Los californios® Historic Secular Music of Mexican-Era California Los californios® Web Site Map       Upcoming events The Museum Gift Shop       Recordings:           Flowers of Our Lost Romance       Sheet Music Transcriptions             Music of Early California:             NEW in 2007: Volume 9             Music of Early California:             Volumes 1 — 9 bound together             El ciego Melquíades:             A tejano fiddler of yesterday       Folk Arts Books & Wares Order Form loscalifornios.info — Site Map Spanish-Language Social Music of 19th-Century Southern California      Charles Lummis’ Spanish      Language Music Recordings      Historic Casa de Adobe      Fiesta Programs and Photographs      Historic Resources for      Spanish-Language Social Music      of 19th-Century Southern California loscalifornios.org — Site Map Home Page for Padua Hills Theatre: The Mexican Players      The Historic Physical Setting      The People — Los paduanos      The Musicians — Los músicos      The Dancers — Los bailadores      Padua Hills Plays      “Las Posadas”      “California Romance”      Behind the Scenes      The Vera Family Account      The Physical Setting Today      Other Padua Hills Resources      Related Padua Hills Links San Diego Friends of Old-Time Music, Inc. Photo by Jerry Bowen From left: Janet Martini, David Swarens, Vykki Mende Gray The Peña Adobe in Vacaville, CA. Los californios®, based in San Diego, California, play and sing the secular music of California from the days when our state was part of Spain and then Mexico. These sweet, melodic pieces include waltzes and polkas used for dancing, and songs about love and rancho life, often with comic lyrics. Although the music includes elements of Spanish music, it also includes influences from European and American folk music — as trading ships often visited the coast of Alta California, from the indigenous peoples of California, and from the diverse heritages of the early Mexican settlers. Los californios® is a self-supporting project of San Diego Friends of Old-Time Music, a California non-profit educational corporation. This project works to expose California audiences to their own historic musical heritage; to research, document and transcribe social music and dances from eighteenth and nineteenth century Spanish-speaking Californians; and to teach and distribute this information to a wide audience of musicians, dancers and enthusiasts through workshops, performances, articles and papers presented at educational conferences, and music classes at Sherman Heights Community Center. Los californios® received a People in Preservation Award from Save Our Heritage Organisation for these accomplishments. Los californios® is a registered service mark belonging to San Diego Friends of Old-Time Music, Inc. Los californios® include: Janet Martini, accordion and vocals Vykki Mende Gray, violín, tambor, and vocals David Swarens, guitar Artistic Director: Vykki Mende Gray CONTACT For bookings, contact: David Swarens 619/232-4475 Or send e-mail to info@loscalifornios.com From left: David Swarens, Janet Martini, Vykki Mende Gray At San Pasqual Battlefield State Monument. Flowers of Our Lost Romance Los californios® have recorded their first album, which includes 60 minutes of beautiful early California dances and songs sung in the original archaic Spanish. Click above to see the cover, and to read the album notes and words to songs. Click here for an order form Music from this CD was used for a Latino USA program reporting on the descendents of Spanish and Mexican-era Californians and their efforts to preserve a genealogical identity. Music Clip Two pieces from this CD are also part of the music used in The Remuda, a DVD film by J & S Productions about the evolution of the buckaroo beginning in California over 200 years ago. Other musicians featured in this movie include Pedro Marquez, Ian Tyson and Dave Stamey. Nuestras Herencias, Folklórico dance program at Royce Hall, UCLA David Swarens, Janet Martini, Vykki Mende Gray Sheet Music Transcriptions Research by Los californios® has resulted in a growing number of original transcriptions and arrangements of songs and dance tunes, many from the Edison wax cylinders recorded by Charles Fletcher Lummis. This is available as a comb-bound book containing 402 pages of music transcribed over a period of ten years, mostly from primary sources, and arranged with chord indications in common folk music keys. Lead and harmony lines (segunda) are included for most pieces in the traditional style, and an index to the pieces is included. Most of these pieces have not been readily available to a general audience for over a hundred years. These transcriptions finally make this music once again accessible and available for performers and scholars. Click here for additional description TO ORDER COPIES OF SHEET MUSIC TRANSCRIPTIONS Olvera Street Preserving Californio Music In the era of Alta (Upper) California, the 5000 or so settlers lived far apart, spread between San Diego and Sonoma. So when friends and relatives gathered at a rancho for a holiday or visit, it was an occasion for many days of singing, dancing and celebrating. The californio music all but died out after the era of the ranchos ended, but songs performed by the last generations of californios were recorded on wax cylinders by journalist and folklorist Charles Fletcher Lummis, mostly between 1904 and 1907. Lummis published a portfolio of 14 pieces from his recordings in 1923. Over time a number of groups continued in efforts to preserve this California heritage: the Padua Hills Theatre (The Mexican Players) in Claremont, the José Arias Troubadours, Eugene Plummer with his dance group, the folk dance community with dance collectors and teachers like Lucille Czarnowski and Albert Pill, Gabriel Ruíz and his group of musicians and dancers, the A la California Club (later calling itself Los Californios), the Southwest Museum and its adjunct the Casa de Adobe, Elisabeth Waldo with her creative compositions based on historic California music, Elizabeth Erro Hvolboll, Luis Moreno, Luis Goena and his dancers Los parientes, Yesteryears Dancers, Arnold Guerra and his dancers Tatalejos, the Alta California Dance Company, the Calicanto Singers, Los Bailadores of Old Town San Diego, Los Califas in Petaluma, El coro hispano de San Francisco, Folklórico Mexicano Del Sur de California, and descendants groups from all over the state. In the late 1930s Sidney Robertson Cowell undertook a project to document Northern California Folk Music and included a number of recordings and photographs of people preserving this tradition of music, including informants like: Lottie Espinosa, Hilda Duarte Brown and Walter Sebree, and Jessie de Soto performing Spanish-language songs from California; and The Boys of St. Joseph’s Seminary, women from the Asistencia at Pala (Pala Indian Reservation), and the Choristers of St. Anthony’s Seminary performing music from California’s Spanish-era missions. In 1989 a group of San Diego folk musicians, organized by Lee Birch and calling itself Los californios®, began playing this music and learning these dances. David Swarens knew of Lummis’ original recordings housed at the Southwest Museum in Los Angeles (a museum that Lummis had helped to found in 1914) and the group was able to obtain funding through San Diego’s Old Town State Park in order to obtain tape recordings from the original wax cylinders. Since those humble beginnings, these San Diego musicians have been privileged to conduct original research in this field, and to meet and interview a number of the people who have made contributions to preserving this heritage. The group’s educational mission continues to be extended in many different ways. Their original transcriptions from the Lummis recordings and other recorded sources are a source of joy for many a Californian rediscovering Mexican California, their delightful performances at historic sites and museums on both sides of the border with Mexico enchant people of all ages, their scholarly presentations at universities and for historic academicians are widely applauded, and their popular recording Flowers of Our Lost Romance is available at a growing number of venues. For more information about the preservation of Spanish-Language Social Music of the 19th Century in Southern California, follow this link. Historical photograph by Irene Welch Garner. Padua Hills Theatre — The Mexican Players Conchita Gallardo and Magrucio Jara Los californios® Collection Living History and Music Photo by Bill Thorpe From left: David Swarens, Janet Martini, Vykki Mende Gray At San Pasqual Battlefield State Historic Park. Los californios® play and sing at many historic festivals around Southern and Central California. Their authentic period clothing and music entertain audiences wherever they perform, including their frequent appearances at such places as: El museo de las Californias at the Centro Cultural, Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico Bowers Museum, Santa Ana, CA Jensen-Alvarado Ranch, Riverside, CA Old Town, San Diego, CA Museum of the American West (Formerly the Gene Autry Western Heritage Museum), Los Angeles, CA Cowboy Poetry and Western Art Roundup, Lakeside, CA Mission Valley Library, San Diego, CA Mission San Luis Rey de Francia, Oceanside, CA Fort Guijarros Fiesta, San Diego Friends of the Ranch House Chapel, Camp Pendleton Joaquin Murrieta Days, Tecate, Baja California, Mexico Día de los Muertos, Old Town Cemetery, San Diego, CA Rancho Guajome, Oceanside, CA Rancho Los Alamitos Historic Ranch, Long Beach, CA The Nature Conservancy’s historic ranch at Santa Rosa Plateau, CA Rancho Los Cerritos, Long Beach, CA El Molino Viejo, San Marino, CA Mission Trails Regional Park, San Diego, CA Fiesta del Río, Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico & Imperial Beach, CA The Cowboy Soiree, Julian Wild West Days, Campo, CA San Pasqual Historic Battleground Pío Pico Mansion, Whittier, CA Spanish Village, Balboa Park, San Diego Old Spanish Days, Santa Barbara, CA Adams Avenue Roots Festival, San Diego, CA (Photo) (Photo) Vaquero Days at McClintock Saddle Works in Descanso, CA Sam Hinton Folk Heritage Folk Festival (Previously the San Diego Folk Heritage Folk Festival) San Diego, CA Banning Residence, Wilmington, CA Buena Vista Adobe, Vista, CA College campuses History and archeology conferences Whaley House, San Diego, CA Save Our Heritage Organisation Chula Vista Library Guasti Mansion, Ontario, CA Olvera Street, Los Angeles, CA Presidio, San Francisco, CA The General Bernardo de Galvez Project El alisal, the Lummis home, Los Angeles, CA Columbia, California Los californios® artistic director, Vykki Mende Gray, also teaches californio and Mariachi music at Sherman Heights Community Center. She is the author of a book exploring another aspect of traditional music in California: Kenny Hall’s Music Book: Old-Time Music for Fiddle and Mandolin, published by Mel Bay Publications. With Yesteryears Dancers at California State University, Dominguez Hills Charles Fletcher Lummis Photo by Charles Fletcher Lummis, of Charles Fletcher Lummis Original autographed photograph Los Californios® Collection “Always your friend Chas. F. Lummis — Happy New Year 1910” Charles Fletcher Lummis (1859-1928) was born in Massachusetts, but came to be an avid promoter of the American Southwest. He walked from Ohio to Los Angeles in 143 days, and published a journal of his trip, A Tramp Across the Continent, in 1892. In addition to the celebrated Edison wax cylinder recordings that he made to preserve historic Spanish-language secular songs of California and Native American music of the Southwest, Lummis helped found the Landmarks Club in 1897 to restore the California missions, founded the Sequoia League in 1901 to protect America’s native people, and helped create the Southwest Museum in 1914. Lummis was an editor for the Los Angeles Times and wrote many other books including The Land of Poco Tiempo (1893). El Alisal, Lummis’ Los Angeles home and gardens, is now the headquarters of the Historical Society of Southern California and is open to the public. For more information about Lummis and his Edison wax cylinder recordings, go to lummis.loscalifornios.net. Californio Links The Roots Music Listening Room: Texas-Mexican Border Music & The Music of Vera Cruz: 1920s - 1950s http://juneberry78s.com/sounds/ListenToMexican.php The Lou Curtiss Sound Library http://www.folkartsrarerecords.com/?q=node/7 Folk Arts Rare Records http://www.folkartsrarerecords.com/ Descendants of Old Town www.ot-boot.com/DESCENDENTS/index.htm California Mission Studies Association http://www.ca-missions.org/ California Mission Studies Association: Links to resources www.ca-missions.org/links.html American Folklife Center, Library of Congress: American Memory, California Gold frontiers.loc.gov/ammem/afccchtml/cowhome.html The Lively Arts History Association http://www.lahacal.org/ Los Californianos — Statewide descendants organization http://www.loscalifornianos.org/ Photo by Paula Strong From left: David Swarens, Janet Martini, Vykki Mende Gray At Vaquero Days in Descanso, California. Photo by Bill Thorpe From left: David Swarens, Janet Martini, Vykki Mende Gray At Old Town, San Diego, California. New World Baroque Orchestra www.newworldbaroque.org/ International Hispanic Music Study Group www.dartmouth.edu/~hispanic/ Shadows of the Past a web page on historic reenactment www.sptddog.com/sotp/sotp.html Californios — Fred Smoot’s Informative Page www.californios.us/ca/ Bob Flesher’s Banjo Rogues www.flesherbanjo.com/rogues.html California History Online — from the Library of Congress lcweb2.loc.gov/ammem/cbhtml/cbintro.html William John Summers’ studies of California Mission Music californiamissions.com/music/history.html http://www.ca-missions.org/summers.html The Barrel Organ at Mission San Juan Bautista http://www.standingstones.com/sanjuan.html El coro hispano de San Francisco www.corohispano.org More great music sources from greatcalifornia.com http://www.greatcalifornia.com/ Pirates anyone? 18th Century Pirate Dances at Fiesta del Río, a celebration of the Tijuana Estuary and its history, in Imperial Beach, California Contact Los californios® at info@loscalifornios.com Los californios® is a registered service mark belonging to San Diego Friends of Old-Time Music, Inc., a California non-profit corporation. © Vykki Mende Gray, 2007 All rights reserved.