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.
The conference seeks to explore and discuss the relation between choir stalls and their patrons. It aims to present original research in this field as well as to establish productive dialogue between scholars with a particular research interest in choir stalls. Artworks and their patrons have raised and continue to raise many research questions. While choir stalls have been studied extensively for the misericords with profane carvings, less research has been done on the commissions for this type of church furniture. In recent years the focus of choir stall research has moved toward makers and patrons, hence the previous colloquium's topic was dedicated to the craftsmen and their worksops. The 2018 conference will focus on problems of ecclesiastical and secular patrons and questions such as who were the patrons of choir stalls and to what extent were they responsible for the final result, or are there differences or similarities between choir stalls considering different patrons -members of chapters, parishes, female and male monastic communities, confraternities and private persons.
SPECIAL ISSUE: Music, Health and Wellbeing: African Perspectives
Rituales afrovenezolanos para pagar promesas de salud y alcanzar bienestar comunitario La cultura de Venezuela se caracteriza por el crisol de sus tres principales afluentes históricos: el indígena, el ibérico y el proveniente de África occidental. A pesar de los 500 años de fusión, hasta el día de hoy hay zonas y tradiciones, donde prevalece el componente afrovenezolano. Debido a la condición inicial de esclavos, los afrodescendientes desarrollaron significativos rituales colectivos alrededor de sus creencias, muchos vinculados con la salud propia o de un familiar, que fueron insertos en contextos católicos. En su connotación de religiosidad popular afrovenezolana se analizarán dos manifestaciones que en su mayoría se realizan alrededor de pagos de promesa por motivos de salud. Por un lado se examina un ritual de mucho recogimiento que con música instrumental, danza, vestimenta específica, teatralidad y alta simbología se lleva a cabo en las calles de viarios pueblos el día de Corpus Cristi bajo el nombre de Diablos de Corpus. Por otro lado se estudia la fiesta de San Juan que en una centena de pueblos se celebra con mucho fervor con tambores, cantos, bailes y ritos. Esas fiestas musicales además tienen un impacto de bienestar y unión para la comunidad, ya que allí logran vivir su identidad específica y representan un acto de resistencia a la globalización. Basado en experiencias propias, observaciones y registros, entrevistas especializadas, estudios documentales se aclarará la correlación entre los aspectos de música, salud y ritual como factor identitario de los pueblos. El estudio incluye perspectivas musicológicas, antropológicas, históricas y de performance.
Music in popular theater and ritual = Música, teatro popular y rituales
16th symposium of the ICTM Study Group for Iconography of the Performing Arts
Teatro Musical e identidad en la Belle Époque tropical: los rituales de asistencia al teatro en las imágenes de la revista Fon-Fon! Mónica Vermes UFES / CNPq) Music in Popular Theater and Ritual Sixteenth Symposium of the ICTM Study Group on Iconography of the Performing Arts 17:00 Uruguay, Montevideo, la ópera y su gráfica. Afiches y programas de mano del Teatro Solís entre 1985 y 2018: la estrecha relación entre imagen promocional y tradición
In Portuguese America (now basically Brazil) an important transfer of Catholic musical practice occurred from the first years of colonization, at the beginning of the sixteenth century, but it was only in the eighteenth century that this activity reached its height, especially in the captaincy of Minas Gerais (the General Mines), whose economic development resulted from the deposits of gold and diamonds, at the cost of the dislocation of the indigenous population who had lived there for centuries, and of African slave labour. During this period the activities of a large number of singers, instrumentalists, composers, music masters and their pupils can be documented, demand for their abilities stemming largely from the many religious feast days and ceremonies financed by religious, governmental and even lay institutions. In this essay I will deal with an important aspect of urban music in Brazil concerning the diocesan chapelmasters, those who were responsible for music in the cathedrals and mother or parish churches in cities and towns. They certainly did not form the majority of musicians, for among the thousands active in Brazil in the eighteenth century, only a few dozen were employed in the position of diocesan chapelmaster; however, analysis of their situation reveals various aspects important for understanding the structure of Brazilian musical practice in that period.