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‘The Timpani Beats Just Hit on My Heart!’ Music, Memory, and Diplomacy in the Philadelphia Orchestra's 1973 China Tour

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 December 2021

BESS XINTONG LIU
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Abstract

This article examines the underexplored history of the 1973 Philadelphia Orchestra China tour and retheorizes twentieth-century musical diplomacy as a process of ritualization. As a case study, I consult bilingual archives and incorporate interviews with participants in this event, which brings together individual narratives and public opinions. By contextualizing this musical diplomacy in the Cold War détente and the Chinese Cultural Revolution, I argue for the complex set of relations mobilized by Western art music in 1973. This tour first created a sense of co-dependency between musicians and politicians. It also engaged Chinese audiences by revitalizing pre-Cultural Revolution sonic memories. Second, I argue that the significance of the 1973 Orchestra tour lies in the ritualization of Western art music as diplomatic etiquette, based on further contextualization of this event in the historical trajectory of Sino-US relations and within the entrenched Chinese ideology of liyue (ritual and music).

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Information
Twentieth-Century Music , Volume 18 , Issue 3 , October 2021 , pp. 395 - 418
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

I am grateful for the invaluable feedback provided by the Twentieth-Century Music anonymous reviewers. I would like to thank Dr Van Gosse and Dr Glenda Goodman, who inspired me to conduct original archival research on this topic. I would like to thank Dr Hannah Hyun Kyong Chang and Dr Jairo Moreno, who offered guidance and support throughout the writing process. I would also like to thank my interlocutors including Ambassador Nicholas Platt, Mr Ryan Fleur (current Executive Director at the Philadelphia Orchestra Association), Madam Wang Zhen-Mei, Dr Yu Kwang, Madam Li Lu and Madam Li Yan, who willingly shared and discussed their own experiences and family histories with me.

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