This issue is devoted to traditions of music and dance across the Iberian Peninsula, Latin America, and their diasporas, and is published to coincide with the 49th World Conference of the International Council for Traditions of Music and Dance, to be held in January 2027 at Universidad Alberto Hurtado in Santiago, Chile. It is a pleasure to send this out into the world as many in our community prepare to gather in Santiago. I hope these articles offer a fitting prelude to the conversations there.
The issue opens with Miguel A. García and Daniela Anabel González’s “The Global Sound Archive,” which proposes a framework for studying the sound universe now accessible through the internet, from musical recordings and soundscapes to voice messages and podcasts. In recognition of the World Conference’s host region, we are happy to publish this article alongside a Spanish-language version.
We pair this conceptual opening with Rebecca Draisey-Collishaw’s article, “Let’s Not Talk About Archives,” which makes the case for a more serious disciplinary conversation about open research, data ownership, and infrastructure. These articles draw attention to both the promise and the practical difficulty of archival work in the twenty-first century. While García and González theorise about the sound universe within reach, Draisey-Collishaw considers what it actually involves to access, share, and steward that musical world responsibly.
Next, Juan Diego Díaz reflects on composition as an ethnomusicological research method while preparing his work, Suíte Afro-Brasileira. He argues that the “compositional poly-musicality” demanded by cross-cultural projects intensifies the ethical stakes long associated with bi-musicality. Ignacio Soto-Silva, Javier Silva-Zurita, and Leonora López then bring us to the conference’s host country with a study of Leftraru Hualamán, a Mapuche Williche musician from Osorno in southern Chile. They examine how his music entwines language revitalisation with political activism.
The final article is Caitlin Brown Romtvedt’s account of Basque plaza dances in Donostia-San Sebastián, which shows how strict adherence to choreographic norms creates “breathing spaces” for a minoritised language and culture. Her article presents a reminder that the negotiation of tradition under pressure, so central to this issue’s Latin American case studies, has its counterparts elsewhere in the Ibero-American world.
As ever, the issue closes with a series of reviews. I am immensely grateful to Damascus Kafumbe, María Gabriela López-Yánez, Noel Lobley, Yuri Prado, and Cassandre Balosso-Bardin for their dedication in curating these sections, and to Luo Ai Mei for her unwavering support as an editorial assistant.
This is my last issue as General Editor, and it brings to a close a decade of editorial work at the Journal. I began as Website Reviews Editor (2017–19) during Kati Szego’s tenure, then served as Multimedia Reviews Editor (2019–22), before succeeding Tong Soon Lee as General Editor, a role I have held for eight issues. The first four of these appeared under our previous title,Yearbook for Traditional Music, and the last four as Traditions of Music and Dance. My thanks to Tong Soon for his expert guidance and support as I transitioned into this role, and to the many authors, reviewers, and editorial board colleagues who have made these years so rewarding. I wish Georgia Curran every success as she takes up the role, and I look forward to reading the Journal under her editorship.
