| Repressed passions and refined sensibilities: are gays really so hooked on classical music? As the Proms - the world's largest music event - strikes up (16 July - 11 Sept), Out UK's own little maestro Adrian Gillan asks around. | |
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Opera has been described as "passion in a corset", a mixed musical metaphor that
some have broadly tried to relate to LGB reality which has often - historically
at least - been forcibly lived out under oppression. But Souper contends this metaphor
bears more relation to LGB listening than to LGB composing or performing: "I play
percussion, and when I'm performing a composer who happens to be gay, his sexuality
doesn't even enter my head - I often doubt it even entered into the composer's. Many
of the greatest were either working to order or were in some sense transcending
their own identities."
"It's more likely," he continues, "that listeners of all persuasions project aspects of their own background and identity onto music - so LGB listeners will project gayness onto music they hear, regardless of the sexuality of the composer. Gays might even empathise with music by a straight composer like Mahler and try to claim in some sense it was 'gay'! There may be some kind of 'substitution' going on, helping fulfil emotional needs that might elude the listener in real life. But that's as true for straight listeners as for gay ones, and as true of pop as it is of classical music." Souper is not even convinced you'll see particularly large numbers of LGBs in audiences: "You tend to 'see' what you set out looking for! And the old cliché about gay people somehow being more sensitive and sensitive people being more likely to listen to classical music doesn't hold either. Otherwise, why do so many gay people have no or little interest in classical music? That's one of the main reasons the LGSO arose - as a group for the 'minority within the LGB minority' who share this interest!" |
Although they naturally may well not have used the words 'gay' or bi' in their
own eras, the following great composers, in chronological order of birth, were
either openly out or demonstrably homo or bi:
1. Saint-Saëns (1835-1921)
Additionally, some biographers have argued - albeit more controversially - for the
homosexuality or bisexuality of many other genius composers of the past, including:
1. Corelli (1653-1713) - largely because he was once "kept" by a Cardinal in Rome |
| "Gay people are often desperate to claim anything that's good as their own," he climaxes. "And they don't just do that with music. Equally, it seems to work the other way too - just because something's gay, it must be good! But I've waded through some pretty awful poems in gay anthologies!" | |
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Our sceptical Souper is not even convinced it is important that the sexualities
of composers, dead or alive, be more fully known. "I dare say gay composers of the past - who felt compelled to hide their sexuality for a variety of reasons - are still kept in the closet somewhat in current day musical discussions. |
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"But then
as I say, to a large extent, I don't believe their orientation is relevant to the
music they made or how it is performed, despite colouring the way us LGBs may
listen to it."
One last stab at the gay card: Might Proms organisers, in some imaginative way, usefully explore the impact of sexuality on classical music as one of their annual themes? Sighs Souper: "I'm not convinced there's much mileage in this for the reasons discussed. You might dig up all manner of 'experts' to make the case. But I suspect it would only lend weight to clichés and not be very illuminating."
The BBC Proms are held at the Royal Albert Hall in London from 16th July until 11th September 2004, with all 74 world-class concerts broadcast live on BBC Radio 3. For details and how to book: www.bbc.co.uk/proms. Here are our Top 10 queer selections :
1. Bernstein, Chichester Psalms (Prom 11, 24 July) | |