Transforming the Everyday into the Extraordinary: Religious Processions in Portugal (original) (raw)

El Rocío: A Case Study of Music and Ritual in Andalucía

2007

ABSTRACT Title of Document: EL ROCÍO: A CASE STUDY OF MUSIC AND RITUAL IN ANDALUCÍA W. Gerard Poole, Ph.D., 2007 Dissertation directed by: Dr. Carolina Robertson, Department of Ethnomusicology Music is central to the processional pilgrimage of El Rocío, which attracts hundreds of thousands of pilgrims to Andalusia, Spain, late each spring. The pilgrimage affords a unique view, in microcosm, of the relationships between music and ritual from both ritual-studies and ethnomusicological perspectives. Based on extensive fieldwork and other research, this dissertation explores the nexus of the Catholic ritual system in Andalusia, flamenco, and the specific music of El Rocío: the Sevillanas Rocieras. That nexus becomes clear through exploration of three particular features of the pilgrimage: (1) the devotional processions that generate a single, focused, collective emotion; (2) the Andalusian musical form called the palo; and (3) the informal musical gatherings called juergas, which take place nightly along the route. Analysis of structural and morphological relationships between ritual, music, and emotion yields surprising realizations about how these three elements come together as embodied aesthetics within a communitas to generate popular culture. Another important finding of this work is the necessity of placing, at the center of the inquiry, the religious experience—including the curious Andalusian phenomenon of the “chaotic” emotional procession and its role within the overall pilgrimage and ritual system. The dissertation concludes with two theoretical positions. The first addresses the process of “emotional structuring” and its role within the musical rituals of El Rocío and, by extension, Andalusia. The second advances a theory of ritual relations with potential application to ritual systems beyond Andalusia. The author presents both positions within an evolutionary framework based on the tenets of biomusicology, neurophenomenology, and Peircean semiotics.

"One for all, all for the Música Nova": a case study

This communication explored the process of teaching music in the community bands in Portugal, through qualitative and quantitative methods. It is part of a case study conducted in Banda dos Bombeiros Voluntários de Ílhavo – Música Nova and it is part of one project in Ethnomusicology Institute – Center for Music and Dance at the University of Aveiro.

Beating the Drums of Santa Teresa: Performing Resistance in a Brazilian Quilombo

2019

This article explores the evocative power of sonic and performative aspects of a set of actions taken by Catholic quilombolas (inhabitants of quilombos) in northwest Maranhão, Brazil, in the context of the religious celebration of their community's patron-saint Santa Teresa de Jesus. Its aim is to explore the principal ways in which the itinerant drummers employ sound, movement and performance to respond to the unsettled conditions of everyday life. In line with this volume's orienting questions, this article sheds light on some of the main evocations that emerge from engaging with sound in the context of a quilombo religious festivity and the impacts these may have upon people's lives in 'conflict circumstances'. The discussion focuses on the outings of the itinerant group (batuque) for the collection of donations (joia), and on the ways in which these ritualistic acts, which are heuristically called 'performative religious praxis', visibly and acoustically manifest Catholicism in a religiously contested territory. It is argued that in the joia outings Catholic resistance to the growing influence of local Pentecostal churches and quilombola resilience to land competitors are channelled through the batuque's musical performance. In those instances, it is posited that in the joia outings, the space considered as the Saint's land is moulded, acted upon, reconfigured, and constituted by the batuque for the entire Catholic community.

Musical Performance at a Brazilian Festival

Este trabalho discute a diversidade musical nos gêneros musicias utilizados durante a Festa do Divino em São Luis do Paraitinga. Seguindo o modelo de análise feita por Blacking na sua exposição dos gêneros musicias dos Venda, mostra-se como as formas musicias em São Luis estão associados a setores distintos da população, sendo que, na festa, o legado musical como um todo emerge, ainda que claramente demarcando cada categoria social, indicando suas posições relativas na hieraquia local.

Music and Musicians at the Portuguese Royal Court and Chapel, c. 1470-c. 1500 (2017)

Published in: Companion to Music in the Age of the Catholic Monarchs, ed. Tess Knighton (Leiden/ Boston: Brill, 2017), pp. 205-241. || ABSTRACT: In contrast to music and musicians at the Spanish courts of the Catholic Monarchs, Ferdinand and Isabel, musical life at the courts of the Portuguese kings Afonso V, João II, through to the early reign of Manuel I has to date received only relatively little attention in music histories. This is largely owing to the dearth of musical sources from or connected to this period, and the lack of information about singers and composers at the Portuguese court and chapel at that time. This chapter aims to reddress this by drawing together information from a range of historical and other source material, including musical and literary sources, contemporary chronicles and other types of documentation (some emanating from northern European courts), all helping to paint a picture of music, musicians, ceremonial and other cultural activities at the Portuguese court, and to delineate numerous close musical connections between the Iberian courts. It draws attention to liturgical celebrations in the chapel and other religious festivities, to the role of singers, heraldic and chamber musicians and dancing at important occasions, including marriage between the daughters of the Catholic Monarchs and Portuguese royalty, and other significant historical events that have been overlooked, at least from the musical point of view. It also lists names of chapel singers, including a few who also appear on the rosters of the Spanish chapels, and other musicians who travelled to Portugal, thus setting the stage for the markedly international court of Manuel I when singers and players from Spain, northern Europe and elsewhere joined the ranks of musicians there.

(In)Visible Musicians: Supporting Instrumentalists and their Intermedial Vocation (excerpt)

Towards an Intermedial History of Brazilian Cinema, 2022

In Chapter 7, Suzana Reck Miranda focuses, in turn, on Brazilian (film) music as export product, by discussing the career of Brazilian multiinstrumentalist Zezinho/Joe Carioca (José do Patrocínio Oliveira, 1902–87). After widespread appearances on local radio and in the national music industry, and starring in Coisas nossas (Our Things, Wallace Downey, 1930), one of the first Brazilian musical sound films, Oliveira worked as a supporting musician in several musical numbers featuring in Hollywood films of the 1940s and 1950s. Something similar occurred with singer and guitarist Nestor Amaral, Oliveira’s partner. Both musicians were members of Bando da Lua, the musical ensemble that became internationally known for playing with Carmen Miranda in films, concerts and records. Intermediality here allows the author to focus on the performance of secondary and often overlooked musicians from the late 1930s to the early 1950s.