Early modern courts employed musical spectacle, instruments and ceremonial practices as displays of agency, identity, power, and conspicuous consumption, and the royal court of the kingdom of Kongo was no exception. Yet detailed research on indigenous musical practices in early modern West-Central Africa is still scarce in ethnomusicological studies. Many challenges disrupt the study of early modern African music due to problems with traditional methodologies limited by Western paradigms, traditional academic disciplinary orientations, the nature of sources available, and disciplinary conventions that largely privilege written evidence and sources emanating from the elites and powerful, while casting suspicion on oral histories and traditions of knowledge that emerge ‘from below’. Drawing on new 16^th- and 17^th-century documentary narratives containing both textual descriptions and illustrations, together with local oral traditions, this paper reconstructs early modern indigenous Kongo musical practices in the wider context of Kikongo spirituality, social hierarchies, political power, and cultural identity in Afro-European encounters. It provides significant new insights into local representations of Black performance and their articulations of local power dynamics and Kongo worldviews that transform our understanding of early West-Central African music, spectacle, and cultural representation, musical encounters with foreign powers outside of a colonial context, and their substantial contributions to the multifaceted identities of the early modern musical world. By excavating these African voices in the colonial archive that holds a plurality of voices, we can direct a decolonial lens that opens the possibility for more nuanced counter-hegemonic interpretations of musical production in the early modern African world.

This paper examines the reform of the Miao lusheng, a traditional reed instrument that plays a central role in the music and cultural identity of the Miao ethnic group in southwest China. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, archival research, and a historical analysis of state policies, the paper explores the state's ideology and discourse behind the lusheng reforms, the power dynamics between the state and the Miao, and the ways in which Miao musical elites participated in these reforms to negotiate ethnic identity and contribute to the shaping of national musical modernity. It argues that, in the process of constructing a modern national identity, the state imposed European musical principles, such as the twelve-tone equal temperament, onto traditional instruments. This approach, which positions Western music as the standard of modernization, emerged from the colonial modernity of the twentieth century. In response, Miao musicians actively engaged in the reform to redefine Miao music and secure a voice in the development of China’s modern soundscape. By situating the lusheng within the broader context of national music reform, the paper contributes to ongoing discussions on state-minority relations and the intersection of music modernization and state building in China.

The European Early Music movement has flourished since at least the mid-20th century, gaining widespread popularity in the United States and Europe through numerous festivals, educational programs, and active practitioners. In contrast, a similar movement for early Ottoman/Turkish music, despite efforts beginning in Turkey in the late 1980s and early 1990s, has not been able to establish itself. One of the most notable efforts in this vein was made by the Bezmara ensemble, which emerged in the early 1990s attempting to mirror the European model, particularly in the reconstruction of period instruments and performance practices. However, despite these and other similar efforts, a lasting early Ottoman/Turkish music movement never took root. While classical Ottoman/Turkish music has a rich history, with sources dating back to at least the 17th century, the movement’s failure to gain traction is puzzling. This paper will analyze the potential sociological, musical and cultural reasons behind the failure to establish an early Ottoman music movement in Turkey while including interviews with key practitioners of both European early music and classical Ottoman/Turkish music. As a result, this paper aims to uncover why the early Ottoman/Turkish music movement, despite its potential, failed to establish itself in Turkey, while early music has thrived in Europe and the U.S.

Song lyrics are translated from the source language into the target language to help target audiences understand songs. In song translations between English and Chinese, some are done by translators and songwriters while others are done by internet users. However, few translations were “singable” lyrics and research in “singability” of “translated” English songs from ancient Chinese poetry is uncommon. Using cross-sectional analysis, this paper attempted to explore strategies and methods used to achieve “singability” in song translation into English. The methodology is based on a case study of song translation and singing performance. The study case is an ancient Chinese poem, SU Shih’s “Prelude to Water Melody”, and its singable English version. Interdisciplinary methods were used: songwriting, song analysis, composition and poetry translation as well as “singable” principles. A variety of factors were taken into consideration when rendering the ancient Chinese poem into an English song, to illustrate, song structure, melody, cultural and linguistic gaps, rhythm and poeticity. Furthermore, the author proposed new terms, “understandability” and “listenability”, should be considered when translated lyrics are used for a singing purpose. Research findings showed that English lyrics not only achieved “singability”, but “understandability” and “listenability”. This research explored the strategies used to achieve poeticity and singability in song translation. It is pertinent to produce performable songs in a language other than the original language in singing performance for both target audiences and target culture. Hopefully, the research would contribute to research and practice of rendering songs into English.