Mission Magic

Three distinct ingredients propelled last Friday evening's presentation in the Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa of Chanticleer's Mission Road to the apogee of our musical experience: venue, historical research, and performance perfection.

The halls, bars, and cathedrals of history have always helped shape the music styles and performance forces of their times. When Junipero Serra set about establishing a string of missions up through Alta California the building designs in modest part reflected that of the churches and cathedrals he knew from back home in Mexico, designed for the music of that time, best represented by Antonio de Salazar and his student Manuel de Sumaya.

But much of the music that might have been performed in the missions, the plainsongs that reverberated off the solid adobe-brick walls, the arias that floated up to the high raftered ceilings had been lost and forgotten, that is until Cal Poly professor Craig Russell began to unearth them. His passion for the Mexican Cathedral music and for the California Missions also infected his graduate students, who assisted in the recovery and reconstruction of compositions that had lain forgotten in archives for hundreds of years.

Then came the magic of collaboration, a musical marriage between Russell and Chanticleer, arguably the best male chorus in the world today, which produced four CDs and ultimately stimulated this musical tour of the missions, this Mission Road.

We were smitten from the first sounds. The perfection of the unison response  in the plainsong Venite Adoremus Regum regum by eleven male singers in the center aisle somewhere behind us - and how could that many singers manage to sound like a single beautiful voice? - set the tone for the delights to come. Chanticleer on this tour consisted of a bass, a bass-baritone, a baritone, three tenors, three male altos, and three male sopranos. Each is a highly trained voice, capable of solo oratorio or opera (as indeed most have done), and skilled in the music arts. Necessarily so, for Salazar and Sumaya present intricacy in their vocal compositions the equal of any madrigal or polyphonic choral work demanding individual part independence, great tonal accuracy, and incredible vocal flexibility. Each and every Chanticleerean demonstrated this ability and more. Add to that a uniform perfection of enunciation, rendering even the archaic Spanish in absolute clarity, syllable by syllable. The presentation encompassed great variety, from recitativo and arias such as Ya la naturaleza redimida by Manuel de Sumaya performed beautifully by male alto Cortez Mitchell (close your eyes and you saw a female operatic contralto!) to Estribillo and Coplas (refrain and verses), and then Sumaya's seguidillas, a new genre (to his time) of song and dance.

The height of musical enjoyment for the evening came with Salazar's Salve Regina for eight voices, a beautifully intricate work with a chant melody leading to the motet, gradually building momentum with back and forth sallies from choir to choir, alternating complex independent interweaving vocal lines with the contrasting power of the full unified chorus to incredible effect.

Our enraptured enjoyment of the performance was enhanced by the realization that the music sounding here in this mission had not been heard anywhere for hundreds of years, returning now for our ears only in the venue for which it was originally intended. Chanticleer was accompanied by violin, cello, arch lute, and guitar played by consummate professionals, including Professor Russell himself.

After the last note of the evening had trailed off somewhere high above us the audience leapt to their feet with loud exclamations of "Bravo", sounds that may not have been so authentic to the venue, but which felt entirely appropriate and right nonetheless.

(Mission Road is a series of concerts by Chanticleer performed in six missions from San Francisco to Santa Barbara presenting the music of Salazar and Sumaya)

Wine: The Canary in the Coal Mine

I've just returned from Napa Valley. The valley is perhaps the best known wine producer in California despite the fact that it produces a mere 4% of California wines. But it was the first American wine growing region to establish a worldwide reputation in a face-off with the French, and the Napa Valley Vintners maintain perhaps the best region-wide organization and sales approach. And let's face it…they make very good wines.
I spent two days at the Mumm Winery engaged in a course of study offered by W.I.S.E. (Wine Industry Sales Education) Academy, taking Wine 101. It was fascinating.
I've always been an ale man, as those who know me can attest. I began in the trenches with Budweiser and Miller, graduated to Coors even before they were shipping beyond the Mississippi, and pursued my graduate work in England sampling bitters and ales from pub to shining brewpub. Those were the years immediately following the launching of CAMRA (the Campaign for Real Ale) and each tour of duty was a delightful sojourn into infinite variety and taste. And then came the American age of the microbrewery. Finally, real beer drinkers could stay home. Living in the Boston area, there was much to taste and appreciate, both of the old world and the new. Life was a foam-filled frolic.
In 2009 I retired from teaching and moved to California seeking new challenges. I found myself surrounded by vineyards. I made new friends, all of whom drank wine. My daily jog took me down Harvest Road past Merlot, Shiraz and Pinot Noir. I joined a cellar club at a nearby winery. I bought a wine rack. Chameleon-like, I found myself taking on the ruby-red colors of my environment. Although I learned quickly, I could not speak the language of wine, which involved a bit too much French and Montecito. And thus it was that I enrolled in the Wine Fluency course with the Academy.
I learned a lot. I learned that I store Champagne incorrectly, that my new wine rack is located badly, that my palate is seriously dull, that I have no head for drinking wine…and if a test follows a class on wine tasting: spit, don't swallow.
But I also learned that Napa Valley wine growers are a concerned community. Perhaps it's something to do with the fragility of growing grapes, the uncertainties associated with each vintage year from bud break to harvest to fermentation to aging. Like that box of chocolates, you never know what you are going to get from year to year. Whatever the reason, the wine producers in Napa Valley all work together. Now they are working toward sustainability.
First and foremost, the Napa Valley vintners accept the reality of climate change. In the wine business, it is necessary to adapt quickly. In "Warming to the Future", an essay by Rod Smith commissioned by the NVV, he notes "viticulture is to climate what the canary in the coal mines is to the miners' air supply". When the canary stops singing, the miners don't stand around discussing why. Working with UC Davis, vintners are continually adapting vines to respond well to changing climatic conditions and devising canopy strategies that protect the grape. But beyond that, Napa Valley has moved quickly to embrace green values and to utilize new technologies. The Mumm Winery where my classes were held has installed motion sensitive switches insuring that lights are never left on. Interior lighting is maximized naturally with large windows and open spaces (daylight is a ready commodity here) and large solar panels account for much of the power generation. The huge main wine warehouse in the valley is solar powered. At one winery, a newly constructed customer center is not only 100% solar powered but also utilizes geothermal power through two dozen bore holes in the parking lot and pipes that recirculate fluid from the building's heat-exchange unit to help maintain a constant 60 degrees year round (wine enjoys 55 - 65 degrees - I do too).
Armed with all of this information, I wondered what the vintners in my Central Coast area are doing to anticipate climate change. In a 2010 technical report prepared for the Local Government Commission of San Luis Obispo, the authors observe that "San Luis Obispo faces a variety of risks from climate change, including extreme heat, a generally drier climate, increases in extreme weather events, and sea-level rise. Important vulnerabilities are apparent for water supplies…". A not insignificant aspect of vulnerability to grape growers is the length of time required to produce a wine product from vine to grape to properly aged wine. If growers consider a change from certain grape varieties they must think many years in advance, thus incurring a potentially large financial risk. In Napa, for instance, the climatic designation for grape growing has already warmed from a designated Region III to IV, and is threatening to become a Region V. Fog is the great mitigating factor, a benefit shared by many if the Central Coast AVAs.
So which grapes are we talking about here? According to Dr. Gregory Jones of Southern Oregon University, those grapes that require the coolest growing climate are Gewurszteminer, Pinot gris, and Reisling. These grapes will have to keep moving north with the climate. (My wife loves a sweet Gewurszteminer, the late harvest variety. I guess she'll be moving north.) Meanwhile, Zinfandel, Sangiovese, Cabernet Sauvignon and Grenache are better suited to a warmer growing season.
But I find no panic on the part of Central Coast vintners. Where Napa Valley is product forward with their actions and plans in this regard, I had to delve deep to find any organized climate initiatives here, and those were primarily county plans. San Luis Obispo county has a green building plan in preparation, part of which is now ready for view by citizens, and includes support from the wineries. Called the Green Building ordinance, it "will highlight the ways to reduce energy consumption, improve indoor air quality, resource conservation, and Greenhouse Gas emissions". The land management portion is apparently not yet ready for review. Santa Barbara County is "developing an Energy and Climate Action Plan to achieve energy efficiency and conservation, renewable energy, water efficiency and conservation, reduced vehicle trips, and minimized waste". Soon...
The Central Coast Winegrowers Association points to these efforts, but does not own them. An organization called the Central Coast Vineyard Team is promoting efforts toward sustainability, but only those targets already established by the state of California. To me, their goals do not exceed those of any civic minded business organization.
So what does this mean? I believe the difference to be organization. Napa Valley is tight knit. Despite competition with one another, and neighboring Sonoma Valley, the NVV has found that in unity there is success. This concept is illustrated by their label policy, the agreement that the appellation Napa Valley should be present on every winemakers label in addition to estate or AVA labeling. You won't find that in Sonoma or on Central Coast wine bottles.
Here on the Central Coast, the canary is not yet singing. I hope that means the glass is half full…not that the bird is dead.

Smith, Rod. Warming to the Future. Napa Valley Vintners.