{"id":606,"date":"2020-04-22T22:22:50","date_gmt":"2020-04-23T03:22:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/?p=606"},"modified":"2020-04-22T22:30:51","modified_gmt":"2020-04-23T03:30:51","slug":"queer-readings-and-critiques","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/2020\/04\/22\/queer-readings-and-critiques\/","title":{"rendered":"Queer Readings and Critiques"},"content":{"rendered":"

Both Samuel N. Dorf <\/a>and\u00a0Christopher Moore<\/a>\u00a0have credibility as published musicologists who specialize in studies surrounding music in Paris and LGBTQ+ history. Their arguments and queer readings of composers allow us as students and researchers to enhance our critical thinking skills; we can appreciate the scholarship and dedication the authors have contributed to their writing, but we can also delve past the words on the page to analyze if their claims are justified or too dissentient.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Beginning with Dorf\u2019s work<\/a> titled “\u00c9trange n\u2019est-ce pas?\u201d: The Princesse Edmond\u00a0de Polignac, Erik Satie\u2019s Socrate, and a Lesbian<\/em>
\nAesthetic of Music?\u201d ,\u00a0<\/em>Dorf lacks a concrete thesis statement that drives the entire article forward. This is a rather non-traditional approach to presenting research, especially when making distinct claims about gender and sexuality. However, Dorf opts to present detailed historical context and direct quotes from Satie and the Princess de Polignac herself. The inclusion of these excerpts strengthens Dorf\u2019s writing because we are able to rely on another outside primary source rather than simply his own claims. For example, Satie introduced brand new vocabulary when describing\u00a0Socrate\u00a0<\/em>such as “white, pure, antique, gentle, free,\u00a0clear, classical, simple, modern, cubist, precise, and new\u201d, which helps Dorf prove that Socrate\u00a0<\/em>was a product of the transforming modernist view of music .1 <\/sup><\/a>He also cleverly quotes the Princess to articulate further how\u00a0Socrate\u00a0<\/em>was meant to be something new, modern, and perhaps neoclassical even though it was based on \u201csimple and poetical\u201d Greek dances.\u00a02 <\/sup><\/a>This type of writing is his clearest and most convincing.<\/p>\n

When it comes to the relation of Satie,\u00a0Socrates,\u00a0<\/em>and the Princess to queer themes, I find that Dorf\u2019s writing at times becomes exaggerated. When beginning to write of the relationships of women, whether romantic, platonic, or sexual, he begins to use different language such as \u201cdeliciously\u201d, \u201ctantalizing\u201d, and \u201cflamboyant\u201d. \u00a0It is within sections such as these that he starts to lose my favor a bit as a reader. It is especially common to sexualize relationships between women and women themselves, so in the middle section of the reading\u2013 where Dorf is explaining the Princess\u2019 interactions with women such as Ethel Smyth and Anna de Noailles\u2013 I find myself less convinced that he is necessarily arguing for anything or if he is instead trying to maintain a reader\u2019s interest by showing the \u201cexoticism\u201d of lesbian relationships in the early 20th century. However, toward the end of his writing, he turns it back around to \u00a0more historical and educational writing explaining how the Princess de Polignac had to work hard to maintain her “aristocratic respectability\u201d in order to keep her salon safe and successful for composers, performers, and others of LGBT status.3<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n

Before moving onto Moore\u2019s entry in\u00a0The Musical Quarterly,\u00a0<\/em>here<\/a> is an interesting source to learn more about homophobia in the early 20th century and how it related to WW1.<\/p>\n

\"\"
An example of a French postcard in which French men in feminine dress are being mocked<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Moore mirrors Dorf in the sense that he also uses specific historical evidence to support his writing. He highlights Poulenc\u2019s own concerns abut the \u201cabnormality\u201d of his sexuality, especially his love for Richard Chanlaire.4 <\/sup><\/a>This gives us important context to how Poulenc felt about his own identity and how it may have crept into his music intentionally or unintentionally. His study of specific pieces such as\u00a0Les Biches\u00a0<\/em>and the study on \u201ccamp\u201d allow us to understand the lens from which he is viewing the composer and his works.\u00a0Les Biches\u00a0<\/em>includes sexual deviations from the heteronormative atmosphere in which they were presented. For example, Moore explains several techniques of same-sex attraction, dross dressing, and androgyny that allowed Poulenc to explore and express trends that played upon the traditional norms of the day.<\/p>\n

I am particularly fascinated by how Moore interprets specific musical moments in\u00a0Les Biches.\u00a0<\/i>When he explains in more detail the woman in Blue Drag\u2019s choreography and distinct stylistic choices, he pairs it with examples from the music, an example of which you can find below:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

While it is effective to explain how Poulenc\u2019s specific musical rhetoric accompanies his characters and their movements, Moore\u2019s argument becomes more well-rounded when he combines musical jargon with details of costuming and choreography that the less musically inclined reader can understand.<\/p>\n

Moore\u2019s article seems to be many theses all combined into one. I would argue that this particular work aims to cover a lot of content in perhaps not quite enough room. He makes good and interesting claims about both\u00a0Les Biches\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0Aubade,\u00a0<\/em>but I found that the most concrete claims weren\u2019t clear to me until the end of the work: \u201cLes Biches\u00a0<\/em>confirms that Poulenc was naturally inclined to expressions of the sexually liminal, Aubade reveals the extent to which the \u201cdouble extent\u201d of camp allowed for a particularly moving examination of the composer\u2019s own sexual insecurities and anxieties\u201d5<\/sup><\/a>. Perhaps it is because I am not a professional researcher, but I would have found it helpful to have these claims hinted at at the beginning so I could have more of a context for my own understanding of the text.<\/p>\n

Overall I found both arguments to be extremely intriguing, but Moore\u2019s failed to mention the aspects of Poulenc\u2019s life that gave him privilege, such as being a man and being French and white! (French people loved French people right? I think they did. Correct me if I\u2019m wrong). I often find that when discussing sexuality, it becomes almost to hyper-focused on that one aspect. While, of course, sexuality is a huge part of identity, I think it\u2019s important to mention other sociological factors that influenced these composers\u2019 and patrons\u2019 lives.<\/p>\n

Footnotes:<\/p>\n

\n

1<\/a>\u00a0Dorf, Samuel N. “\u00c9trange n\u2019est-ce pas?\u201d: The Princesse Edmond\u00a0de Polignac, Erik Satie\u2019s Socrate, and a Lesbian
\nAesthetic of Music?\u201d FLS, Volume XXXIV (2007): 89<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

2 <\/a>Ibid., 90<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

3 <\/a>Ibid., 96<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

4 <\/a>Moore, Christopher. “Camp in Francis Poulenc’s Early Ballets.” The Musical Quarterly<\/i> 95, no. 2\/3 (2012): 299-342. Accessed April 23, 2020. 300-301. www.jstor.org\/stable\/41811629<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

5 <\/a>Ibid., 331-332<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Both Samuel N. Dorf and\u00a0Christopher Moore\u00a0have credibility as published musicologists who specialize in studies surrounding music in Paris and LGBTQ+ history. Their arguments and queer readings of composers allow us as students and researchers to enhance our critical thinking skills; we can appreciate the scholarship and dedication the authors have contributed to their writing, but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3119,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3119"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=606"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":631,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606\/revisions\/631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}