Negotiating Identity through Intertextuality in Singaporean Art Music: Joyce Koh’s That Sunny Feeling
This paper examines how Singaporean art music can engage with cultural identity through intertextuality rather than straightforward musical representation. Focusing on Joyce Koh’s That Sunny Feeling, conceived in response to Affandi’s 1950 painting Burong Hitam, Matahari, Manusia, it considers how the work situates Singaporean identity within a broader Southeast Asian and international artistic context.
Drawing on topic theory and musical intertextuality, the paper examines how culturally marked materials are fragmented and placed alongside diverse references, including Singlish vocalisations, bebop, bird calls and Italian lyrics. Rather than developing towards a coherent narrative or stable sense of cultural identity, the work presents a series of seemingly disconnected intertextual encounters. The paper argues that That Sunny Feeling does not treat Singaporean-ness as a fixed musical essence, but instead places local cultural signifiers in dialogue with materials from beyond Singapore and Southeast Asia. In doing so, the work proposes a form of universalism that remains deliberately unsettled.
Ng Yu Hng
Yu Hng is a Singapore-based composer, researcher and lecturer whose practice explores identity and historical inheritance. His music has been performed internationally across Asia, Europe and the US at venues and festivals including the Esplanade, Dartington Festival and the Asian Composers League Festival, with collaborations involving ensembles such as the Singapore Chinese Orchestra, Mivos Quartet, Meitar Ensemble and Fretwork.
His research has been presented at institutions and conferences including the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts, Composers Society of Singapore and Italian Institute for Applied Musicology. He also writes for The Strad. He studied at the Royal Academy of Music and King’s College London.
Photo courtesy of Rico and Caroline Sze
Composers Society of Singapore