Global Perspectives on Orchestras: Collective Creativity and Social Agency
Tina K. Ramnarine
Abstract
This book adopts global perspectives on orchestras. It draws on ethnographic, historical and comparative approaches to analyze a variety of orchestral traditions (such as symphony, steel, Indonesian gamelan, Indian film and Vietnamese court). It discusses how orchestras are embedded in socio-historical and economic contexts, and highlights intercultural, compositional and rehearsal processes. The chapters describe orchestral creativity and performance politics. Key considerations are how orchestral musicians work together and organizational infrastructures shaping the orchestra as an instituti ... More
This book adopts global perspectives on orchestras. It draws on ethnographic, historical and comparative approaches to analyze a variety of orchestral traditions (such as symphony, steel, Indonesian gamelan, Indian film and Vietnamese court). It discusses how orchestras are embedded in socio-historical and economic contexts, and highlights intercultural, compositional and rehearsal processes. The chapters describe orchestral creativity and performance politics. Key considerations are how orchestral musicians work together and organizational infrastructures shaping the orchestra as an institution. Orchestral musicians' testimonies are included to give practitioners' views. The study of orchestras contributes to developing global music histories and comparative theorization within ethnographic disciplines. This book offers timely insights into the connections between orchestras, colonial histories, postcolonial practices, and comparative theorizations to generate appreciation of orchestral performance as a creative, political and social practice.
Keywords:
Orchestras,
collective creativity,
social agency,
comparative theorization,
decolonizing musical practices,
postcolonial performances,
intercultural music-making
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2018 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780199352227 |
| Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: January 2018 |
DOI:10.1093/oso/9780199352227.001.0001 |
