The RMA/Cambridge University Press Outstanding Monograph Book Prize for 2023 is awarded to Alexander Cannon for Seeding the Tradition: Musical Creativity in Southern Vietnam (2022, Wesleyan University Press). This monograph makes a significant contribution to the study of music in Vietnam through its focus on southern Vietnamese traditional music which has only limited and older scholarship. The Committee was particularly struck by the finely balanced blend of historical-contextual and music analysis which resulted in a rich appraisal of this music. Alongside this, the thematic focus on creativity means that the book has wider relevance beyond the specific music under consideration. Engagingly written, this book focusses on the practice of four southern Vietnamese musicians and draws on the author’s extensive fieldwork over more than a decade, including learning traditional instruments such as a plum blossom flower lute.