September 19, 2021

VOCI a cappella Chamber Ensemble
Conductor: Susan Mehra Melinda Coffey Armstead, organ Sopranos: Tracy Perkins, Jane Felton, Christina Farnsworth
Altos: Elizabeth Behrens-Nagle, Jeannie Young, Astrid Holberg, Laura Frank Tenors: David Canright, Dennis Lucey, Gisela Nobinger
Basses: Seth Bates, Steve Moore, Russell Frank, Byron Chong

A warm WELCOME BACK! to the members VOCI, a sub-group of I Cantori di Carmel. These devoted singers stayed together throughout the Covid shutdown by meeting outdoors in their gardens, masked, to make music together. The last time they sang at CitF was Dec. 1, 2019. Conductor Susan Mehra has provided program notes below for today’s fascinating collection of Spanish sacred music from the New World. EnJOY!

Ya Viene el Alba . . . Early California (arr. Juan Pedro Gaffney)
In the early missions, at sunrise, a bell called the people to worship, and families were roused by the head of the household with a morning hymn to the Virgin Mary (“Now Breaks the Glowing Dawn”).

Hanacpachap . . . Juan Perez Bocanegra (Cuzco: 1631)
Quechua language. It is the earliest work of vocal polyphony printed in the New World.

Ego flos campi . . . Alonso Lobo (1555-1617) Spanish composer of the late Renaissance O vos omnes . . . Carlo Gesualdo (1594-1613) Italian composer known for writing sacred

music that used a chromatic language not heard again until the late 19th century.

Aufer a nobis . . . Francisco Lopez Capillas (1608-1674) Mexican composer and chapelmaster of Mexico City Cathedral.

Alma redemptoris Mater . . . Juan Garcia de Salazar (1639-1710) Spanish Baroque ard Von