Open AccessSymphonies, Status and Soft Power: The Symphony Orchestra of India
Author(s) -
Hannah Marsden
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
asian-european music research journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2701-2689
pISSN - 2625-378X
DOI - 10.30819/aemr.7-2
Subject(s) - symphony , champion , soft power , elite , politics , power (physics) , the arts , sociology , diplomacy , compromise , political science , aesthetics , gender studies , media studies , history , social science , art , law , art history , physics , quantum mechanics
The Symphony Orchestra of India (SOI) is India's only professional symphony orchestra. In this paper, Iexplore the roles and meanings of the SOI. First, I situate it locally within its home city of Mumbai,positioning it within discourses of social class, status, and globally-minded aspiration. I argue that localvalues and ideologies surrounding professional musicianship compromise attempts to embed orchestralmusicking in the city. I then move on to place the SOI within discourses of nation building, questioning therole of the orchestra as a marker of national development. I suggest that Mumbai's transnational middleclass and elite communities, as well as the SOI's multinational corporate donors, consider investment in anorchestra a part of India's wider political and economic development. I point to tensions that are created asIndia's local and national government resist the notion of the orchestra as a marker of modernity and insteadchampion Indian arts and cultures as foundational to India's nationhood. Finally, I explore the SOI'stransnational networks, looking at its role within cultural diplomacy and soft power. I show that, whilst theSOI has made significant steps in 'reaching out' and finding a place within transnational cultural networks,its efforts are hampered by its failure to 'stand out'; to forge its own national identity as an Indian symphonyorchestra.