Symphonies, Status and Soft Power: The Symphony Orchestra of India

• Main Author: Hannah Marsden
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Logos Verlag Berlin 2021-06-01
• Series: Asian-European Music Research Journal
• Online Access: https://www.logos-verlag.de/cgi-bin/engpapermid?doi=10.30819/aemr.7-2&lng=deu&id=
• ISSN: 2701-2689; 2625-378X

The Symphony Orchestra of India (SOI) is India's only professional symphony orchestra. In this paper, I explore 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 local values and ideologies surrounding professional musicianship compromise attempts to embed orchestral musicking in the city. I then move on to place the SOI within discourses of nation building, questioning the role of the orchestra as a marker of national development. I suggest that Mumbai's transnational middle class and elite communities, as well as the SOI's multinational corporate donors, consider investment in an orchestra a part of India's wider political and economic development. I point to tensions that are created as India's local and national government resist the notion of the orchestra as a marker of modernity and instead champion Indian arts and cultures as foundational to India's nationhood. Finally, I explore the SOI's transnational networks, looking at its role within cultural diplomacy and soft power. I show that, whilst the SOI 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 symphony orchestra.