Composing race and nation: intercultural music and postcolonial identities in Malaysia and Singapore

Abstract

This thesis examines the process of hybridity in intercultural music and its deployment as sites for the politics of identity, of both racial and national, in a cross-cultural context in contemporary Malaysia and Singapore. To demonstrate this process, this thesis analyses four pieces of contemporary music written for mixed and vocal ensembles by composers in Malaysia and Singapore. These four case studies reflect the differences in identity formation by different races, and varying notions of belonging and not-belonging. The 'speaking' positions of the composers (with regard to issues of majority/minority, class and race) are the essential starting points for the inference of any identity construction. The analyses reveal that new identities or new interpretations of racial identities are performatively constructed through the citations of(and 'play' on)fixities and such established norms. To successfully argue my case, I use Bakhtin's (1981) concept of intentional hybridity and dialogism to explain the process of inter-culturalism. In polyglossic societies such as Malaysia and Singapore, hybridity and dialogism naturally take place in the day-to-day interactions between races. Within the framework of a composition, differences(of cultures)are not smoothed over but are allowed to come up against each other, to, virtually, fight it out. This is demonstrated in my analysis of the musical works: the ways in which different textures, discordant timbre and tuning systems, performance styles and assortments of rhythms are incongruously juxtaposed to each other. This thesis also examines these compositions within their performance contexts to better apprehend the process of identification, arguing that it is the concerted effort of composer, performer and audience that produce meaning. Show more