Music samples on this page are given in two formats. Linked from the title of each song, you can listen to a .WAV file. These tend to be larger and lower quality, but should work with all standard browsers and systems. If you have RealAudio, or would like to download it, longer and better quality versions of each selection can be streamed live from the RealAudio images.

A History of Mission Music By William Summers, Ph.D. this brief history talks about some of the prominent composers and styles during the mission period.

A Choir of Angels II: Mission Music By Zephyr Music from the California Missions High-quality CDs available in our Gift Shop!

Magnificat Primi Toni (515 KB) by Francisco Lopez Capillas. The first stop on the road to being a mission padre was a training program in Mexico City, lasting about two years. Although this intensive education left little time for sophisticated musical training, the priests did have the opportunity to hear great music in the cathedral of Mexico City.

Paloyoloyo (350 KB) Anonymous Cahuilla Indian Composer. These indigenous peoples lived in the remote mountain and desert areas of Southern California Originating around four hundred years ago, this song and its companion below are extracts from the "Birdsong" cycle, songs of celebration and commemoration which reminded the people of their migration on this land. The earliest Cahuilla musicians played a rattle as accompaniament, but by the time of the missions, the drum had been imported from other Native American nations.

El Cantico del Alba (744 KB) Anonymous composer. This traditional hymn of dawn was the first thing heard early every morning at a typical mission, full of praise for the Virgin Mary.

Padre Nuestro (482 KB) Anonymous Composer. A straightforward and heartfelt setting of the Lord's Prayer, for four-part men's voices.

Salve Regina (468 KB) by Paul Gibson. This is a new setting of the traditional Marian devotion (meaning a devotional song about Mary), a prayer that would have been sung daily. Based on the plainchant that dominated mission life, and using the favored parrallel thirds as a musical device, Gibson brings back the polyphonic tradition of Capillas (see above) as well as a taste of our own century.

A Choir of Angels By I Cantori Music from the Latin American Renaissance High-quality CDs available in our Gift Shop!

Xicochi Xicochi Conetzintle (560 KB) by Gaspar Fernandez, (c. 1570-1629) This work, written in renaissance Mexico by a Spanish composer, reflects Native American influences in its rhythm and Aztec text.

Hanacpachap Cussicuinin (465 KB) Unknown Incan Composer (published 1610, Peru) One of the earliest published works in the Western Hemisphere, a hymn to a "Lady of the Flowers," sung in Quechan, the Incan language.

Hijos de Eva Tributarios (771 KB) by Tomas de Herrera (flourished 1611-1620) Another piece from the early Latin American repertory, this profound miniature deals with the concept of Original Sin.