Two and a quarter centuries ago, the aboriginal peace of our Central Coast was briefly interrupted by the passage of hundreds of people, along with their horses, cows, and other livestock. This multiethnic group of colonists and their families, led by Juan Bautista Anza, celebrated each day's progress by dancing in camp. With violin and psaltery, they filled the night air with dance tunes never before heard in these parts. Wide-spreading oaks that had, for centuries, grown used to the speech and song of the Chumash and Salinan Native Americans now heard lively quadrillos (ancestral square dances) called out in Spanish.

For several generations, the descendants of the long-journeying settlers would be famed for their endless dance parties. As other waves of immigrants arrived, new types of music superseded the old, which fell into obscurity. Then, for well over a century, the old tunes slumbered. Now, thanks to a unique intergenerational collaboration, they have burst back to full and vibrant life, right here on the Central Coast.

The New World Baroque Orchestra, directed by John Warren of Paso Robles, has, for the last five years, kept the dances of the Joseph Maria Garcia Manuscript at the heart of its repertoire. This manuscript, currently in the Braun Research Library at the Southwest Museum of Los Angeles, belonged, in 1772, to a gentleman of Chalco, Mexico, and also slumbered in obscurity until found in a village store by the eminent musicologist Eleanor Hague (1875-1954). This has allowed John Warren to work his way through the manuscript, harmonizing and orchestrating the line melodies it contains, so that his consort can immerse listeners in the sounds of Anza's time.

Since the manuscript's tunes betray seemingly improbable origins and influences spanning the globe from Scotland to China, the orchestra's repertoire can branch in many directions while remaining relevant to the unifying thread of the Joseph Maria Garcia Manuscript. Old World composers of the Renaissance, Baroque, and Classical periods, from Cristobal de Morales to Franz Schubert, from Handel to Luis Mison, were heard in Baroque Mexico and Alta California, or influenced composers there. These composers, such as Antonio Salazar, Juan de Vaeza Saavedra, and California padres like Juan Sancho (whose Misa en Sol John Warren has hand-copied from the manuscript at Stanford University and thus restored to life), and Narciso Durau, also reach modern ears through the Consort's efforts, as do hymns of the North American Shape-Note tradition, and even Klezmer tunes.

The New World Baroque Orchestra is unique not only for the breadth of its repertoire, but in its genuinely intergenerational character. Young people participate in its music-making as honored equals, and are always welcome in its audiences, but it is not a youth group per se, for seasoned performers, and elders in the audience, are equally important and honored.

The dance programs involve a similar collaboration between the generations, with California elders like Enriqueta Vacio and Consuelo Ramirez teaching a living heritage of song and dance to the Cabrera Family of Santa Barbara, who, in turn, pass on these cultural riches to elementary school students in their area. Our modern era is often dominated by monolithic educational systems that often segregate their students from living culture-bearers and from the rest of society, but the New World Baroque Orchestra swims against this tide, seeking to integrate the generations, and to allow the young to claim the cultural riches of the past as their living and rightful inheritance.

Still another unique feature of the Orchestra is its use of historic replica instruments (harpsichord and tenor and treble viols) hand-crafted locally by Haldon Chase of rural Paso Robles, and of a baroque cello created by Jim Wimmer of Santa Barbara.

The wide-spreading oaks have heard little Chumash or Salinan in the last two centuries. Of late, they have heard more motor sounds than human sounds. But on a special magical evening, when the New World Baroque Orchestra performs, the hope to is serenade them with the dances that were once new to these parts, and are now a rediscovered part of our history and identity.