A ritual "is a sequence of activities involving gestures, words, and objects, performed in a sequestered place, and performed according to set sequence." Rituals may be prescribed by the traditions of a community, including a religious community. Rituals are characterized by formalism, traditionalism, invariance, rule-governance, sacral symbolism, and performance.

Rituals are a feature of all known human societies. They include not only the worship rites and sacraments of organized religions and cults, but also rites of passage, atonement and purification rites, oaths of allegiance, dedication ceremonies, coronations and presidential inaugurations, marriages and funerals, school "rush" traditions and graduations, club meetings, sporting events, Halloween parties, veterans parades, Christmas shopping and more. Many activities that are ostensibly performed for concrete purposes, such as jury trials, execution of criminals, and scientific symposia, are loaded with purely symbolic actions prescribed by regulations or tradition, and thus partly ritualistic in nature. Even common actions like hand-shaking and saying hello may be termed rituals.

Rituals is an album of contemporary classical music by American avant-garde composer John Zorn. The piece takes the form of an opera in five parts and was premiered at the Bayreuth Opera Festival in 1988.

Reception

The Allmusic review by Dan Warburton awarded the album 3½ stars stating "It's a well-crafted work, superbly performed".

Writing for Pitchfork Media, Matthew Murphy stated "for established Zorn enthusiasts, Rituals is replete with moments to confound, enrich and delight, and will surely lure you to its darkened altar for frequent repeat ceremonies".

Track listing

All compositions by John Zorn.

Personnel

Rituals is the second studio album by British electronic rock band Fenech-Soler. Released on September 25, 2013 by Warner Bros. Records, it is the major label debut of Fenech-Soler, whose previous record was released under the London-based B-Unique Records. The album is a follow-up to the band's 2012/2013 singles "All I Know", "Magnetic" and "Last Forever", all of which feature on the album.

A special edition of the album with a new tracklisting was released a year later on August 25, 2014 as the band's first full-length US release. It features four tracks from their previous self-titled album.

Packaging

The artwork for Rituals features a photograph taken by South African professional photographer Andrew McGibbon. The photograph, entitled Stars Bow, features a horse named Star, lit in Strobe lighting, taking a "bow" in front of the camera. The photograph is part of a series of photographs taken by McGibbon as a collection entitled All the Wild Horses, which was originally released online in April 2012. The artist statement for the work states: