Welcome to the second volume of 2023!
The editors would like to begin by acknowledging the hard work of Alexander Cannon and Henry Stobart. As former editors, they handed off the role to us several months ago, but their commitment continued nonetheless as they helped prepare several articles that they had been working on for some time, and that we were able to include in this issue. This period of transition from one team to the next has highlighted how invested in the journal—and in the research of the contributing authors—Alexander and Henry are. Thank you both!
Issue 32/2 also marks the formal handover of the co-editorship role from Alexander to Frederick Moehn, who has stepped in as interim co-editor. Dr Moehn is Senior Lecturer in Music at King's College London with research interests ranging from Lusophone musics to jazz, and topics of gender, aging, and music production, among other themes. It is thus occasion to acknowledge Alexander's specific accomplishments during his tenure. The quality of the finished articles he shepherded to publication, including for this issue, are testament to his finely grained and structured editorial work. Alexander has been strongly committed to encouraging more submissions from outside the English-language ethnomusicological community. He also advocated for increased financial support for the paid copy editors whose services we occasionally draw upon.
The journal also depends on the input of peer reviewers, who bring a broader range of knowledge and expertise to the process of preparing an article for publication than our own specialisations allow. As anonymous work, peer review accounts for many hours of quiet intellectual labour that is crucial to maintaining the quality of articles that Ethnomusicology Forum has become known for. In an environment where academics are called upon to perform ever more service, we are immensely grateful to the scholars who take on the task of reviewing submissions and providing detailed feedback.
The articles assembled for this issue cover forms of performance that, broadly speaking, resonate with the categories of popular, classical, folkloric and traditional music.
Two articles in this issue reveal considerable insight into the strategies deployed by musicians in the neoliberal era. Shelley Zhang offers a much-needed theoretical and ethnographic intervention on the aspirations of Chinese musicians in North American conservatories. Zhang draws on several years of engagement with these musicians and evaluates the choices and conditions they face. By coining the term ‘strategic citizenship’, Zhang encourages readers to consider the complexity of their positionalities where ‘precarity, intergenerational trauma and ambition, Orientalisms, and transnationalism’ intersect with the demands of studying and making musical careers outside their country of citizenship.
Joshua O. Brew examines the life and work of Okyeame Kwame, a successful hiplife musician in Ghana. Describing the musician’s musical and business strategies through the lens of sustainability, Brew offers several important adjustments to sustainability theory through an attention to resilience, diversification, and revitalisation. In so doing, Brew provides a realistic depiction of the versatility needed to maintain a musical career in a crowded and demanding field.
Oladele Ayorinde focuses on the career of an influential Nigerian musician known as Barrister, particularly his work in shaping the Fújì genre from the 1970s to 1990. Ayorinde is interested the development of genre in relation to self-making and problems of agency in postcolonial Africa, situating the story of Fújì’s musical evolution in relation to ‘theory from the South’ (John Comaroff).
John Garzoli and Tharanat Hin-on co-author an evaluation of ways of knowing and describing Thai classical music in English-language scholarship. Advocating for better representation of Thai perspectives in this scholarship, they call for a ‘shared understanding’ and a ‘critical reflection’ on ‘categories and assumptions’ of this music.
Through charting the US tours of three Irish traditional music groups during the 1970s, Daithí Kearney and Adèle Commins reveal a key chapter in this music’s re-conceptualisation, professionalisation, and globalisation. Taking place at the height of the Troubles in Northern Ireland, these tours opened up new and globally orientated audiences for this music, well beyond the Irish diaspora. The authors show how these groups challenged North American preconceptions of Ireland while also boosting tourism to the country and planting the seeds for the Riverdance phenomenon.
Finally, Leonardo D’Amico explores the living tradition of improvised-sung poetry prevalent in rural areas of Central Italy, with a particular emphasis on the non-verbal communication between the poets and the audience. By employing audiovisual recordings, this approach facilitates an in-depth ethnographic exploration, offering valuable insights into the intricate connection between spoken language and gestures, and how these gestures can enhance the experience of musical performance. D'Amico includes numerous stills from the video recordings that vividly show the reader the different gestures.
In the book reviews section, Diau-Long Shen et al. present an impressive overview of the colossal volume, Studies on a Global History of Music: A Balzan Musicology Project, edited by Reinhard Strohm. As the title suggests, this is a book encompassing many geographical regions and traditions but with a specific purpose of ‘de-centralising’ the West within a musical world view. The review authors’ description of the book as a ‘milestone in this trend’ shows the scope and ambition of such a project, with an exemplary purpose of connecting global musical cultures.
Daniel Laxter’s innovative study of sound in the fur trade and its fundamental role within fur trade communication is discussed by Lynn Whidden in her review of his recently published book, Listening to the Fur Trade. Whidden is more than qualified to discuss this work, given her own long history of research in the area, and she gives an excellent overview of the various subject areas covered in the book, while offering some useful suggestions on how aspects of its layout might be improved.
Lisa Beebe explores a different aspect of sonic communication in her discussions of Lonán Ó Briain’s recent publication, Voices of Vietnam, which explores the political history of radio in Vietnam. Radio played a crucial role in shaping the state in twentieth-century Vietnam, and Beebe explores various key aspects of this role in each chapter. While the book is undoubtedly relevant to the field of ethnomusicology, Beebe also shows how it contributes significantly to related areas, such as what she calls the ‘bourgeoning field of radio studies’.
Lastly, Zuzana Jurková eloquently presents the latest publication of Kay Kaufman Shelemay, Sing and Sing On, a culmination of nearly fifty years’ field research in Ethiopia. Jurková shows quite clearly that Shelemay is part of the story in this book, a story where she brings in several narratives of diaspora from her fieldwork, presenting in detail the music of the Ethiopian diaspora in America.
We hope you enjoy reading!