In this article, I address the political, social, and humanitarian issues at the core of my works for the stage. Through examples from my operas El Palacio Imaginado (2003), La tierra de la miel (2012), and Harriet (2018), I discuss how gender issues, social justice, and the burden of racism have transformed my musical language. La tierra de la miel dramatizes the tragedy of human trafficking on the US/Mexico border through the fictionalized story of two of its victims, driven into prostitution and physically and sexually abused. The opera seeks to give a voice to the hundreds of Mexican women (often from Indigenous communities) murdered along the border between the US and Mexico. Harriet recounts episodes from the life of abolitionist Harriet Tubman, including her concerted actions to end the institution of slavery, and ends with a message expressing hope for a continuation of her fight against slavery and racism.

Learning a new language is a challenge not only because of the acquisition of grammar and vocabulary but of worldview. In teaching the Irish-Gaelic language to beginners in North America, using songs has proven central to successful language acquisition. Because Irish-Gaelic has strong regional dialects and grammatical challenges that can affect comprehension and pronunciation, teaching students to sing songs that reflect those challenges leads to the internalization of grammar and vocabulary. For some in the diaspora, Irish is a heritage language; the successful combination of song and language connects them to Ireland in ways that language study alone could not.

This article explores the impact of LM Radio—Rádio Clube de Moçambique’s B-Station, broadcasting in English and Afrikaans—in colonial southern Mozambique. Drawing on 441 issues of Rádio Moçambique magazine (1935–1973) and interviews with announcers, directors, and musicians, it reconstructs the station’s history and production practices and examines its reception among Mozambican musicians through the lenses of modernity and cosmopolitanism. Often regarded as apolitical, LM Radio’s trajectory reveals a complex engagement with the Portuguese colonial project and urban youth culture. The article also considers how these dynamics inform postcolonial memory, highlighting media’s role in shaping colonial modernity in southern Africa.

This paper explores the literary value of popular song lyrics through the lens of intertextuality, using the Beatles’ songbook as a case study. It aims to bridge the gap between reader-oriented and author-oriented approaches to intertextual research, emphasizing the importance of viewing texts from a broad, interconnected perspective. The study analyses a selected corpus of 27 Beatles songs, ranging from their early hit “I Saw Her Standing There” to their final recordings such as “The End,” to uncover how intertextuality manifests itself in their lyrics. By doing so, the paper seeks to highlight the depth and complexity of pop lyrics, advocating for their recognition as a legitimate subject of academic inquiry. The findings suggest that the Beatles’ lyrics, rich with literary and cultural references, exemplify the postmodern characteristics of pop music, blending high and low culture and showcasing the dynamic, dialogical nature of language and texts. This research aims to contribute to a deeper understanding of the literary qualities of popular music and underscores the enduring cultural significance of the Beatles.

Mediante el concepto de archivo sonoro global proponemos una perspectiva holística para abordar el estudio del universo sonoro al que se accede a través de Internet. Dicho concepto hace referencia a un reservorio de fijaciones sonoras en extremo heterogéneo, expansivo e inestable que alberga expresiones musicales, paisajes sonoros, sonidos del cuerpo humano, mensajes de voz generados con aplicaciones de mensajería instantánea, podcasts y muchos otros fenómenos sonoros. En el desarrollo del artículo describimos cómo y qué agentes alimentan ese archivo, dónde se encuentran alojadas las fijaciones que lo integran y cuáles son sus atributos centrales sobre la base de los conceptos de diversidad, expansividad, inestabilidad, modularidad e intermedialidad.1

This study explores the soundscapes of the Greek National Schism (1915–1922), focusing on the Venizelist victory celebrations of 14–15 September 1920. It examines how curated soundscapes were employed as political tools to reinforce national unity and suppress dissent, while counter-soundscapes offered avenues for resistance. Using press narratives as “earwitness” accounts, the research reconstructs auditory practices that shaped political narratives and collective memory. Bridging ethnomusicology, historical sound studies, and political history, this analysis highlights the performative nature of soundscapes in mediating power dynamics, especially amidst civil conflicts and calls for further cross-cultural studies into music’s role in societal transformation.

This article explores the canonisation of chèo music theatre in Vietnam since the early twentieth century. Focusing on the reform of the classical chèo play “Súy Vân,” it examines the confluence of factors—the political and cultural currents and the networks of actors—involved in canon formation. In this historical account of canonisation, chèo is positioned within an enlarged conversation about tradition, in which tradition is understood as a space for creativity that has recourse to the past while undergoing continual transformation. Moving beyond the canon, questions about the nature of tradition and artistic creativity in Vietnamese music theatre are also explored through analysis of recent experimental work by the artist Sơn X.