Welcome to Volume 58, Issue 1 of Traditions of Music and Dance. Curating this 10- article issue presented an opportunity to trace the thematic threads connecting our diverse fields of research. I have grouped the articles into three parts covering the apparatus of the state, the human voice, and the inner workings of tradition. These sections also transition from macro-level nation-state histories towards more localised, individual, and instrument-specific research.

The issue begins with Argyrios Kokoris’ account of the soundscapes and counter-soundscapes of Greece’s 1920 Venizelist victory celebrations, which he reconstructs using press narratives as “earwitness” testimony. Marco Roque de Freitas and Pedro A. Mendes then trace the entangled colonial and postcolonial history of LM Radio in Mozambique. The next two articles turn to dance as an instrument of the state: Shumaila Hemani examines the founding choreographies of Pakistan’s National Song and Dance Ensemble as a form of soft power during the Cold War, while Sonja Downing follows Balinese socialist realist dances from their origins through their repurposing under the New Order and, more recently, in the service of tourism and environmental advocacy.

The second part of this issue turns to the human voice as a site of preservation, memory, and resistance. Sean Williams and Ellen MacIsaac show how song-based pedagogy helps diaspora learners internalise the grammar and worldview of the Irish language, while Jiaqi Li examines how Hui Muslim women in Jinan use synchronised chanting as a strategy for working towards solidarity and collective resistance. Jose Taton closes this part of the issue with an account of pagpangalimug, or intoning, arguing that this vocal practice functions as a proto-narrative, which mediates spiritual and spatial histories among the Panay Bukidnon of the Philippines.

The third part shifts to how traditions are made and remade from within, whether through canon formation, the dynamics of fieldwork, or the instruments themselves. Barley Norton presents an account of canon formation in Vietnamese chèo theatre, positioning tradition as “a space for creativity that has recourse to the past while undergoing continual transformation.” Liu Keyi then reflects on her own shifting position as ethnographer at Indigenous Lisu weddings in southwest China. The issue closes with Saida Daukeyeva’s study of the Kazakh qobyz as a sentient being. She describes the instrument’s Soviet-era suppression and post-Soviet revival, and how it functions as a vessel for healing and communication with the spirit realm.

Once again, I am grateful to the authors, peer reviewers, CUP journals team, and my fellow editors for their work on this issue. At a moment when conflict and crisis dominate so much of public discourse, I am deeply moved by our contributors’ dedication to the musicians and dancers whose artistry anchors us in our shared humanity.