Mass. In 1589, the library of the Mexico City cathedral included the musical works of Palestrina, Victoria, Morales, Guerrero and Orlando di Lasso, indicating that the treasury of sacred music was indeed cultivated there and not only the new music of the chapelmaster was performed. Looking to the bottom line, the Mexican Church fortified its legislation with appropriations. The annual musical budget of the Puebla cathedral was 14,000 pesos, enough to support in solid, middle-class comfort about thirty families. The music budget of the Mexico City cathedral was 5,000 pesos. With such robust support for music, the Church in Mexico not surprisingly attracted first-rate musical talent.
Several observers attest that Mexican church music was on a par with that of European cathedrals.
A vast quantity of church music was composed in Mexico and some of this has recently been rescued from manuscript archives, published, and pronounced splendid. But the dedication to church music was no mere urban fancy. Even northwestern frontier mining towns in Sinaloa and Sinora had good music. In 1715, the bishop of Durango visited the remote Jesuit mission of San Francisco de Satebo on the feast of Saint Ignatius. He was astonished and delight to discover that its Indian choristers could render a polyphonic pontifical solemn high Mass with aplomb to the accompaniment of bassoon, viola, clarinet, harp and organ.