Zephyr’s Supple Mission Music

Revelations were in short supply Saturday evening, but cheerfully expressive, supple ensemble singing was not, as Zephyr presented a quasi-narrative program of California mission music at St. Nicholas’ Episcopal Church in Encino. Most of the music came from the ensemble’s new CD and reflects new editions and research, but the adventure was modest.

The first half of the concert was a liturgical re-creation centered on the “Missa de los Angeles,” a sprightly, innocuous setting brought to California by mission musician Juan Bautista Sancho and accompanied here by guitarist Man-Bun Au. The second half featured anonymous devotional and secular songs, most arranged by Zephyr members. Spoken prayers and stories provided a highly idealized context, with only two Cahuilla bird songs, vibrantly sung by Kent Carlson, to indicate that more than one culture was involved at the missions.

The artistic climaxes came at the end of each half, with the music most remote chronologically from the mission era. The “Magnificat primi toni” by Francisco Lopez Capillas, master of music in Mexico City, was composed more than a century before the founding of the first missions and in a style deliberately archaic even then. It closed the first half with robust glory.

Zephyrite Paul Gibson’s brand-new “Salve Regina” setting combines a chant melody and the lilting parallel thirds characteristic of the mission period numbers in music of vaulting exaltation, more confident than pleading. He and his colleagues sang it with a warmth and joy as obvious as their great skill.