Steve writes:

>...if you didn't know Britten were gay, how would the music tell you?

Not to be jejohne, but haven't you changed the meaning of the original
question:  "How could Britten's sexuality influence his oeuvre musically?"
We were talking influence here, not permeation.

Berg, Shostakovich and Schoenberg occasionally dug into their bag of
symbolic compositional tricks when they wanted to tip their hat towards
issues and people near and dear to their heart.  (Or otherwise.) Biber's
use of scordatura in his Mystery Sonatas compels violinists at one point
to position their fingers in such a way that the fingers resemble a cross.
The blind listener is unaware of such symbolism, but ultimately, the
unusual sounds are a borne of Biber's religious reverence.  Of course
Britten's homosexuality doesn't make his music *sound* gay--but why can't
Britten have had a bag of tricks too, even if the bag had big flowers on it
and was "SO last year?"

On my suggestion that repeated E's, (Pear's most expressive note),
symbolize immobility:

>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.

Understood--and that poor Mr.  Prufrock wriggling on the end of a pin!--but
I was thinking about Britten's relationship to his own creations.

John Smyth