This paper examines the role and symbolism of vālaga, a double reed aerophone and drum ensemble heard in the Kodagu district of Karnataka in South India. It is frequently heard in conjunction with two other ensembles: chende (centa) drumming groups and duḍikottpāt quartets of male singers and drummers from Kodagu’s most prominent ethnolinguistic group, the Kodava. All three ensembles may be heard at temple-based festivals, the overlay of duḍikottpāt and vālaga characterises other celebrations including weddings and rituals of animism or ancestor worship, and the ensemble may be featured at other secular events. Drawing on the work of Turino, Murray Schafer, and Feld, I show how its presence and audibility compared to duḍikottpāt ensure that its sound acts as a sonic index of Kodagu. Its association with celebration further indexes the notion of ballo (‘live well’), and its distinctive utilisation of popular melodies and rhythmic intensity has facilitated the development of the new genre of vālaga remix, a relatively rare instance of new hybridity in this district. Nevertheless, whilst its sound may reinforce notions of unity and the centripetal role of festivals, careful observation of the spatial disposition of ensembles relative to other ensembles, inner shrines, processing deities and dancers shows a consistent and careful demarcation of space that reflects the lower status of the vālaga players. Thus, whilst sonically indexing unity, total practice may index the tension between the centripetal idealism of festivals and advocacy of a ‘district’ culture, and the realities of inter-group relations.

This paper narrows in on the under-examined intersection between New York City’s avant-garde music scenes and its community gardens – two sites which highlight the roles of migration, gentrification, and community-driven activism within broader processes of urban infrastructure theory. I identify in both spaces a mutual activist struggle not only for recognition and real-estate, but community justice in a more expansive sense. Community gardens have long been the sites of existential activist struggles (Schmelzkopf 1995, Martinez 2010). Similarly, it is increasingly apparent that musicians within New York's rich avant-garde music scenes both directly shape and are shaped by urbanization (Rifkin 2023, Bradley 2023). While these musicians have historically relied upon inexpensive real-estate for performances, the flourishing of unique arts scenes also generates mainstream interest in previously “undesirable” neighborhoods, generating a cycle of constant migration as artists both participate in and are negatively impacted by gentrification. Here, I take the non-profit organization Arts for Art (AFA), an organization dedicated to “the promotion and advancement of FreeJazz,” and their annual InGardens Festival as a case study through which to consider the interdependence of sonic forms of activism and gardens themselves. Through deep ethnographic engagement with participants, audiences, and organizers, I not only interrogate the ways in which gardens have historically relied on sound-based activism, but also how forms of explicitly activist music-making have relied on gardens as accessible venues. As such, this conceptualization of scenes and urban ecologies generates broader implications for music/sound studies in metropolitan centers within the U.S. and beyond.