Few scholarly works combine extensive documentary research with interesting, informal narrative and new performance editions. Craig Russell's new monograph, From Serra to Sancho, is a wonderful addition to the rich body of musicological and historical literature on the cultural aspects of the Franciscan missions in Alta California from 1769 to 1848. Russell has aimed to make his work useful for researchers and performers alike, and to remedy the lack of printed scores for the extensive repertory of California mission music: he succeeds in doing both.

The Franciscans and the music they coordinated are at the centre of Russell's narrative. At various points throughout the book he reminds us that others have ignored the friars' musical contributions in favour of their contemporary Anglo-American composers further east. Still other scholars have focused on themes such as drastic population decline, punishment and physical control. Russell does not discount these aspects of colonialism and evangelization, but he views the music of the California missions as a vehicle through which misrepresentations about mission life may be challenged. Highly coordinated efforts between Indians and missionaries over prolonged periods of time were necessary in order to produce the sophisticated sounds revealed by written documents and extant musical sources. Although Russell's purpose was not to study the musicians themselves in depth, he notes that the native inhabitants of California could alter the traditional performance of sacred music. For example, in one manuscript, Fray Florencio Ibáñez directed the addition of loud percussion to the Veni Sancte Spiritus sung at Pentecost (205–207).

Within the book, biographies of Franciscan musicians and the best-known Mexican composer of the period – Ignacio de Jerusalem – are coupled with extensive segments about specific musical works in different genres, representing the whole body of California mission music. Russell conducted extensive research in archives in California and Mexico, examining the notes, notational system, genre, paper, handwriting and marginalia of extant source material, and comparing them with travellers' accounts, Spanish documents (including inventories and shipping records) and the physical spaces in which this music was produced. Russell's knowledge of specific musical terms allows him to correct longstanding historical misinterpretations of some important Spanish documents that describe mission music. His more complex translations lead to a much more nuanced view of instruments, performance and even the role of women in religious music. Throughout the work, Russell repeatedly notes his indebtedness to other major scholars in this field, particularly William John Summers and John Koegel.

From Serra to Sancho clearly demonstrates that late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century California religious music included elements of medieval liturgy as well as of modern, classical composition. Russell's summary of the secondary literature on the music of the Iberian world demonstrates that California mission music was similar to religious music in Spanish and Mexican cathedrals, and in Franciscan and Jesuit missions throughout the Americas. Music for Mass and the Divine Office used canto llano, canto figurado, canto de órgano and even estilo moderno (the most elaborate style, which included independent instrumental lines). Russell explains each of these styles, relying on Spanish treatises on sacred music. Besides music for the Mass and Office were songs of praise – alabados, alabanzas and gozos, with lyrics in vernacular Castilian. Several of the most compelling performance editions come from this genre, particularly ¡O qué suave!, a resplendent, galant example of the gozos used during outdoor processions for Corpus Christi celebrations. The musical backgrounds and talents of Spanish and Mallorcan friars such as Junípero Serra, Juan Bautista Sancho, Narciso Durán, Florencio Ibáñez, Estevan Tapis, Pedro Cabot and Felipe Arroyo de la Cuesta made this religious music come alive in the twenty-one mission communities that anchored this frontier region.

The book's chapter on Mallorcan friar Juan Bautista Sancho is particularly rich. Sancho deserves a place among the most prominent figures in American music history, and Russell notes his cutting-edge style. Fray Juan copied many manuscripts from his Mallorcan home convent for use in the mission field. In addition, Russell presents a convincing case for Sancho's composition of the Misa en sol, for which he offers a new performance edition, along with explanations for his editorial choices. On several occasions, he compares Sancho to colonial composer William Billings. Historians will find fascinating references to Sancho's feelings about the Napoleonic Wars and the upheaval caused by Mexican wars of independence from his diary, which Russell found inside a small notebook at the Bancroft Library.

Researchers and performers will appreciate the thorough footnotes and the author's goal of making original Spanish texts and photographs of original music manuscripts accessible. In most cases the pieces Russell discusses were fragmentary, with different parts written down in multiple sources (sometimes even in different archives). One of the most impressive contributions of this work is the detail with which Russell reassembles pieces of these musical puzzles. To create performance editions of some of these works, the author has composed accompaniments or filled in voice parts with a keen knowledge of the musical styles of the late colonial Spanish empire. In addition to the printed work, Russell has produced five extensive appendices, available on the press's website and accessed with a user name and password supplied in the book. Interested readers will find a comprehensive catalogue of California mission music, photographs of many of the sources and the missions from which they originated, translations of lyrics and performance notes, and eleven new performing editions of works by Juan Bautista Sancho and Ignacio de Jerusalem, and of choir books from Mission Santa Clara de Asís. Also noteworthy is Russell's collaboration and performance with vocal ensemble Chanticleer to record many of these pieces in their 2009 compact disc Mission Road. The entire work, as well as individual chapters, might have contained more clear, concise conclusions. In all, however, From Serra to Sancho has been a monumental undertaking, one that will propel forward a new generation of scholarship on mission music and enable audiences to appreciate once again the richness of this musical repertory.