Global perspectives on the 'orchestra'

(Tina K. Ramnarine – Royal Holloway)

Project overview | Project narrative | Workshops | Outputs

Project narrative

The early phases of the project involved setting up, assessing potential case studies, pursuing bibliographic research and beginning fieldwork in the UK (especially in London). The fieldwork focused on the activities of the London Symphony Orchestra, especially through participation in the LSO Gamelan including weekly rehearsals and performances in the Barbican Centre Hall, Barbican foyer and LSO St Luke's. Attending the London Philharmonic Orchestra's premiere of Ravi Shankar's symphony at the Royal Festival Hall tied in with thinking about the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra's Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and Rafi Resurrected projects, and these events provided a way of linking two of my selected case studies (the symphony orchestra and the film orchestra in India). These present complex histories of interaction as well as new orchestral initiatives to address issues of diversity, access and community engagement. Research results have been presented in various talks including keynotes given at the Goldsmiths Music Research Symposium 2010 ('Reflections on the orchestra: towards a global perspective') and at the IMR/Leeds conference on the 'Symphony orchestra as cultural phenomenon' 2010 ('Interacting orchestras: on new communities, social relevance and digital technologies'). The project leader convened a panel for the International Council of Traditional Music joint special interest group meeting 2010 on ‘Applied ethnomusicology, cultural heritage, social relevance', presenting a paper on 'Symphony orchestras in the twenty-first century: between social relevance and digital technologies'. More recently, she participated in an ICTM 2011 plenary panel on dialogic research practices in Europe by contributing thoughts from the orchestral project. Subsequent discussions at all these meetings have been stimulating.

The project has now reached a stage of intensive fieldwork. As the field-intensive phase of the project has begun, so too have the frames of comparison begun to come into focus, and current interests lie in engaging with comparison as a mode of theorisation.