Resonating Sacralities by Lieke Wijnia

Author:Lieke Wijnia [Wijnia, Lieke]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Sociology of Religion, Religion, General, Sociology
ISBN: 9783110558289
Google: OgRTEAAAQBAJ
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Published: 2022-01-19T02:37:14+00:00

6.5 Festival: A Ritual Form

While the two types of ritual performances discussed above are regarded in their capacity as individual performances, the festival as a whole is also a ritual form in itself. In all its intangibility, a festival has not a physical, but rather a virtual presence. It is not a thing that can be pinpointed, but a phenomenon to be experienced and shared amongst its participants. The word festival is derived from the Medieval Latin festivalis, the meaning of which is of a church holiday. In Old French it was used to describe something suitable for a feast, solemn, magnificent, joyful, happy.52 In early times, the notions of feast and festive were directly linked to liturgical calendars. With the rise of nation states in the nineteenth century, the festive was increasingly incorporated in the newly invented traditions and accorded civil rituals to give meaning and legitimacy to new forms of government.53 The notion and practice of the festive remained related to institutional religion, but also spread to other social and cultural domains.

While it is practically impossible to pinpoint the festival, Musica Sacra Maastricht offered a platform to which many can related. The most tangible manifestation of the festival, and of its identity, was the annual program booklet. This presented the parameters in which the festival takes place. Furthermore, the concept of festival took shape through the notion of space. The space constituting the festival consisted of two aspects; physical concert locations (places) with their cultural and historic meanings, and temporary affective spheres (spaces) created by means of artistic performances in specific architectural surroundings.

The concert locations were carefully selected, primarily in relation to the acoustics, and their location in the city. Although the types of buildings varied, all had cultural-historic significance. The concert locations were divided in two types, those linked to institutional religion (churches, convents, chapels) and those with a different cultural-historic significance, such as a factory hall turned into cultural space, the theatre, and the city hall.

The character of a festival space contributed to the experience of the performed music. Music has the ability to generate affective spaces not only through the performed sounds but also by means of how these sounds are related to the place in which they are performed. Affective spaces consist on the one hand of the formal qualities of the performed music and on the other hand of the impact this music has on those participating in it, impact in terms of evocation of memories, emotions, and association. Affective space relates to both the internal and social worlds of the listener.54 Music and the space in which it is performed simultaneously influence each other and imbue each other with meaning.

Although continuously transforming in context, over time the festival practice retained its social significance. Ritual studies scholar Paul Post captured different elements of festive practices in this definition of feast.

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