The Spanish invasion of the Americas in the 16th century brought with it a robust musical culture, situated in the church, which then took root and diversified in the New World. For the ensuing two centuries and more, Catholic sacred music in Latin America was an amalgamation of European Renaissance and Baroque traditions with native cultural strands.
The San Francisco chorus Tactus, led by Music Director Elizabeth Kimble, celebrates this tradition with a program titled “Cantus Mexicanus: Renaissance Choral Music of New Spain.”
It’s a collection of works from the 16th and 17th centuries, written by composers whose names are largely unknown to modern listeners — Francisco López Capillas, José Cascante and Hernando Franco, to name a few — as well as some whose names remain lost to history entirely.
Most are in Latin, naturally, including settings of such familiar liturgical texts as “Stabat Mater” and “Magnificat.” But some have texts in such indigenous languages as Quechua and Nahuatl.