This paper introduces “multispecies eco-organology” as a theoretical framework that integrates approaches from multispecies ethnography (Silvers), ecomusicology (Allen), and critical organology (Dolan) to examine the ecological entanglements of musical instrument making in son jarocho circles. Drawing from ongoing fieldwork in southern Veracruz, I explore how the crafting, decoration, and sounding of son jarocho instruments reflect human and non-human intersubjectivity and environmental precarity. Focusing on the jarana jarocha, I examine the work of luthiers such as Pablo Campechano, Héctor Campos, and Edson Roca, who employ adaptive strategies to navigate ecological constraints while maintaining sonic and aesthetic traditions. For example, specific material choices, like using young, locally salvaged cedar instead of high-end tonewoods, demonstrate the ecological awareness that guides local making practices. Additionally, the intricate animal motifs and symbolic carvings that adorn these instruments, as seen at fandangos, suggest that non-human entities are not just represented, but actively woven into son jarocho musicking contexts. Building on recent literature in ecomusicology and critical organology, I move beyond sustainability discourses to explore musical instruments as active participants in multispecies assemblages. This perspective challenges anthropocentric models by centering the agencies of materials, ecosystems, and local sound worlds. I argue that musical instruments are more than cultural artifacts; they are dynamic sites of negotiation between humans, forests, animals, and generations-old sonic practices. By foregrounding the entanglements of craft, sound, and ecology, this paper examines son jarocho instruments as vibrant, relational entities within a multispecies sonic sphere.

Examining a unique localisation process in musical style called "cantonisation," this paper explores the endangered performance techniques of the violin and Hawaiian Guitar in Cantonese music from the 1920s. Although these Western instruments have played a significant role in Cantonese music for almost a century, the loss of transmission between generations poses a serious threat to their distinctive performing styles. I suggest that, despite the scarcity of written documentation, the combination of historical recordings and oral accounts from remaining elderly practitioners provides critical evidence for reconstructing these traditional performance techniques. This research examines and theorises the complex adaption processes these instruments underwent through the examination of historical recordings and in-depth interviews with senior performers. Building upon existing scholarship on Western instruments applied in Cantonese opera (Yung 1989; Chan 2012) and widely discussions of musical hybridity in twentieth-century China (Jones 2001; Lau 2008; Yang 2017), this study reveals how local musicians developed distinctive technical innovations to accommodate Cantonese musical aesthetics. By presenting previously unexplored early Cantonese performance styles, providing fresh insights into Chinese musical modernisation that go beyond the typical Westernisation narrative, and offering in-depth case studies of instrumental adaptation in early 20th-century urban China, this study advances ethnomusicology.

The history of the charango has been the subject of intense political and cultural controversies, particularly regarding its possible Bolivian or Peruvian origins (Centellas 2000, Baumann 2004, Cavour 2010). However, little attention has been paid to the assumptions underlying these historical constructions, which have fostered the proliferation of unreliable narratives in popular media, digital platforms, and even ethnomusicological literature. This presentation examines these histories by analyzing the methodologies that sustain them. Building on previous studies (Mendívil 2002, 2018, Turino 1983, 2008, Stobart 2009) and aligning with the narrativist philosophy of history from the late 20th century (Danto 2014 [1985], White 2001 [1978], and Koselleck 2012), I will focus on two dominant strategies in historical discourse about this small Andean chordophone: (1) the reification of the term “charango” and (2) the symbolic reduction of the instrument in historical narratives. Reification refers to a “phantom objectivity” (Lukács 1971) that transforms a term originally used to describe various instruments into a fixed and paradigmatic concept within specialized literature. Symbolic reduction, in turn, involves a metonymic shift (White 2001 [1973]), reducing the vast diversity of charangos in Bolivia and Peru to a single type—one with a concave resonator made from an armadillo shell—despite ethnomusicological evidence to the contrary. I argue that these strategies have led to a persistent contamination of historical data, hindering source verification. Finally, I propose alternative research methodologies to refine our understanding of the charango’s past beyond nationalist or exoticizing discourses.

This paper is an attempt to decolonize the field of classical saxophone which, at present, still functions within Western-centric paradigms that continue to confine saxophonists and saxophone works outside of the western sphere as the delegitimized “other”. As a Singaporean classical saxophonist studying in the US, I discuss how this impacts Singaporean musicians working in the classical saxophone field by detailing an account of Singapore-based New Meta Saxophone Quartet and their commissioning of three Singaporean composers to compose a work each to premiere at the 2025 World Saxophone Congress. Through the lens of Titon’s music-culture model, I will perform a contextual analysis of the compositions with insights from ethnographic interviews with the performers and composers. Using Rice’s framework of asking how we historically construct, socially maintain, and individually create and experience music, this research answers the following questions: What are the tensions that arise in the process of attempting to disrupt the current aesthetic and social boundaries determined by the western hegemony of the classical saxophone scene? According to Wade, “People make music meaningful and useful in their lives”, how do the musicians involved dynamically negotiate what this project means to them in both their immediate and global contexts? How does this empower them to operate outside of the western hegemony? This paper acknowledges the deep-rooted biases within western-trained musicians but also recognizes the agency that these musicians have to resist these boundaries through creating nuanced visibility of the unique works and performances of saxophonists outside of the western sphere.