Steve Schwartz <[log in to unmask]> writes:

>Jeremey McMillan (youth) wants to know:
>
>>Wasn't Chopin gay or bi? I know he had a nine or ten year affair with
>>novelist George Sand (Dudevant), but the author of every biography I've
>>read about Chopin questioned his sexuality.
>
>What were their reasons? Are they sound? Was it because he spoke French
>with a lisp or because he was caught in bed with Franz Liszt? Do you
>believe them? Does it ultimately matter to the music?

Adam Zamoyski's Chopin biography says nothing about getting caught in bed
with Liszt, nor does anything I've read elsewhere about either of these two
composers.  In fact, Mr. Schwartz's mention of it here is the first I've
seen of it.  I'd like to know the source.

That being said, there can be little doubt that Chopin was bisexual.
Zamoyski quotes amply from letters Chopin wrote as a young man to another
man that can hardly lead one to conclude otherwise.

And, no, it does not, nor should it, matter to the music.  Anyone
homophobic enough to hold a composer's sexual preference against him
does not deserve Chopin.

-Jocelyn Wang
Culver Chamber Music Series
Come see our web page: http://members.xoom.com/culvermusic/