{"id":614,"date":"2020-04-22T22:14:34","date_gmt":"2020-04-23T03:14:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/?p=614"},"modified":"2020-04-22T22:14:34","modified_gmt":"2020-04-23T03:14:34","slug":"queerness-as-other-and-as-veiled-musical-expression","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/2020\/04\/22\/queerness-as-other-and-as-veiled-musical-expression\/","title":{"rendered":"Queerness as “Other” and as veiled musical expression"},"content":{"rendered":"

Both Dorf and Moore\u2019s writing raise issues of gender and sexuality that had been excluded from meaningful examination in musicology through much of the 20th century. Queer scholar Elizabeth Wood is a rare example among musicologists of that time, introducing the idea of Sapphonics in her first edition of <\/span>Queering the Pitch<\/span><\/i> in 1994. Wood defines Sapphonics as a space of lesbian possibilty created by perceived relationship between a singer and listener, often aided by a voice that defies gendered boundaries.1 <\/sup><\/a>The idea of Sapphonics seems to be relevant when considering the atmosphere of Paris in the 1920s: a <\/span>haven for the liberated lives of the bourgeoisie, a city of exploration, promiscuity, and fulfillment. 2 <\/sup><\/a>This a city where female composers felt they had more chance for success, where black culture was put on the stage. Perhaps this was a place where people who had traditionally felt othered had a better chance to express themselves.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, both Dorf and Moore argue the composers Satie and Poulenc attempted to conceal aspects of their sexuality from the public. Moore recounts Poulenc\u2019s confessions of \u2018secret\u2019 love affairs to a close friend, and Dorf writes of Satie and Polignac\u2019s work to omit sexual references from the Greek text of <\/span>Socrate<\/span><\/i><\/a>. 3 <\/sup><\/a>But, both examine the ways in which subtle expressions of queerness were present in these composer\u2019s works.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Portrait of Francis Poulenc (1920) by Jacques-\u00c9mile Blanche\u00a0 http:\/\/parismuseescollections.paris.fr\/fr\/petit-palais\/oeuvres\/portrait-de-francis-poulenc<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"\"
Erik Satie https:\/\/www.npr.org\/artists\/91146991\/erik-satie<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Moore cites sufficient evidence from Poulenc\u2019s ballets to show elements of camp and subtle promotion of queer culture. Moore\u2019s article successfully argues that the presence of camp in Poulenc\u2019s compositions was veiled in his need to blend into a heteronormative culture. For example, in his examination of the Woman in Blue from Les Biches<\/em><\/a>, Moore highlights the ballet\u2019s juxtaposition. The androgyny and cross dressing of the Woman in Blue contrasts the heteroromantic connotations of a borrowed theme from Tchaikovsky\u2019s <\/span>Sleeping Beauty <\/span><\/i>that she dances to. Moore summarizes these struggles for Poulenc by observing,<\/span>\u201c<\/span>The act of musically being an \u2018other,\u2019 with all the underlying techniques of theatrical dissimulation, resonates strongly with the need to \u2018pass\u2019 in a closeted environment.\u201d 4<\/sup><\/a>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

I found Dorf\u2019s argument to be less compelling. Dorf speaks greatly about the role of sexuality in the romantic and social life of Princesse de Polignac, the patron who commissioned <\/span>Socrate<\/span><\/i> from Satie. This evidence demonstrates how her gender and sexuality would have influenced the production of <\/span>Socrate<\/span><\/i>. However, less evidence within this article tied to Satie\u2019s life and identity suggests that a queer reading solely from the perspective of Satie might go too far. It seems that this piece could have been influenced by Polignac just as much as, if not more than, Satie.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

1 Elizabeth Wood, “Sapphonics,” in Queering the Pitch: The New Lesbian and Gay Musicology (New York, 2006), 27-37 <\/a><\/p>\n

2 Rearick, Charles. <\/span>The French in Love and War\u202f: Popular Culture in the Era of the World Wars <\/span><\/i>New Haven: Yale University Press, 1997 (70).<\/span><\/a><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

3 Dorf, Samuel, Thomas A. Bauman, Linda Austern, and Susan Manning. \u201cListening Between the Classical and the Sensual: Neoclassicism in Parisian Music and Dance Culture, 1870\u20131935\u201d (95). <\/a><\/p>\n

Moore, Christopher. \u201cCamp in Francis Poulenc\u2019s Early Ballets.\u201d\u00a0The Musical Quarterly<\/i>\u00a095, no. 2-3 (December 2012): 299\u2013342.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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4 <\/a>Moore, Christopher. \u201cCamp in Francis Poulenc\u2019s Early Ballets.\u201d\u00a0The Musical Quarterly<\/i> 95, no. 2-3 (December 2012): 303.<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Both Dorf and Moore\u2019s writing raise issues of gender and sexuality that had been excluded from meaningful examination in musicology through much of the 20th century. Queer scholar Elizabeth Wood is a rare example among musicologists of that time, introducing the idea of Sapphonics in her first edition of Queering the Pitch in 1994. Wood […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3393,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[15,57,58,60,65,62,59],"class_list":["post-614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-erik-satie","tag-francis-poulenc","tag-les-biches","tag-princesse-de-polignac","tag-queer-culture","tag-sapphonics","tag-socrate"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614","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\/3393"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=614"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":627,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614\/revisions\/627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}