John Smyth:

>Steve Schwartz and Bert Bailey ask how Britten's sexuality and/or his
>relationship with Pears could have influenced his oeuvre musically.
>
>It's pretty obvious Britten's homosexuality has influenced his choice of
>text.

Yes, and I believe both Bert and I have allowed that possibility.  Onward
...

>I offer three musical examples:
>
>Some homosexuals "kill" their desires, or other self, with silence and/or
>immobilization.  As Vere closes the cabin door, how many of the same
>unaccompanied chord does Britten give us? 32? How those repetitious triads
>speak, yet how little is said--there is no progression, no mobilization.
>Some are anguished, some frightening, some empathetic, some estatic....I'm
>not suggesting that something sexual went on--Britten was smarter than to
>psychologically provincialize his characters--but Britten's experience in
>trying to reconcile public and the private and the resulting
>immobilization

Well, this certainly shows immobilization, but one can also point
to Bartok's Bluebeard's Castle.  That is, many have portrayed this
psychological state with roughly the same means, but not every one of
them were homosexual.  Another way to put this is, if you didn't know
Britten were gay, how would the music tell you? Would it also tell you
whether he were a pedophile? After all, there's a lot of Britten work for
boy trebles.  I'm not trying to stir anything up, but it seems to me much
of this is speculation after the fact - "he's a homosexual, therefore he's
a homosexual." And, as you say, Britten the artist is more than his sexual
orientation.

Steve Schwartz