El Rocío: a Case Study of Music and Ritual in Andalucía
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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. EL ROCÍO: A CASE STUDY OF MUSIC AND RITUAL IN ANDALUCÍA By W. Gerard Poole Dissertation submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of the University of Maryland, College Park, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy 2007 Advisory Committee: Dr. Carolina Robertson, Chair Visiting Assistant Professor Jonathan Dueck Professor Robert Provine Associate Professor Judith Freidenberg Professor William Stuart, Dean’s Representative © Copyright by W. Gerard Poole 2007 Dedication This work is dedicated to my wonderful parents: Col. (Ret.) Grady R. Poole and Elsa S. Poole. ii Acknowledgements Special acknowledgements and heartfelt thanks to Lenny and Fran Weisberg, whose help and advice throughout this endeavor were invaluable. I owe a great debt to my mentor, Dr. Carolina Robertson, whose vision, foresight, and guidance were instrumental in my development as an ethnomusicologist. I must also thank Dr. Józef Pacholczyck for the wonderful conversations that expanded my view of the field. To Dr. Jonathan Dueck, who saw me through the last legs with patience and encouragement, thank you very much. Thanks, also, to Dr. Robert Provine and Dr. Judith Freidenberg for reading the first draft and helping me with their insights. The work of Professor Michael Dean Murphy, University of Alabama, was an excellent source for my research, and his generous introductions were a great help toward my research in the town of Almonte. A special appreciation to Dr. William “Bulldog” Stuart, one of the few left among us who refuses to allow petty bureaucrats stand in the way of what’s important. Special thanks to Mary Anderson for her painstaking dedication toward seeing a job through to the end—for three years. Her editing talents were indispensable. I am also grateful to Lisa Rossini Johnson for her art-history consultation, her photos, and her assistance at El Rocío. I owe the opportunity that made my fieldwork possible to my good fortune in meeting two men from Granada, Spain: (1) José Luis “Pelín” Mariscál Mejías, owner of La Taberna de Pelín (“Pelín’s Tavern”) and former elder brother of the Holy Week brotherhood, Cofradía del Santísimo Cristo del Consuelo y María Santísima del iii Sacromonte (otherwise known as Los Gitanos [“The Gypsies”]); and (2) Antonio Sánchez “El Compadre” Ramirez, the elder brother and founder of the Rocío brotherhood of the romería, Pontifícia y Real Hermandad de Gloria del Rocío de Granada, without whose trust and good will I would never have been allowed to attend the pilgrimage. My experiences at the Rocío also were greatly enhanced by the generosity and good will of the wonderful family of Pepe and Isa Caballero, who so graciously allowed a stranger to travel with them, and the companionship of the many friends along the way such as the ladies of the La Curra wagon: Charró, Conchi, Puri, Paqui, Elvira, and including Pepe, of course; the López family and especially Sara of the La Improvisá wagon, the “walking encyclopedia” Sebastián (35 Rocíos), and so many others of the Brotherhood of Granada. In addition, I thank Juan Crespo, a masterful musician for the Brotherhood of Granada, and his musical family for significantly expanding my understanding of the role of music in El Rocío. My fieldwork in Almonte was greatly facilitated by the guidance and help of Professor Juan Carlos González Faraco, Ph.D., of the University of Huelva, and by the staff at the Centro de Estudios Rocieros: Domingo Muñoz Bort (director), Julio Flores Cala, and others whose help was much appreciated. The Gallardo brothers, especially Miguel Angel and Louis Salvador, gave me firsthand knowledge of Sevillanas Rocieras culture even beyond El Rocío and into Andalusian daily life. Finally, a special thanks to Professor Alfredo Arrebola—flamenco singer, author, and scholar—whose advice and knowledge of the sacred roots of flamenco helped guide me in the earlier stages of my work in Andalusia. iv Table of Contents Dedication..................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements......................................................................................................iii Table of Contents.......................................................................................................... v List of Figures............................................................................................................. vii PART I: THE ROMERÍA OF EL ROCÍO: MUSICAL AND RITUAL MORPHOLOGY AS POPULAR CULTURE.............................................................. 1 Chapter 1: Prelude and Introduction............................................................................. 1 Chapter 2: Background to Processional Pilgrimage ................................................... 21 Chapter 3: The Essential Elements of Processional Choruses of El Rocío ................ 66 Chapter 4: The Music of the Tamborilero .................................................................. 97 Chapter 5: The Music of the Chorus......................................................................... 132 Interlude: The Fandangos de Huelva and the Fandanguillos: Possible example of a cycle of ritual and musical transformation............................................................ 170 Chapter 6: The Juerga ............................................................................................... 200 Interlude: The Rumba at El Rocío ........................................................................ 243 Chapter 7: Three Short Essays.................................................................................. 268 Juerga University .................................................................................................. 268 Palmas................................................................................................................... 271 The Intimate Song................................................................................................. 280 PART II: FROM SYMBOL TO EXPERIENCE...................................................... 297 Chapter 8: The Mass ................................................................................................. 297 Chapter 9: The Joyous Procession ............................................................................ 338 Chapter 10: The Salida.............................................................................................. 375 PART III: TOWARD A THEORY OF RITUAL RELATIONS.............................. 400 v Chapter 11: Myth and Ritual..................................................................................... 400 Chapter 12: Myth and Ritual in Ethnomusicology ................................................... 458 Chapter 13: Conclusions and Summation of the Theory of Ritual: Toward a Theory of Ritual Systems .......................................................................................................... 496 Section 1: The ritual spiral—toward a theory of ritual relations .......................... 497 Section 2: The principle behind music and ritual semiotic congruency............... 525 Section 3: Emotional tuning, emotional proliferation, and the ritual spiral ......... 533 Section 4: The morphology of the musical mode and the focused emotion of the ritual procession considered in relation to biomusicology ................................... 540 Endnotes...................................................................................................................