Processional and Processional Pilgrimage

This paper is the published version of my multi-media presentation at the "Ritual Dynamics Conference", held in Heidelberg, Germany, 2008. Body, Performance, Agency and Experience (Ritual Dynamics and the Science of Ritual) Hardcover – December 1, 2010 by Angelos Chaniotis (Editor), Silke Leopold (Editor), Hendrik Schulze (Editor) The Chaotic Emotion: Towards a Theory of Ritual, Musical, and Emotional Parallel Morphology, as Encountered in Andalusian Ritual Practices   W.

The Virgen del Rocio comes to America

[As opposed to the "De Gloria" mode as exemplified by the processional pilgrimage of El Rocio] This is the Cristo del Consuelo moving along the river Daro below the Moorish castle of the Alhambra. The Virgen of this cofradia is called "La Virgen de las Estrellas" ( Virgin of the Stars), also known as the Virgin of the Gypsies because as she winds up from the Rio Daro into the barrio of the Sacromonte, the Gypsy barrio dating back to at least 1492, she is their favorite.

The accompanying video sequences were recorded in my role as a participant observer at the Processional Pilgrimage of El Rocio (Roh-see-oh). The video itself traces what I am calling a "Semiotic Path" that starts within a ritual that displays a higher "Symbolic/Experience Ratio" within the spectrum of experience to representation in reference to the Ecstatic Experience. In this example the trace begins with the highly symbolic Catholic Mass, and "descends" into ritual layer

This one chapter, Chapter 5, is specifically on the procession as a phenomenon in and of itself within the general processional pilgrimage that is El Rocio. [The entire dissertation, El Rocio: A Case Study of Music and Ritual in Andalucía , can be obtained by clicking on the image to the lower right. Chapter 5 can be downloaded by clicking on the icon below the following introduction.] THE MUSIC OF THE PROCESSIONAL CHORUS: A CASE STUDY OF MUSICAL MODALITY AND TRANSFORMATION

The magical pilgrimage of El Rocio