Hadronic and quark–gluon excitations of dense and hot matter

We summarize recent developments in our understanding of low-mass quark-antiquark excitations in hadronic matter under various different conditions. This includes the thermodynamics of the chiral condensate, pions as Goldstone bosons in normal nuclear matter, and excursions into extreme territory of the QCD phase diagram: lepton pair production from a fireball expanding through the transition boundary between the quark-gluon and hadron pha ses of QCD.