New ensemble Musica Transalpina makes musical milestones

Soaring voices descend from the galleries, where the echoes of unseen singers mix with the splendor of instruments which each, in turn, seem to outdo one another in magnificence; the subtle tinkling of lutes weaves melodies like the silver and gold brocade of the sacred vestments to envelop the listener with sound. Delicate solo passages are suddenly interrupted by massive choral textures, filling the Mass-goers with astonishment and awe.

This is not a liturgical daydream or even a sacred concert: it is a reality a new Catholic ensemble has revived out of obscurity and brought to life.

Based in Los Angeles, the two-year-old Catholic musical group is the nation’s only professional ensemble exclusively dedicated to baroque sacred music. Named Musica Transalpina, its mission is to explore and reveal the Catholic roots of the baroque musical style, which most people probably do not realize originated with the Church.

The majority of their repertoire has never been performed in the United States before, with some of the larger works they present—like Habsburg kapellmeister Antonio Bertali’s Missa Consecrationis—never having been performed in modern times.

Their director and founder, Mr Bryan Roach, says they were formed “almost by accident.” Originally brought together for a special liturgy at a parish run by the Norbertines of St. Michael’s Abbey, the music they performed drew so much enthusiasm—not only on the part of the famously ambivalent professional musicians hired for the event, but from the congregation itself—that Roach decided to form the group into its own non-profit corporation dedicated to the research and performance of baroque sacred music.

Musica Transalpina’s mission is to draw attention to the musical patrimony of the Catholic Counter-Reformation, which is very rarely performed and practically unknown in the United States. “These are serious compositions,” their director says. “Most of the music we perform comes directly from the archives of royal courts in the immediate post-Tridentine era, when sacred music was meant to reflect the splendor and power of the Church: we want to function as a serious performing ensemble in order to bring these forgotten masterpieces back into the mainstream of the concert repertoire.”

Having performed for various liturgical services for several years, August 2023 saw Musica Transalpina’s first public concert, the result of their being awarded a grant from the Colburn Foundation. This allowed them to achieve their dream of performing Georg Muffat’s monumental Missa in Labore Requies for five choirs, written for Salzburg Cathedral in the 1680s.

Through a happy series of events, I was able to join the ensemble for this project, where I met their director Bryan Roach in person for the first time, and had the privilege of collaborating with a whole host of period instrumentalists from across the country. Here is an excerpt from the Kyrie of the Mass, from the concert performance, although it was also used liturgically the following day:

Concert programs with themes from the Hispanic and eastern European Baroque earned them endorsements from the Czech consulate, of the Mexican consulate, and of the Spanish consulate. Given the focus on Austrian music, the ensemble’s founders were formally invited to introduce themselves to the Austrian Consul in Los Angeles, and this happily coincided with two Austrian-based musicians joining their ensemble: organist Sean Maxwell, and trombonist Thomas Zsivkovits. Maxwell claims the ensemble pays greater attention to unearthing the masterpieces of the Austrian golden age than any other ensemble he has worked with in Austria!

This to their next ambitious goal: a concert tour of Austria at the end of this year. Bryan shares that the ensemble is having Antonio Bertali’s Missa Vivorum–which survives in only two manuscripts–transcribed for a performance in November.

Roach says: “We are absolutely certain that this work has remained unperformed for three and a half centuries.” He hopes to take the group on tour through California and Austria to perform the Missa Vivorum. “This concert would take advantage of the tremendous momentum we have attained so far, and would help us solidify our standing as an ensemble of newly found global stature,” Roach explains.

What might be most surprising about the group is that it was formed as the resident baroque ensemble of a parish church in south Los Angeles, and was funded not from a handful of wealthy individuals, but from a large base of small yet devoted parishioners. As a result, funding is still their biggest challenge. Bursting with talent, the group has drawn attention from baroque music specialists across the world for the rarity of the literature they research.

Holy Week 2023, for example, saw their collaboration with the world-famous cornetist Bruce Dickey on the American premiere of Bertali’s enormous Missa Sancti Spiritus, written for the imperial coronation of Leopold I.

Musica Transalpina represents something unique in the USA: where most ensembles are either instrumental or vocal, they “were founded as both a vocal and an instrumental ensemble,” which makes them one of a kind. Roach invites anyone interested in supporting the work of Musica Transalpina to visit their website, where they can reach out to him. As a non-profit, all donations to the group are tax deductible. And they are the only professional Catholic ensemble of their kind focusing exclusively on Catholic music from the Baroque. “We want to bring the forgotten masterpieces of the early baroque fully into the mainstream by presenting world-class performances of large-scale liturgical music from the seventeenth century,” notes Roach.

“While to-day some might find this style to be a bit overwhelming,” their director said of Catholics in the pew, “it heavily alluded to Rome in the imaginations of the listeners: in its day, it was part of the PR campaign to make Catholicism seem sophisticated and stylish.” As in the seventeenth century, this music continues to have evangelistic opportunities.

Roach told me that while their “official mission” is one of premiering baroque music at the highest level, his “personal objective is evangelistic in nature: namely, to glorify God and save souls with the most splendid music ever written.”