Music Diplomacy: Beethoven's the Hoochie Coochie Man

Matías Tarnopolsky, American Musicians Are Doing Something Profound in Beijing Right Now, Nov. 16, 2023.

While presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping were drawing the world’s attention for their talks in San Francisco this week, a different kind of summitry is happening in China. There, representatives from their two countries are speaking through violins, cellos, oboes and clarinets.

I write from Beijing, almost exactly 50 years after the Philadelphia Orchestra arrived as the first American orchestra to perform in China in a key moment of Ping-Pong diplomacy. I traveled there to be with a group of its musicians for two weeks of concerts mingling American and Chinese musicians, master classes, chamber music performances and panel discussions.

It may seem naïve to argue that a symphony orchestra can help solve the world’s problems. But a lifetime in music has convinced me that it’s not only worth the effort to try to do our part; it is our responsibility. Certainly the American government supports the idea: Secretary of State Antony Blinken recently announced the Global Music Diplomacy Initiative, reinforcing the idea that cultural diplomacy is a powerful force for good in the world. Our visit here is one of the initiative’s first projects.

Since the Philadelphia Orchestra’s historic 1973 visit to China, we have returned 12 times. That decision is not a signal of approval of China’s policies. Rather, our journeys to China signify a belief in the possibility of change through dialogue. They make real the principle that music communicates shared ideas and feelings that words alone cannot convey.

Back in the mid-1950s America started sending jazz musicians on world tours in "Jazz Diplomacy." From Wikipedia:

Jazz ambassadors is the name often given to jazz musicians who were sponsored by the US State Department to tour Eastern Europe, the Middle East, central and southern Asia and Africa as part of cultural diplomacy initiatives to promote American values globally.

Starting in 1956, the State Department began hiring leading American jazz musicians such as Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, Dave Brubeck, Benny Goodman and Duke Ellington to be "ambassadors" for the United States overseas, particularly to improve the public image of the US in the light of criticism from the Soviet Union around racial inequality and racial tension.

Here's a link to the State Department's Global Music Diplomacy Initiative:

Music: it gives voice to democratic ideals, to the powerful and the powerless, across borders and beyond barriers, and to generations of citizens – from all walks of life – worldwide.  

Since world renowned composer Aaron Copland headed to South America during World War II and the more widely known Jazz Ambassadors sang scat behind the Iron Curtain from the 1950s through early 1970s, the United States called upon American musicians and artists to use music as a diplomatic tool to promote peace and democracy. Now, the United States is elevating music even further through public-private partnerships with American companies and non-profits, to use music to meet the moment, convey American leadership globally, and create connections with people worldwide.

As for Ludwig and the hoochie coochie, see Beethoven in Memphis [on the limits of civilization and sexuality in music].