{"id":637,"date":"2020-04-23T00:04:48","date_gmt":"2020-04-23T05:04:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/?p=637"},"modified":"2020-04-23T00:04:48","modified_gmt":"2020-04-23T05:04:48","slug":"sapphonics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/2020\/04\/23\/sapphonics\/","title":{"rendered":"Sapphonics"},"content":{"rendered":"

In order to understand the arguments made by Samuel Dorf about Erik Satie\u2019s <\/span>Socrate<\/span><\/i>, it’s important to talk about Elizabeth Wood\u2019s conception of Sapphonics. Wood\u2019s central conceipt in her essay <\/span>Sapphonics <\/span><\/i>that it makes sense to have a lens for understanding music through sexuality, and that there exists a transgressive form of communication in music between lesbians (and implicitly, bisexual women as well). Since it is a lens through which people experience and understand life, it is a relevant lens to understand music through. Wood\u2019s understanding and description of Sapphonics is useful, and follows many of the established trends of analysis of literature through a lesbian view. I\u2019m particularly convinced by Wood\u2019s description of women’s voices, especially Emma Calv\u00e9’s, and the \u201cSapphonic effect\u201d. Wood\u2019s study describes and defines an element of music that I had experienced previously, and even had conversations about, but had never had the tools to really understand or name it. To me, a definition is useful if it gives a name and description to a previously unnamed experience, which this certainly did for me. <\/span>\"\"<\/p>\n

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Samuel Dorf\u2019s essay \u201c<\/span>Etrange, n\u2019est-ce pas?…\u201d<\/span><\/i> makes sense of Satie\u2019s <\/span>Socrate<\/span><\/i> through Sapphonics. Satie was commissioned by the Princesse de Polignac, and Dorf understands <\/span>Socrate <\/span><\/i>as being a narrative about Polignac and her social circle and as employing sapphonics to do so. I\u2019m somewhat convinced by Dorf\u2019s argument, but at times felt the essay itself straining a little to prove the point. While I agree with the main argument of the essay, one piece of evidence from Dorf actually served to convince me less of his point. Dorf writes about how Satie\u2019s oratorio-like work differs significantly from the piece Polignac envisioned despite the fact that they worked on the early stages together<\/span>. While I think other pieces of evidence back up the general claim, I found myself questioning whether Satie could have really employed true sapphonics without Polignac\u2019s direct input. I don\u2019t necessarily have a definite judgement that men cannot write using sapphonics (and that it’s then on the performer to do so if they do so), but I think it’s worth questioning, especially in the context of this essay.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I found myself quite convinced by Christopher Moore\u2019s essay <\/span>Camp in Francis Poulenc\u2019s Early Ballets<\/span><\/i>, which argues that Poulenc used camp aesthetics (among many other techniques) to make allusions to queerness in his early ballets, particularly <\/span>Les Biches <\/span><\/i>and <\/span>Aubade<\/span><\/i>. Moore presents ample evidence, most convincingly excerpts from letters Poulenc wrote about both ballets, and the works of other scholars like Lynn Garafola who argue similar ideas. No one piece of evidence makes the argument persuasive, but the variety and quality of evidence, as well as the straightforward presentation makes it seem almost obvious that Poulenc was trying to communicate his own sexuality through camp in his early ballets. I was particularly struck by the use of the fact that Poulenc said <\/span>Les Biches<\/span><\/i> was based on the \u201cerotic atmosphere\u201d of his younger years<\/span>. On its own, this piece of evidence doesn\u2019t necessarily signal anything, but Moore contextualizes it in such a way that it was exceedingly clear that this means <\/span>Les Biches<\/span><\/i> is about \u201cunconventional sexualities\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Works Cited:<\/b><\/p>\n

Samuel Dorf, \u201c\u2018Etrange, n\u2019est-ce pas?\u2019 The Princesse Edmond de Polignac, Erik Satie\u2019s <\/span>Socrate<\/span><\/i>, and a Lesbian Aesthetic of Music?\u201d <\/span>FLS: Queer Sexualities in French and Francophone Literature and Film <\/span><\/i>34 (2007), 87-99.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Christopher Moore, \u201cCamp in Francis Poulenc\u2019s Early Ballets,\u201d <\/span>Musical Quarterly<\/span><\/i> 95 (Summer-Fall 2012), 299-342.<\/span><\/p>\n

Elizabeth Wood, \u201cSapphonics\u201d <\/span>Queering the Pitch: The New Lesbian and Gay Musicology <\/span><\/i>(New York: Routeledge, 2006). <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In order to understand the arguments made by Samuel Dorf about Erik Satie\u2019s Socrate, it’s important to talk about Elizabeth Wood\u2019s conception of Sapphonics. Wood\u2019s central conceipt in her essay Sapphonics that it makes sense to have a lens for understanding music through sexuality, and that there exists a transgressive form of communication in music […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3470,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-637","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\/637","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\/3470"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=637"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":643,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637\/revisions\/643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/performinghistory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}