The papers by Samuel Dorf and Christopher Moore examine the influence of sexuality on the music of Eric Satie and Francis Poulenc, respectively. The former article focuses on the sexuality of Winaretta Singer-Polignac more so than that of Satie. Dorf uncovers some details about her love life, but emphasizes Polignac’s efforts to hide her sexuality– and how this is manifested in Satie’s Socrates. For example, Polignac distanced herself from more openly lesbian socialites like Natalie Barney, even if they had many mutual friends (and lovers).1 Dorf contrasts Polignac’s “stoic” and “neoclassical” use of ancient Greek culture in Socrates with Barney’s “sensualist orientalism” and the “decadent goings-on” in her garden around a statue of Sapphos.2 For Socrates, Satie and Polignac removed all of the sexual references from Plato’s texts, but Dorf argues that this may in fact open up space for the lesbian imagination, and connects this to Elizabeth Wood’s concept of Sapphonics.3 Elizabeth Wood’s article is fascinating because it demonstrates the presence of a certain voice type that speaks to lesbian listeners. Wood demonstrates the existence of such a phenomenon with the fact that multiple female writers were inspired to create fiction novels based on “Sapphonic” opera singers such as Olive Fremstadt.4 The concept of Sapphonics strengthens Dorf’s argument in this way, that Socrates enabled Polignac to connect with her friends in a way that both expressed yet concealed their sexuality.
Moore’s paper examines Poulenc’s Les Biches and Aubade through the lens of sexuality. Poulenc also attempted to conceal his sexuality, as was often necessary for the time, but Moore argues that Poulenc’s homosexuality is demonstrated in his music through the “camp” aesthetic. 5 Moore analyzes the scenario of Les Biches, in which the Woman in Blue is an androgynous, cross-dressed character.6 Moore synthesizes the reactions of the critics, and argues that few understood the true intent of the character, which was to express Poulenc’s sexuality. 7 However, this intent is concealed with other “conventions that strongly reinforce the conventional theme of heterosexual romantic desire”. 8 Moore interprets specific parts of the music, which allows the reader to directly identify the connections of Poulenc’s music to Moore’s argument. Some of these interpretations are a stretch, however: Moore claims that the chords at rehearsal 60 of Les Biches represent the “character’s masculine aggression, motivated by jealousy, toward the corps de ballet attentively scrutinizing his seductive cross-dressing performance from the sidelines.”9 This is purely speculation, and there is no outside proof corroborating this interpretation.
Moore also over-analyzes Poulenc’s description of Aubade (a work including a solo piano and a solo dancer) as “Amphibious,” which I would interpret as referring to the cross-over between music and dance– but Moore writes, “the word aptly characterizes Aubade’s ostensible function: that of theatrically representing Poulenc’s two worlds– the straight (dry) public world of the virtuoso pianist and the world of his unspeakable (wet) gay desire.” This extrapolates the meaning of Poulenc’s description to fit Moore’s narrative, but doesn’t really realistically hold up to what he meant.10
These two articles do a great job of filling in the gaps of our knowledge about the sexualities of these important musicians and patrons. Some of the arguments are proof-texted, but for the most part Dorf and Moore make compelling cases for the impact of sexuality on these pieces.
1Samuel Dorf, “‘Étrange, n’est-ce pas?’ The Princesse Edmond de Polignac, Erik Satie’s Socrate, and a Lesbian Aesthetic of Music?” FLS: Queer Sexualities in French and Francophone Literature and Film 34 (2007), 94.