Looking back now to the early summer of 1977, I see a very young person, only twenty-nine years old. At the time, I felt that I had already been through a lot. Yet in terms of composing, I knew that I was just starting out.

In July, I received a request from the Composers Ensemble to perform the piano part in some songs by Poulenc in a concert of lighter music that they were presenting at Carnegie Recital Hall the following February. The singer would be Joyce Suskind. They also asked me to compose a piece that I could perform with them on the program.

This was an amazing opportunity, and I set to work on what would become an eight-minute piece in three movements for clarinet, violin, cello, and piano, called Cabaret Music. I wrote this in a new way. My first idea simply came to me at the piano: a quiet melody in the low register of the clarinet with a jaunty, march-like accompaniment in B flat minor, vaguely suggestive of Berlin Cabaret.

Instead of ignoring or censoring this idea, I built the first movement out of it. I introduced the tune with harshly dissonant syncopated chords and figures that related to it, embedding it in a chamber-music context, then continued with juxtapositions of both ideas. The language was compressed and full of interest, and combined two seemingly contradictory idioms—the neoclassic and the expressionistic. There was a brief piano outburst that almost recalled Kirchner.

The second movement was slow and again rooted in B flat and derived from the Cabaret tune, but it had a feeling of suspended time, as contrapuntal ideas in different configurations floated over drone-like accompaniments.

This book examines a journey taken through most of my research life as I worked closely with people in Gokwe and Lupane in western Zimbabwe, as well as Dwesa-Cwebe on the Wild Coast of South Africa. Working with people in these three different places began in the early 1990s and has gone on ever since.

I am very grateful to Dr Yemi Katerere, the then General Manager of the Forestry Commission of Zimbabwe, who encouraged me to visit Mafungabusi Forest and broaden my knowledge of social issues within the organisation. This was around 1990; I visited Gokwe and saw the really strange trees that grew on the Mafungabusi Plateau. The visit was also enhanced by the infamous quote of “they have done it again” used by a friend who was the then manager of the Forest to express his exasperation with the ‘occupation’ of the Mafungabusi Forest that had been carried out by displaced people. The friend had been having running battles with some displaced people who kept occupying portions of the forest and would be evicted before too long. The back and forth between the displaced people and forest officials went on for some time – hence I was encouraged to find out what was at the root of these ‘battles’. Thus began my relationship with the Forest and its displaced populations, which is partially captured in chapter 4. So began the journey with Mafungabusi with the chapter I wrote with Jeanette Clarke for the Forestry Conference in 1990. I then went on to do an in-depth ethnography in 1994 for my Masters dissertation which I followed up with research for my DPhil studies between 1996 and 1999. During that period I would spend months between Mafungabusi and Gwayi Forest in Lupane District in Matebeleland North, Province of Zimbabwe.

The greatest human rights activist of the early modern history of the West, Las Casas, started his life on the island as a farmer. His father had been given some land by Columbus, and it is not surprising that the younger Las Casas farmed some of the land to grow provisions to sell to outgoing fleets. What did Las Casas see as he moved around the island on his father's business?

He knew, or was told, that the Taínos were in rebellion, which was good for the settler class wishing to exploit them, since anyone in rebellion was subject to enslavement. Others, those who couldn't escape into mountains, were distributed by the Spanish governors such as Columbus and Ovando to various settlers in an institution called the encomienda. It was a form of servitude resembling slavery but not quite classic slavery.

Taínos were “commended” to individual Spaniards, kind of like serfs in the Middle Ages of Europe, to work in the service of the encomenderos, or those who owned the encomiendas. The work consisted of panning for gold, personal service, or, in the worst instance – looking at it from the perspective of the Taínos – working in the gold mines. The encomienda became the central instrument of Indigenous depopulation and exploitation on the island.

Examining the Evidence

Here we have to stand back a bit and examine not only the primary evidence of what was happening – largely from the writings of Las Casas – but also the modern interpretations, largely the Black Legend, which we define and explore below as one of the principal contributions to Las Casas as an iconic figure.

February 1941

German Listeners!

The most recent address by the German head of state in the Berlin Sportpalast made a particularly repugnant impression in America—not so much through its content, which was of the lowest rank of wretchedness and only proved the incapacity of this defective brain to make any useful contribution to the burning questions of the day, but much more through its mirth, the unhealthy cheerfulness that rang from it, and which was evidently the main reason why in Great Britain, too, the address was perceived as “paranoic,” as insane. “Hitler frequently made jokes,” wrote the American press. “There were more bursts of laughter than there usually are when he delivers an address.” What was the nature of these witty remarks? “A British politician calculated,” said the Conqueror, “that I had made seven mistakes in the year 1940. I made 724 mistakes, but my opponents made four-million-three-hundred-and-eighty-five-thousand.”— Unsurpassable. The centuries will pass on this humoristic treasure from one to the next, along with the other gems that unleashed the howls of delight of the Myrmidons who filled the Sportpalast—provided only that a human sense of shame does not prevent it. For is there not really something excruciatingly offensive to one's sense of shame, something idiotic-obscene about being so funny under the world-circumstances of the present, for which Herr Hitler may understand himself to be blameworthy as their originator?

When the King’s Men took over the residency of the Blackfriars indoor theatre in 1609, they embarked upon a period of conscious reinvention of company identity, combining their existing resources and reputation with a new playing space, audience, financial approach, and performative sensibility. The company made music a key part of this reinvention, drawing on its new assets to increase the presence and variety of original music in its plays. By 1642 they still held a reputation for musical innovation, performing newly written music for both new and older plays in the repertory; their musical settings were still newly circulated in manuscript and print into the 1650s. This chapter explores these musical reinventions, examining dramatic impacts of altered lyrics, melody, harmony, accompaniment, and performance style.

Introduction

Migration has played a pivotal role in shaping the historical experiences of West Africa, with the Yoruba emerging as one of the historically prominent migrant groups in the sub-region. The early migration in West Africa took diverse forms, influenced by factors such as internecine warfare, trade, colonization of new lands, slaving, and evangelism. In this chapter, we delve into the multifaceted nature of Yoruba migration, which has given rise to several diasporas, connecting them with various groups and regional economies. This historical phenomenon of the Yoruba diaspora is a significant subject of study in African migration discourses. Our focus is on exploring the trading routes and commercial activities of the Yoruba people.

The chapter aims to shed light on Yoruba migration to Ghana and northern Nigeria, which underwent significant transformations under British colonial rule. During this period, both commercial and labor migration became prevalent, with men and women actively engaging in mobility within colonial West Africa. Labor migration initially centered around the cocoa-growing and forest regions of Ghana, but eventually expanded to include commercial migration, encompassing diamond mining, trading, and commerce. In northern Nigeria, Yoruba migrants assumed vital roles in the colonial workforce and kola nut trade. Across both Ghana and northern Nigeria, Yoruba migrants exhibited wide dispersal, transcending rural and urban areas, while maintaining strong social connections within their communities and host societies. This chapter will also explore the residential patterns of the Yoruba diaspora.

In April 2024 the Medieval English Theatre conference was held at the University of Newcastle, admirably hosted by James Cummings. The theme was ‘Dramatic Margins’, and the papers covered a stimulating range of topics while exhibiting characteristic METh interest in manuscripts, historical records, and drama in performance. Papers invited us to consider how attention to margins, of various kinds, could illuminate questions about how to define ‘drama’, ‘performance’, and ‘theatre’ – questions which are theoretical but which are also made practical in the activities of collecting records of ‘early drama’ or taking words from page to ‘stage’.

Charlotte Steenbrugge discussed the play-frame of the Dutch Tspel van dOnghelycke Munte (‘The Play of the Fluctuating Currency’), with its creatively disruptive female character, Everyday Chitchat. Sarah Grandage, with Dana Key on Zoom, described a project on the use of marginal playing spaces in modern performance, in which students from the University of Nottingham presented performances of Joseph's Trouble and the Nativity among the medieval alabasters in the Nottingham Castle museum. Pamela King, joined on Zoom by David Parkinson, presented his new edition of Henry Adamson's The Muses Threnodie, a delightfully humorous Scottish seventeenth-century text which through argument and animated reading they persuasively demonstrated should be considered as para-drama. Eleanor Rycroft and Clare Wright led a lively and stimulating panel discussion of the term ‘Pre-Dramatic Theatre’, drawing on their current project with Greg Walker to explore the uses and limitations of terminology in current theatre studies.

This category includes a hemispheric culture industry and audience even while it maintains identification with US identities. Central is Latin music and dance across multiple genres and styles blending African, South American, Mexican, and Caribbean traditions. Midcentury, several performers achieved celebrity with music that sparked mainstream dance crazes like the mambo and cha-cha. Latin music has also influenced American jazz and rock ’n’ roll, exemplified by Latin jazz recordings and Ritchie Valens’s rock stardom. Latin chord progressions and rhythms continued to influence rock and pop, especially in salsa and 1970s boogaloo. Since then, more artists have achieved mainstream musical popularity while Latino and Latina actors and directors have likewise become nationally celebrated. Other forms have flourished, too: activist Chicano theatre, mural culture, lowrider car culture, and fashion expressions of pachucos and pachucas dating back to the 1930s are all counterculture means of signifying ethnic pride and resistance.

Never before and never since have so many East Asian films been shown in cinemas in West Germany as in the 1970s. While a considerable number of Japanese monster films had already made their way to cinemas in West Germany since the 1950s, the arrival of East Asian martial arts films in the spring of 1973 opened up a whole new chapter.

Dozens of karate, kung fu, and sword-fighting films were imported, mainly from Hong Kong, then still under British rule, but also from Japan, Taiwan, and the Philippines. These films became known in West Germany as “Easterns,” thereby transforming an East Asian genre into a sort of sibling of the much older and very American genre, the Western, which is also defined by its spatial dimension. For German and migrant youths and young men, stars of the Eastern, particularly Bruce Lee, were heroes. They were pictured in illustrated magazines, featured on film posters in public spaces, and adorned the walls of teenagers’ bedrooms. Thus, the Eastern became part of West German popular culture, leading to a boom in martial arts and private karate, kung fu, and judo schools in almost every large- and mediumsized city. As Otto Kuhn noted in 1983 in the first German book on these films: “For many years, Easterns … were among the most popular and most watched films for a certain segment of the audience.

Introduction

India ranks seventh in the 2021 Global Climate Risk Index (Germanwatch 2021), and in 2017, it was the second most-affected country in terms of casualties related to extreme weather (Germanwatch 2017). Water pollution, food and water shortages (Niti Aayog 2019), waste management, and biodiversity loss (Kumari, Wate, and Anil 2014, 107) are just some of India's problems. Its large population coupled with a severe economic dependency on agriculture (FAO 2023) exposes it to severe vulnerabilities. Owing to its geography and high economic dependence on climate-sensitive sectors, India is one of countries most vulnerable to climate change (Harjeet Singh 2015). ‘Food security of India may be at risk in the future due to the threat of climate change leading to an increase in the frequency and intensity of droughts and floods, thereby affecting production of small and marginal farms.’ (Ministry of Environment and Forest 2009, 78). As a protector of people's rights, Indian courts are legally bound to protect the environment.

The chapter's research method involves an analysis of the literature and review of the judicial precedent. The chapter aims to compare the judicial precedents of the Supreme Court of India and the National Green Tribunal (NGT) to understand the evolution of their response to environmental litigation.

Article 48A in the Constitution of India obliges the government to protect the environment and conserve the natural resources of the country.

Traces on the internet show that people with Dalcroze backgrounds have engaged in innovative practices and research in education, therapy, and medicine for more than a century. In each of these contexts, practitioners have noticed the impact of their work on the health and well-being of participants, with many publishing their observations and some collaborating with various kinds of specialists in medicine and psychology. These alliances have often been crucial in developing Dalcroze practice itself, providing new theoretical insights into how it functions in relation to health and well-being, and disseminating it more widely. In 2016, a special issue of the interdisciplinary music therapy journal, Approaches, focused on Dalcroze Eurhythmics in music therapy and special music education. In this chapter, we provide a guide to navigating examples of past and present work by practitioners and researchers whose histories have not been considered together. Our strategy combines two case studies with a broader narrative on the interplay of experiment, research, and inclusion in Dalcroze practice.

Jaques-Dalcroze thought everyone should have the chance to experience music actively. He focused on movement and health early in his career, according to the flyer for a “Practical Course for the Development of the Ear and the Musical Faculties” in September 1894 in his private studio, which offered group classes for very young children as well as music students and adults.

Berlioz had already reviewed this opera by Louise-Angélique Bertin (1805–77), on a libretto by Victor Hugo, adapted from his novel Notre-Dame de Paris (RGM, 20 November 1836). While recognizing aspects that spoke of her inexperience, he could at least find it in him to praise beauties ‘that overall give evidence of a feeling for style and a power of invention that are extremely rare’. This extract translates four paragraphs from the middle of the feuilleton.

Before turning to a study of this work [Esmeralda], which is remarkable from many points of view, it may perhaps not be irrelevant to mention the cause of a number of inaccurate criticisms about which composers, more than other artists, have undoubted reason to complain. This cause is prejudice.

There is in fact no art more vulnerable to suffering from such unfair judgments than music. Painters, sculptors, engravers, architects, poets, and prose writers all have a real advantage in the fixity of their work: once out of hands of its maker, it can be immediately seen by the critic without its message being undermined, changed or weakened in any way. A painting or a statue is always the same; nothing can prevent the critic from seeing it as it is and understanding it perfectly. If an initial inspection is not enough to judge it overall and in detail, then the critic is free to come back next day, the day after, and several days in a row: the work is there waiting for him, immobile and unalterable.

Chapter 7 examines interventions that can be implemented to address mental illness stigma. These include individual actions that the person who is stigmatized can engage in to help them cope with or resist stigma and actions that other people are obligated to perform in order to decrease stigma they may endorse or perpetuate unwittingly. These also include structural changes that social institutions and systems must undergo to make social structures less stigmatizing and more supportive of people with mental illness, and social and cultural interventions that increase the belongingness and acceptance of people with mental illness into the community as well as transform social norms to be more supportive of people with mental illness. In addition to using philosophical argumentation, this chapter draws on empirical literature in social psychology that examines what works to reduce and resist stigma.