Pacing, Performance, and Perception in Alice Ping Yee Ho’s Angst

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper examines how performer decisions regarding musical pacing and expressive timing can shape the communication of affective states in a musical work, through a case study of Angst (Ho, Alice Ping Yee. 2000. Angst. Canadian Music Centre), composed by Alice Ping Yee Ho and premiered by soprano Janice Jackson. Described by Ho as a ‘reaction to the myth of the inferiority of women’, this work for solo soprano ‘express[es] the fear and anxiety that women encounter’. Angst includes fluctuating time signatures, long-held notes of varying durations, and recurring motives that enter at unpredictable times, which, when combined, can complicate a listener's ability to discern consistent metre and/or predict future musical events. Using a video recording of Angst, I examine how Jackson's performance conveys the anxiety expressed by the protagonist. I draw on Danuta Mirka's adaptation (Mirka, Danuta. 2009. Metric Manipulations in Haydn and Mozart: Chamber Music for Strings, 1787–1791. Oxford: Oxford University Press) of Ray Jackendoff's parallel multiple-analysis model for determining metre (Jackendoff, Ray. 1991. “Musical Parsing and Musical Affect.” Music Perception 9 (2): 199-230), David Huron's theory of musical expectation (Huron, David. 2006. Sweet Anticipation: Music and the Psychology of Expectation. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press), and Austin Patty's pacing scenarios (Patty, Austin T. 2009. “Pacing Scenarios: How Harmonic Rhythm and Melodic Pacing Influence Our Experience of Musical Climax.” Music Theory Spectrum 31 (2): 325-367), and I expand on this work by discussing the affective impact of pacing. I suggest that Jackson's performance of Ho's score creates a confounding listening experience that reflects the work's themes of anxiety, fear, and realisation of power.