CONTRA COSTA TIMES

By Cheryl North
Correspondent
Article Launched: 05/09/2008

Chanticleer travels the Mission Road, singing all the way

ASIA MIGHT HAVE its fabled Silk Road woven into its history, but California has its Mission Road, or El Camino Real (Spanish for "the King's Highway"), etched into its historical records.

If you traced a line from the first mission along El Camino Real, the San Diego de Alcala, located on California's Southern coast, northward through each of the 20 other missions, and finally stopped at Mission San Francisco Solano in the north, you would end up with a shape that looks like a bumpy backbone along California's coast.

The building of the missions began with a royal decree issued by King Charles III of Spain in 1769. His major motivation was probably to stave off further incursion by Russian fur trappers into Spanish California. Charles chose a group of Franciscans, led by Father Junipero Serra, to help implement his plan.

It happened that, since the Franciscans utilized so much music to ease Western European culture and religion into the psyches of the California native Indian population, musicians, too, have become interested in the missions — so much so that Chanticleer, the acclaimed Bay Area-based 12-man vocal ensemble, will spend from May 15 through May 30 performing period music in nine of the coastal missions.

Praised in the national press as "an orchestra of voices," the Grammy Award-winning Chanticleer was named 2008 Music Ensemble of the Year by the internationally renowned magazine Musical America. For the mission concerts, music director Joseph Jennings will conduct his peerless ensemble in authentic Spanish/Mexican Baroque-style works written by New World composers. Included will be Juan Bautista Sancho's "Misa en Sol"; as well as selected works by renowned Mexican Baroque master Manuel de Sumaya, plus a number of works written by various anonymous Spanish/Mexican composers of the late 18th century.

According to Professor Craig Russell of Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, who has been Maestro Jennings' Mission music consultant, "All of these musical works would have been performed in the grand cathedrals of New Spain, but when presented in the California Missions, they took on a more folkloric style that everyone would have known and understood. The use of drums as part of the instrumental accompaniment was a California Mission innovation, and the abundant use of processionals was very much beloved by the Franciscans who ran the missions."

Russell further notes that some of this music resembles compositions of both Handel and Haydn, "and surprisingly, even Bob Dylan." Of special musical, as well as historical interest, will be the Fremont performance, since the musically significant and gifted Father Narciso Duran, who was born in Catalonia, Spain, in 1776, spent 27 years of his life as head of Fremont's Mission San Jose.

During that period, Duran taught the local Indians to play Western instruments such as flutes, violins, trumpets, and drums. He also invented a method of writing the music out so that the Indians could read it. He not only created a choir that regularly sang chants, hymns and Masses, but his 30-piece Indian orchestra became famous throughout the area.

And fortunately, some folks in the city of Fremont have remained quite proud of Father Duran's musical contributions.

If you attend the concert, you might also check out a large decorative wall drawing in the McDonald's restaurant located about a half-mile north on Mission Boulevard at the intersection with Freeway 680 to see an authentic copy of Father Duran's note-reading system (drawings of hands with each finger designated with a particular pitch).

Chanticleer's performances in missions located in or near the Bay Area will be at 8 p.m. May 19 and again at 8 p.m. May 30 at Mission San Francisco de Asis (Mission Dolores), 3321 Sixteenth St, in San Francisco; 8 p.m. May 27 at Mission Santa Cruz, 144 School St., in Santa Cruz; 8 p.m. May 28 at Mission Santa Clara de Asis, 500 El Camino Real, in Santa Clara; and 8 p.m. May 29 at Mission San Jose, 43300 Mission Blvd., in Fremont.

Tickets for each of the concerts range from $22 to $44 and are available by contacting 800-407-1400 or www.chanticleer.org.

Further evidence that Fremont takes its music seriously is its SOS (Save Our Symphony) fundraising event planned from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday at the beautifully appointed and landscaped Dominican Sisters' convent grounds, 434326 Mission Blvd., in Fremont.

It's a fact that orchestras scattered throughout the country are having money problems, but those who suffer the most, and occasionally even "go dark," are the smaller, regional ensembles.

But residents of Fremont are determined that their Fremont Symphony will not suffer such a fate.

Following the orchestra's rave-reviewed March 22 concert featuring pianist Jon Nakamatsu playing Beethoven's dashing "Emperor" Concerto No. 5, the audience decided to put some major effort into assuring its symphony's future. Within just a few days, the SOS Campaign, under the leadership of the symphony's vice-president Jean Louie, raised $15,000 in sponsorships and reservations for the upcoming fundraiser and cash drawing.

Saturday's SOS party will feature food, wine, both a live and a silent auction, and of course, music. A $5,000 cash drawing, limited to only 300 buyers, will be on sale at $100 per ticket.

Tickets for the party are $110 each. Contact 510-794-1659 or www.fremontsymphony.org.