Case studies from the Central African Republic, rural Finland, and Turkey address issues of how gender is reflected in performance and how performance furthers other social goals. Articles on Croatian and Serbian popular music and on the changing circumstances of women musicians in war-torn Ethiopia and post-Soviet Estonia consider the fate of fragile constructions of gender and nationhood in times of war or crisis. Other essays consider the relationship of gender to digital sound technology and sender issues in writing the musical lives of women composers and performers.

Articulating a theoretical agenda that encompasses perspectives from vastly different musical cultures and views of gender, this important collection shows how music can help bridge the radical transformations of individuals, groups, and nations.