22 PART 1 | FROM COLONIZATION THROUGH THE CIVIL WAR
but with plenty of polyphonic singing as well, displayed the variety of a fl ourish-
ing colonial culture.
A good example of California mission music is “¡O qué suave!” (Oh, how gentle),
which is preserved in several manuscript sources (LG 1.1). This anonymous hymn—
a sacred song with a nonbiblical text—would have been sung during the elaborate
outdoor processions that formed part of the celebration of Corpus Christi, a major
Catholic holiday occurring in late May or early June. At each of four fl ower-strewn
altars, a padre would raise up the communion bread and chalice, representing
the body and blood of Christ, while poems were recited and music was played and
sung. Unlike the liturgy performed inside the church, some of these hymns were
not in Latin but in Catalan Spanish, the everyday language of the settlements.
“¡O qué suave!” shows the infl uence of the galant style of mid-eighteenth-century
European music: a graceful melody fl oats atop a simple homophonic texture, the
harmonies move slowly and clearly, and the short phrases end gently. A stately
triple meter suggests the sarabande, a formal European dance. This highly culti-
vated European-style music would probably have been performed by an ensemble
of mostly American Indian singers and instrumentalists.FRENCH COLONIZATION
In a parallel development to the Spanish missions, French Jesuit priests brought
Roman Catholic worship to Canada. The long, harsh winters and rough terrain
were not conducive to the kind of network of towns the Spanish had installed to
the south; the French in Canada instead concentrated on setting up commer-
cial outposts. In that arrangement, a trading center in Quebec City served as
the chief link to the European market. Agents in France received fox, beaver,
and mink furs as products of overseas investment, while in Quebec supervis-
ing agents monitored the white and American Indian trappers who fanned out
through the Canadian wilderness to do their work. Jesuits followed the trappers’K Processions to mark the
feast of Corpus Christi, such
as this one in Guatemala in
2007, are still an important
part of Roman Catholic
practice throughout Latin
America and elsewhere.LG 1.1172028_01_018-043_r2_mr.indd 22 23/01/13 9:50 AM