I'm quite willing to concede that upbringing, life style, etc., have impact on an individual's musical creations; that sounds reasonable. However, once past that issue, what difference does it really make? Music has to stand on its own to be valued by future generations. In that sense, whether a composer is gay or not means nothing. If I found out tomorrow that Bach was a homosexual or child abuser, his music would still be of the same quality and enjoyment level. Having said this, I well understand the desire of folks in any minority grouping to be able to look at a field of endeavor, such as musical composition, and satisfy themselves that there are others in their grouping that have reached the heights of artistry in their chosen fields. The Temple that my wife and I are members of has a book/music shop with inventory totally devoted to Jewish authors, composers, and performers. That's not my cup of tea, but most of the members who partake of the shop are mighty happy to go in there and make their selections from only Jewish sources. Humans tend to have a group mentality, and that's the way it goes. You might ask why a firm non-believer would join a religious institution; I ask myself that same question whenever I'm trapped in the sanctuary. There's only one answer - true love of one's mate. Anyways, I have no doubt that Britten's environment and the way he ran his life impacted his music. If you put all of yourself into your creations, the baggage as well as the good stuff goes in there. If not, the result is superficial. And I find that music that seems to come only from the brain is very limiting and lacks nourishment. There are millions of intelligent people inhabiting the Earth; the number of inspired artists is only a small fraction of that total. Don Satz [log in to unmask]