Música e liminalidade: a experiência musical em contexto ritual e terapêutico

Abstract

Studying a small tribe called Ndembu, in northeastern Zambia, the anthropologist Victor Turner (1920-1983) developed the concept of liminality. Through it, the author shows that the Ndembu society is characterized by being a mixture of structural phenomena (political, legal and economic framework) and anti-structural phenomena (area of the arts, religion, sports, etc.). In the idea of anti-structural we can find the phenomenon of liminality. This phenomenon is characterized as a “retreat” and “escape” of structural conditions. It's a moment of verification of essential values and axioms of culture, from which come morality and ethics. In the liminal moments which are reached by ritual activity there often occurs the simplification or even the momentary “elimination” of the idea of structure. Victor Turner noted that one of the main reasons for the existence of the phenomenon of liminality is that through it individual and/or social crises and conflicts are repaired. At the moment that some problem is installed in the individual or social life, the rites “appear” to treat it, exploring the symbolic dimension of social reality and putting people face to face with the causes of the problem. The practices ensure the balance and well-being of social life, providing a therapeutic role. From the studies among the Ndembu, Victor Turner went on to reflect on the means of conflict resolution of the industrial, globalized and technological societies. It was there that the author created the theory of the “liminoid”. The liminoid phenomena are characterized for being genes from the liminality of the ancient and traditional societies. In our society the liminality is fragmented into multiple genres of cultural performances such as theatre, music, cinema, sports, etc. This finding recognizes certain deliminalization of the Christian liturgy today. With the fragmentation of liminality, the notion of salus was also fragmented. In liminal totality, the term salus was a concept that encompassed the notions of health and salvation. Currently, health and salvation represent different things. Salvation is linked to the rite. Health to the medical areas. The consequence of this “schism” is that the religious rite was gradually disinstituted of its therapeutic power. With this problem there arose two preliminary questions: is there a reason for liturgy to be re-liminalized? If there is, what are the means for this re-liminalization? As a general question for the research we used: can the musical dimension of rites help liturgy rediscover its liminal and therapeutic potential, considering that music, one of the elements of the rite, has become a specialized form of therapy (music therapy)? As a general hypothesis one presents that the musical dimension of the liturgy is an important factor for the development of liturgical liminality. Potentializing the liminal capacity of liturgy through its musical dimension, the therapeutic dimension inherent in the Christian liturgy since its origins will also be recovered. With the rediscovery of its therapeutic capacity liturgy can rediscover its social relevance amid the other liminoids. To check this hypothesis, we will seek in music therapy theoretical and epistemological elements which give support for the liminal power from the musical experience in a ritual context, considering that music in a ritual context makes it a therapeutic context.