Choirs
Early Music Ensemble: Mission Milestones
Friday, May 24, 2013
8 p.m. Mission San Luis Obispo
The Cal Poly Early Music Ensemble, under the direction of music Professor Thomas Davies, will present “Mission Milestones.”
Music Professor Craig Russell, an expert in California Mission music, will join the ensemble and discuss the works to be performed.
The program will explore some of the core repertoire from California's Mission Period in commemoration of the 300th anniversary year of the birth of Father Junípero Serra. Russell reconstructed the music from original manuscripts.
Featured will be the “Misa del quarto tono” (Mass in mode 4) that Serra and his fellow friars used during Lent and Holy Week. “The charming and ‘classical-sounding’ pieces ‘¡O qué suave!’ and ‘O Rey de corazones’ were communion pieces used outside the mission in the open air and were almost certainly used at the founding of the San Luis Obispo mission, as they were used at the founding of other missions in both Baja and Alta California,” Russell said. “The processional ‘Lauda Sion Salvatorem’ was also used during founding days and attracted the First Nations peoples of California through its catchy melody and accompaniment to the friars’ and soldiers’ ‘parade.’”
The program will conclude with Ignacio de Jerusalem’s Mass in F, the composer’s most pastoral-sounding work. “This piece surely resonated with the local populace through its catchy tunes and its ‘naturalness,’” Russell said. “Few things were prized more than ‘nature’ and ‘being natural’ at that time.
The 16 members of the Cal Poly Early Music Ensemble will be joined by several student and professional instrumentalists, including harpist Jennifer Sayre. Russell will join the instrumentalists on Baroque guitar.
Tickets ($12 general, $9 seniors and students)
Take It SLO Spring Concerts
Sunday, June 2, 2013
2 and 6 p.m., Davidson Music Center Room 218
Take It SLO, Cal Poly’s a cappella ensemble, will present two performances of its spring concert .
The 10-member student ensemble will sing popular songs arranged by the students, including selections from the group’s latest CD, which will be available for sale at the concerts.
The group’s members are students from a variety of majors. “The students include business, microbiology, and even a few engineering majors, all sharing one common bond -- a cappella,” said Take It SLO President Aaron Wolfe.
Take It SLO has received statewide recognition over the past few years and competed in the International Championship of College A Cappella West Coast Quarterfinals at the beginning of the year.
Tickets at the door($7general, $5 students)