Less is More: The Role of Expectation in Emotional Responses to Simeon Ten Holt's Canto Ostinato.

Leonard Meyer was the first musicologist that recognised the importance of expectation in the strong relationship between music and emotion. In his influential book Emotion and Meaning in Music (1956), he proposed that 'emotion or affect is aroused when a tendency to respond is arrested or inhibited'. The Imagination, Tension, Prediction, Reaction, Appraisal (ITPRA) theory, developed by David Huron, is a recent expansion and improvement of this theory. In this paper, I will examine the ITPRA theory and use it as a basis for an analysis of Simeon Ten Holt's Canto Ostinato (1976-1979). This composition combines classical with minimalist composition techniques and incorporates a performance practice in which the performers are free to make their own decisions as to which notes to play and how many times to repeat certain sections. Through my musical analysis of Canto Ostinato, I will connect melodic, rhythmic, harmonic and dynamic characteristics of the music to some issues in relation to the emotional listening experience, including memory, attention and surprise. The analysis involves a close examination of the musical score as well as an evaluation of the performance practice, based on a recording of the performance on two pianos. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]