Fabio Gradel writes:

>I wonder if the same applies to the "Gay Men's Choir"? Do they play only
>music by gay composers? If so, how can they be sure of the composer's
>sexual inclinations, unless the composer is, uh, 'out-of-the-closet'? (It
>is easier to identify a female composer than a gay one, I presume).  Do
>they rely on historical evidence?

This is a sore point.  Some composers have come out of the closet.  Others
have been "outed." Still others seem to have been merely appropriated, and
on highly speculative evidence, at that.  I've heard claims made about
Gesualdo, Josquin, Schubert, Beethoven, and Vaughan Williams, among others.
Mostly, I just think it silly at best and bad history at worst.

>>these women are practicing the same sort of sexism against males
>>they no doubt condemn when it is directed against females.

It's not quite the same.  "These women" aren't receiving regular public
money, as does the VPO, for example.  I contend that one ought to be able
to form whatever musical group one wants, as long as public money isn't
involved.  In Andy Carlan's phrase, Balkanize away!

I do find it ruefully amusing, however, to hear people rail against
all-girl and all-gay groups and excuse all-stag, all-stallion for this or
that reason.  I believe many tend to look on all-stag as "natural," and
therefore not comment-provoking.  Why does Andy's list have point, after
all? Why do we still mark women conductors as women? Because it's rare and
seen, in some way, as unnatural.  We manage to talk of male conductors
without mentioning gender or speculating on how gender influences their
music-making.  Until recently, we talked of composers' music without
speculating on how sexual orientation influenced the music.  This latest
gaseous trend seems to come from gay musicologists and lame theorists
trying to "own" the art - unfortunate for the art if they can do it, futile
if the art is good enough to resist.  If it were proven beyond all doubt
tomorrow that Beethoven was gay, would we learn anything at all about the
music? I always thought the point of art was to appeal to humanity at
large, rather than to only Germans, only males, only those who lived
between 1770-1827, and only to those named Ludwig van.  We can Balkanize
down to the positively solipsistic.

Steve Schwartz