus, the hexachordal system features constantly shifting tonal centers.
393
A piece
of music is not in any one “key,” but rather is said to be in a particular hexachord overall.
Furthermore, following the step pattern described above, the gamut yields three “closely
related” hexachords: the hard hexachord (ut = G), the natural hexachord (ut = C), and the
soft hexachord (ut = F, featuring natural pitches except the B-flat that creates the half-step
between mi, A and fa, B-flat). Musica ficta, then, would typically included just the B-flat,
but later added the F-sharp in the ut = G hexachord, creating a “leading tone” (in the
modern sense) to the final G.
394

Another of Guido d’Arezzo’s innovations was the use of the knuckles on the hand
as reference points to each of the pitches in the gamut in order to train musicians to sing
in the hexachordal system. By pointing to a knuckle, the teacher would call upon the
student to sing the associated solmization syllable in the proper hexachord. Because
certain pitches could belong to more than one hexachord, each knuckle represented two
or three syllabic possibilities. For example, the first knuckle of the middle finger (where
it meets the palm) represented the pitch D, but because D can either be sol in the ut = G
hexachord or re in the ut = C hexachord, the student would have to determine the

393
This is only partially analogous to the common-practice period technique of using secondary
dominant harmonies to “tonicize” scale degrees other than tonic. Whereas, in the this practice, the leading
tone “points to” the tonal center, in the hexachord system, the half-step between mi and fa reveals the
location of the tonal center (ut) by association.

394
Ibid., 34-35.
223

appropriate syllable, and thereby observe where in the gamut a particular melodic
passage falls.
395

395
Ibid., 35. Guido’s solmization system and the Guidonian Hand associated with it was the
motivation for the later development of solfège (derived from the syllables Sol and Fa), which substitutes
Do for ut, creating a rhyming syllable with Sol to emphasize the structural pitches of the diatonic tonal
system, and adds ti (or si) for the leading tone. This system, however, signifies a diatonic key with its seven
degrees, and would be used, either with Do fixed at C, or moveable to the tonic of any other key, fixed
there unless the key changes. The hexachord system allowed for flexible pitch frequency resulting from
Pythagorean or just intonation. With each mutation, the resulting pitches no longer “tune” (in the modern
sense) to those of the other hexachords. The modern solfège system assumes equal temperament, and could
never function in the same way.

Abstract (if available)

Abstract This study examines selected music of the California missions and assesses the skills required to perform it. It further examines indigenous music of the region and assesses the skills likely possessed by the musicians who performed it. It then surveys the pedagogical methods and materials used by selected missionaries to train these indigenous musicians to perform mission music. Finally, it proposes that these methods form a model for music education that compares favorably with present-day standards.

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Asset Metadata

Creator Keller, Daniel Benjamin (author)

Core Title Refined gold from along the Royal Highway: musical training at the California Missions as a model for present-day pedagogy

School Thornton School of Music

Degree Doctor of Musical Arts

Degree Program Choral Music

Publication Date 04/26/2012

Defense Date 03/14/2012

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag California history,California mission music,California missions,mission music,Music,OAI-PMH Harvest

Language English

Contributor Electronically uploaded by the author (provenance)

Advisor Grases, Cristian F. (committee chair), Scheibe, Jo-Michael (committee member), Strimple, Nick L. (committee member), Woodward, Sheila C. (committee member)

Creator Email danielbkeller@hotmail.com,dkeller@usc.edu

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c3-13253

Unique identifier UC11289452

Identifier usctheses-c3-13253 (legacy record id)

Legacy Identifier etd-KellerDani-648.pdf

Dmrecord 13253

Document Type Dissertation

Rights Keller, Daniel Benjamin

Type texts

Source University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the a...

Repository Name University of Southern California Digital Library

Repository Location USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus MC 2810, 3434 South Grand Avenue, 2nd Floor, Los Angeles, California 90089-2810, USA